Why are the sickest people in our country being served the worst food?

Not content to limit our complaints to hospital food, we move on to school food. Shouldn’t it be better? Can we fix it? Let’s talk about it in this bonus episode of “Three Ingredients.”

And should you care to read the article Ruth wrote about school food in 1978 for New West magazine, there’s a copy in this Dec. 2021 edition of Ruth’s Substack newsletter La Briffe. Also, find the story Laurie mentions by Jenn Harris on Los Angeles schools trying to introduce items like kung pao chicken and “walking tacos” for kids at 1,000 different schools at latimes.com/food.

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In which we discuss our favorite scripted food shows. A few old favorites, and a couple you might never have heard of.

In Episode 9 of “Three Ingredients,” Ruth, Nancy and Laurie have a heated discussion about chiles. First we talk about how they hurt so good that sriracha has possibly become an old lady condiment. Then we talk about how they hurt so bad that Nancy once ended up with her hands in buckets of ice water after a memorable encounter with a lot of chiles. And speaking of hands, Nancy would like you to please throw out your salad tongs and start massaging your dear little lettuce leaves with your hands. And that’s only the beginning of a discussion that ranges from lists — are they good or are they nonsense? And restaurants — are they essential? We talk about potatoes. We talk about apples. We talk about grilled cheese sandwiches ... and irresistible cheese toast. We begin this episode by discussing pancakes. Ruth has a lot of thoughts on the subject.

Three Ingredients is a reader-supported podcast. To receive new episodes as they drop plus posts with recipes, restaurant recommendations and more from Ruth, Nancy and Laurie, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber at https://threeingredients.substack.com/

What will you eat? What won't you? In this bonus episode of "Three Ingredients" we discuss eating some things that many people consider very strange. Tarantula anyone? How about guinea pig? Then we consider the lobster — and discuss other unmentionable aspects of cuisine. And have you contemplated the human toll of eating vegetables? Are you ready for some food for thought? We've got it.

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Ruth Reichl is author of the Substack newsletter La Briffe and 11 books, including “The Paris Novel,” which publishes in April. She was editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine and the restaurant critic of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Nancy Silverton leads the Mozza Restaurant Group and is author of nine cookbooks, including her newest, "The Cookie That Changed My Life." Laurie Ochoa is general manager of L.A. Times Food and one of the writers of the paper’s Tasting Notes newsletter. She was executive editor of Gourmet when Ruth led the magazine, editor in chief of the L.A. Weekly and co-author of “Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery.”

What do you eat for breakfast? In Episode 8 of “Three Ingredients” we introduce you to what might be the strangest way to start the day. It’s also the most delicious. Then we talk about our favorite condiments with odes to great balsamic vinegar, truffles and vanilla in its many forms. And then, because we just can’t help ourselves, we rag on one that none of us can stand. Laurie shares a funny memory of her first foie gras, Ruth speaks wistfully of a great bourbon she can no longer afford and Nancy goes hunting. This conversation is definitely going to make you hungry. So pull up a chair and join us.

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SHOW NOTES

Oops, I dropped …

If you listened to Episode 2 of “Three Ingredients,” you heard us talking a bit about Michelin three-star chef Massimo Bottura, whose Modena restaurant Osteria Francescana was twice named the No. 1 restaurant on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Ruth was about to interview Massimo and his wife, Lara Gilmore, about their new book “Slow Food Fast Cars,” with recipes, stories and gorgeous photos about the food, art, design and people behind their playful and luxurious guest house Casa Maria Luigia outside of Modena. In this episode, Ruth tells us about the talk and the three of us exchange notes about our visits to Casa Maria Luigia.

One of the delights of visiting Casa Maria Luigia is wandering around the property and viewing the art collected by Lara and Massimo, who finds inspiration for his cooking in the works of artists. Consider what he told Ruth about a dish of oysters and potatoes served beneath sheets of gold leaf as she tells it in this story of her first Osteria Francescana meal: “My mind is mixing Piero della Francesca — beautiful gold leaves — and Pistoletto seven hundred years later. But I’m also thinking of stainless steel in the sixties, and how people use tin foil.”

A key piece we discuss in the episode is the triptych by Ai Weiwei called “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (Lego).” It dominates the living room of the guest house and, as Laurie wrote in the L.A. Times last summer, it’s a kind of statement of purpose for Massimo. He is, after all, a chef who loves to break things and put them back together in his own way.

Massimo’s most famous reconstructed “broken” dish is the dessert Oops, I Dropped the Lemon Tart.

As Nancy shares in this episode, the dessert inspired a brilliant save when she and her partner Michael Krikorian were bringing a vintage model Ferrari Formula 1 to Massimo as a gift. Before they could give the model car to Massimo the bag dropped, breaking the Ferrari into pieces. Rather than throw out the pieces, Nancy had another idea. Michael, who tells the full story on his website Krikorian Writes, enlisted the help of a Casa Maria Luigia server and hid the broken car under a cloche on a dinner plate. When Massimo lifted the cloche, Michael said, “Oops, I dropped the Ferrari!”

Massimo’s break-it-and-put-it-back-together philosophy appeared again when Nancy and Laurie had lunch at Osteria Francescana this past summer and experienced his latest menu called “We Are Here,” “reinterpreting,” as the restaurant puts it, “a selection of iconoclastic dishes of Osteria Francescana, bringing the best of the past into the future.”

One example we discuss: “Tortellini or Dumplings,” Massimo’s update to his now-classic “Tortellini Walking Into Broth,” which the chef told us was “the most scandalous, outrageous dish we did in the ’90s.” That’s because instead of a bowlful of tortellini this dish had just six perfect tortellini. (Most Italians are used to ten tortellini to the spoonful, our friend and writer Faith Willinger said in the Massimo episode of “Chef’s Table.”) In his newest incarnation, five tortellini, looking a bit like cloves of garlic, might be mistaken at first for Asian dumplings. But when you take a bite, you taste the pure essence of tortellini.

Now, about that breakfast …

Sausage on a cookie with zabaglione? Sounds improbable. But Ruth and Nancy both have had and loved the Massimo Bottura dish — as dessert in New York when the chef was in town for his talk with Ruth at the 92nd Street Y and as breakfast at Casa Maria Luigia.

The sausage is cotechino, which you can buy from most good Italian food shops (like Eataly). Should you be ambitious enough to want to make your own, here’s a recipe from Lidia Bastianich. The cookie is sbrisolona, which means crumble cake. We have two sbrisolona recipes for our paying subscribers in a separate post, one from Massimo and Lara’s book and one from Nancy.

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A friend shares what Italian babies are fed as their first solid food. It is, frankly, hard to believe. But then we fed our kids some pretty strange foods too.

In Episode 7 of “Three Ingredients,” we talk about what separates restaurant chefs from home cooks. Is it training? Obsession? A drive for perfection? Or something less tangible? One secret: Nancy says she's never thought of herself as a chef. We ask why. 

We also have a discussion about open kitchens in restaurants, including Nancy’s experiences cooking before an audience of diners at Spago and her own mozzarella bar at Mozza, as well as the time Laurie first realized the kitchen watches back.

Plus, do you plate your takeout food or eat it right out of the container? Laurie, Nancy and Ruth have three different answers to this question.

Then Ruth and Nancy go head to head on Basque cheesecake recipes — Nancy’s favorite method from Pasjoli chef Dave Beran is a bit more complicated than Ruth’s stir-and-bake technique — and Laurie tries to keep the peace. 

Next, we turn to a classic dessert — carrot cake. It’s one of the baking favorites that Nancy tried to perfect in her new cookbook “The Cookie That Changed My Life.” Her recipe may change the way you make carrot cake. Is it revolutionary? It’s certainly not the usual recipe. Paying subscribers to “Three Ingredients” will soon get a copy of the recipe sent to their inboxes. But even if you’re just here to listen, we’ve got a delicious conversation for you.

To receive new episodes of Three Ingredients as they drop, sign up to become a free subscriber. If you want to receive bonus posts, recipes, restaurant recommendations, photos and more, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Ruth Reichl is author of the Substack newsletter La Briffe and 11 books, including “The Paris Novel,” which publishes in April. She was editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine and the restaurant critic of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Nancy Silverton leads the Mozza Restaurant Group and is author of nine cookbooks. Laurie Ochoa is general manager of L.A. Times Food and one of the writers of the paper’s Tasting Notes newsletter. She was executive editor of Gourmet when Ruth led the magazine, editor in chief of the L.A. Weekly and co-author of “Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery.” For more about “Three Ingredients,” see our Welcome Page.

Thank you for reading Three Ingredients. This post is public so feel free to share it.

How do you feel about people who come in and just take over your kitchen? That’s the burning question that starts off our conversation and reveals Ruth’s territorial tendencies. From there, we morph into the etiquette of pot luck dinners. And then we get into the whole subject of dinner parties. What is it, exactly that makes a good one? The truth is, we are deeply divided on that subject. We can’t even agree on the timing of the cooking or how to set the table. But one thing is for sure, by the time this conversation is over. you will know exactly whose house you would rather be invited to. So pull up a chair and join us for a really delicious conversation.

And if you like what you hear, join us at threeingredients.substack.com where we have bonus episodes and lots of extra material. With this episode, we’re sharing revelations about our own styles of party hosting, including photos, plus tips on party giving and the source of that fabulous tablecloth Ruth talks about.

To receive new episodes of Three Ingredients as they drop, sign up to become a free subscriber. If you want to receive bonus posts, recipes, restaurant recommendations, photos and more, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

You’ll hear no iceberg lettuce shaming in this episode.

The great little food shops we talk about in this episode

* Talbott and Arding, where Ruth does a lot of shopping. 202 Allen Street, Hudson New York

* We Got Nuts, Nancy’s online source for Antep Turkish pistachios. She buys them by the five-pound bag.

* Breadfolks, the Hudson bakery Nancy asks Ruth about, was opened by celebrity portrait photographer Norman Jean Roy and his artist wife Joanna Jean Roy. Ruth says they did “the greatest” laminated pastries. When they closed the bakery in 2022, there was talk of the couple creating a wholesale operation and bread book, although at the moment both seem to be busy pursuing their photography and art. Meanwhile, Mel The Bakery has taken over the space that Bread Folks once occupied. Their bread is great. 324 Warren Street, Hudson New York

* Garni Meat Market1715 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena

* Zhengyalov Hatz318 East Broadway, Glendale

* Chino Ranch 6123 Calzada Del Bosque, Rancho Santa Fe, CA,

* Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant1605 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, California

* Monterey Market. Ruth says they have “the best” produce.1550 Hopkins Street, Berkeley, California

* Berkeley Bowl920 Heinz Avenue, Berkeley

* Acme Bread 1601 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley

* Bub and Grandma’s

* Kenter Canyon Bread is called Roan Mills

* Trufflebert FarmEugene Oregon

The story that angered Kermit Lynch

This is an image of the first page of a Metropolitan Home story Ruth wrote about famed Berkeley wine merchant Kermit Lynch. In this podcast episode, we talk about the quote that was changed during the editing process and why that change about the difference between shopping in Provence and Berkeley upset Kermit. The complete piece is here — along with some terrific recipes.

A Marion Cunningham dinner without iceberg lettuce

This is the menu from Marion’s Birthday 70th birthday party thrown by Alice, Ruth and Michael Bauer where iceberg lettuce was not served.

But at Marion’s Eightieth birthday Alice finally gave in and allowed iceberg lettuce (with Green Goddess dressing): This is the story Ruth wrote about it.

Victor Hertzler’s original recipe for Celery Victor at the St. Francis Hotel

Take six stalks of celery well washed. Make a stock of one soup hen or chicken bones, and five pounds of veal bones in the usual manner, with carrots, onions, parsley, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Place the celery in a vessel and strain the broth over it. Boil until soft and let cool off in its own broth.

When cold press the broth out of the celery with the hand, gently, and place on a plate. Season with salt, fresh ground black pepper, chervil, and one-quarter white wine vinegar with tarragon to three-quarters of best olive oil.

Salad for dinner book  https://www.amazon.com/Salad-Dinner-Complete-Meals-Seasons/dp/0847838250

After all the talk about the title of Ruth’s forthcoming book…. it is called neither Fishing for the Moon (which Ruth still loves), nor Apricots and Vanilla. It is…. drumroll please……

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What happens when the health department shows up during the busiest time at a restaurant? It's not pretty. Plus, the recipe Ruth invented for those times when she's out of town and craving her favorite food cart treat.