17. Food Blog: Always Order Dessert

What inspires you to write a food blog?

Sometime about two years ago, I realised that of all the things I was involved in, what I really loved to do, was cook and write about food. I'd already been blogging on-and-off since 2002 about other things (naughty boys, mostly) so it was a natural progression.

The fact that there are literally thousands of people out there who are actually happy to hear (or read) me blab on and on about the lovely plump softness of a supple yeast dough or my fondness for fried egg sandwiches on toast with just a bit too much mayonnaise...well, it's really thrilling. And the community that I've met because of it is absolutely incredible.

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It's helped to create some really fantastic opportunities for me.

What sort of posting gets your readers excited (good or bad)?

Lush things. Golden cakes made with toasted brown butter, and soup recipes that begin and end with bacon. I recently made a cake that called for toasted almonds and a half a bottle of wine poured into the batter, and everybody got all swoony and googly-eyed on me. You know, it's a fact that even just a little bit of added fat always makes food taste better because it carries the flavour. I think it's the same with blog posts; add a little bacon or booze and you'll get everyone in a tizzy.

Which cookbook can you not do without and which chef is your hero/heroine?

Cookbook is easy: Eat This, It’ll Make You Feel Better by Dom DeLuise. I discovered this book while sitting on the floor in my mother’s kitchen as a little girl and I have no doubt that it's what made me fall in love with cooking. The book reads like an autobiography, and is filled with sweet and hilarious anecdotes about growing up Italian in New York City and then living in Hollywood and hanging out with stars of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Many of the recipes were passed on to DeLuise by his Mamma (who figures prominently in the book), but there are all these incredible recipes from his famous Hollywood friends, like Anne Bancroft’s Vegetarian Chili or Nancy Reagan’s Onion Soup. It’s the kind of cookbook you’d want to curl up in a big squooshy chair to read. Oh, and as good as the stories are, the recipes are even better. It’s out of print, but you can still find copies on Amazon.

Picking a favorite chef is much harder because I really just don’t have one. There are a few TV chefs that I enjoy. Tyler Florence, for one, is adorable, and Nigella Lawson is just absolutely delicious. But in terms of heroes, I’ve always been more inspired by the people who write about food, since that’s my dream. I love those men and women who can take words and recreate the experience of a meal or a taste so perfectly that it’s as if I’m sitting right at the table with them. My real heroines are Elizabeth David, MFK Fisher, and Dorothy Parker (who actually wrote some pretty fantastic things about cooking and keeping house). I really admire Ruth Reichl’s work; her memoir Comfort Me With Apples really inspired me to pursue a life in food. I hope my words will someday make some little food-obsessed girl feel just as fascinated as their words make me feel.

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