Gotham Gal

Feeding Eden, Susan Weissman

The first time I had dinner with Susan and her husband Andy they told me about their kids and that one of them had severe allergies.  My response, I believe, was that sucks.  I know how hard it is because I had seen with two families that we knew live with severe food allergy kids.

The constant fear of something terrible happening looms over head at all times.  Something terrible could mean death.  I learned how to administer an eppi pen so that I could walk one of the kids to Hebrew school on occasion.  I watched as they packed a special meal for their child everyday including a special snack. Most of their food was baked with loving hands at home.  I heard the stories of going to the hospital every year to get tested again and again to see if they had grown out of their allergies. 

One of the kids actually did grow out of most of their allergies, the other did not.  Along with those allergies come other things such a eczema and for this particular kid ocular issues.  What was fascinating to me is how so many people disregard their fears as if having life threatening allergies wasn't real.  Like serving salty nuts at a party where kids are running around with that on their skin or handing a slice of pizza to their kid at a party.  So not ok and so disrespectful not having any regard for what that family goes through. Just plain stupid and perhaps uninformed.

Susan writes about the trials and triumphs of having a food allergy family.  It is not a deck you want to be dealt.  She is honest and transparent about the difficulties and the frustrations that she encountered.  As kids with allergies has become less rare and more prevelant in our society, this is a book that every parent should read.  It really helps you understand exactly the dynamics of living with life threatening allergies.  Every teacher should read it too.  It is a book that needed to be written...and should be read.

(Feeding Eden can pre-order the book on Amazon - it comes out on March 6).

Food 52 Cookbook

Food 52 is the first crowd sourced cookbook.  A beautiful cookbook with 140 recipes.  I have a big place in my heart for this book.  This book is an idea that was hatched a few years ago.  The concept was to crowd source recipes from engaged home chefs around the globe that would submit their recipe based on the recipe concept of the week.  Each recipe would be tested out by Amanda and Merrill and a winner would be announced at the end of the week.  Each weekly winner would end up in the cookbook that would be produced year end.  This idea was sold to Harper Studio and they gave Amanda and Merrill money to do these two cookbooks and with that money they built the platform to create the cookbook, Food 52. 

A wonderful story...and a wonderful cookbook.  Food 52 has certainly evolved with over half a million page views a month, an engaged audience, a daily aggregation of the top food stories of the day, curated products to buy and an iPhone app.  And there is absolutely more to come. 

For me, as an investor in this company, it has been really gratifying to work with a group of women (women President too) as they have taken an idea and turned it into a business and community.  I am sure that for both Amanda and Merrill that holding that cookbook in their hands was an incredible feeling of pure joy.  

 

 

Bi-Rite and more

When I was out in San Francisco for twelve hours this past month my one desire was to go to the BI-Rite market.  I had been following the transformation of the Bi-Rite market for the past couple of years.  A market that had been in the family for years but had changed hands to the next generation in 1997. 

Sam Mogannam is the son who took over Bi-Rite and returned to the roots of what a grocery store used to be.  Grocery stores used to be the center of the town, the pillar of the community where local farmers sold their wares, where recipes were exchanged and local economies were created.  Sam not only made BI-Rite into an incredible shopping and learning experience, he opened a creamery down the street, bought a farm and started a non-profit, 18 Reasons, to bring people together to around sustainable food.  Returning Bi-Rite to its roots transformed the neighborhood.  Proving that there was something about the original concept of small towns and each individual purveyor on Main Street.  We lost that along the way and in his corner in San Francisco he is bringing it back. 

One of the things I love about America is when things needs to change it is the people who change it first.  The farm to table movement is a perfect example.  People are waking up to the revolution of how important it is to know where our food is coming from, to nurture our bodies with healthy foods, to support our local farmers and to eat responsibly.  It might cost more to buy organic fruits but at least you know that peach wasn't sprayed with chemicals.  We need to value our food.  It also doesn't hurt to share meals with friends and family a few times a week.

I read the cookbook from cover to cover.  Sam is a man on a mission.  I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Chelsea Market this past weekend too.  At the same time, I finished reading The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn.  Her book is about transforming 9 culinary novices into fearless home cooks.  These 9 cooks started out filling their cabinets with processed food and after Kathleen taught them to shop in places like Bi-Rite and Greenmarkets but more important how to cook and cut up a chicken.  Each of the 9 cooks realized that not only was it less expensive to cook your own meals it made them feel better and it tasted good.  A win win for everyone. 

Both of these books are writing about the food movement that has taken place in the last few years throughout the country and how each author has taken part in it.  I enjoyed them both.  Bi-Rite is an incredibly unique marketplace that would be well served in any community.  I'd love to open one in my neighborhood supporting all the local food vendors that are cropping up all over the area.  Let's hope that we see more Bi-Rite type stores open across the country supporting community and local farmers.  Buy the Bi-Rite book.  A worthy read with some terrific recipes to boot. 

 

 

Susie's Supper Club Cookbook

Susie Cover is the woman behind Susie's Supper Club, a prepared food delivery service in NYC.  The business has taken a variety of turns (as most do) and you can now buy some of those delicious products in the freezer section of a handful of Whole Foods. 

I met Susie because she happens to be married to Rick Field of Ricks Picks.  Yes, they eat very well in that family.  I love Susie's cooking because she cooks exactly like how I like to eat and cook myself.  SImple preparation with the right fresh ingredients make the best meals. No fuss. 

This cookbook is a really about kid-friendly meals but totally works for the whole family.  The cookbook is beautifully done.  Sits perfectly between Donna Hay and Barefoot Contessa, two of my other faves who make delicious simple food.  Emily made the muffins above and they might have been one of the best banana muffins I have ever had.  Moist, simple and just delicious.

The book, The Supper Club,  comes in paperback so you can really use it in the kitchen.  Order it.  Its a winner. 

Patti Smith, Just Kids

I have never been a huge Patti Smith fan when it comes to her music.  Many people told me what a great book it was and when Emily gave it the nod I picked it up. 

Just Kids is an incredible book.  It isn't just the story of Patti and her journey to be an artist, it is a heartfelt love story between her and Robert Mapplethorp who she literally grabbed on the street one night asking him to pretend to be her boyfriend to get out of a date (actually a ticket for a meal) that went awry.  Mapplethorp and Smith became inseparable friends and lovers.  Nurturing each other in their desire to live as artists and their story is one that Patti had to tell. 

Patti is a proflic artist from books to drawing to writing music and poetry.  She comes across as a truly humble woman and my guess is she is.  Funny enough, years ago I spoke to Patti on the phone.  Her kid, Jesse, went to Little Red and I called her as we were making a major shift on how the school went about raising the money for their annual fund.  She couldn't have been nicer and more honest about her love for the school and her real ability to give something to the fund. 

Definitely a book worth reading.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

I had lunch with a friend about a week ago and she handed me the debut novel called  The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais.  She loved it so much that she brought me a copy and said I had to read it.  Needless to say, I was totally intrigued. 

I picked up the book on Tuesday night after hunkering down for the evening.  I closed my eyes after I read the last page and closed the book.  What a wonderful book. 

This book is about food, family and life.  It begins in India and grabs our senses.  We follow the family moving from India to London and then to a small village in the French Alps.  They have always been in the restaurant business.  They open up a restaurant in the French Alps across the street from a Michelin rated restaurant who is aghast at having an Indian restaurant across the street yet the son is an incredible cook.  Like a perfect ear, he has the perfect palate.  Tensions arise but in the end this Michelin rated chef helps this young man from India rise to the top of the food chain in Paris.

It is a wonderful journey through food and culture.  What I also loved is how the author wove real life stories through the novel.  Stories that actually happened in the food world in Paris.

A beautiful book.  If you love food, it is a must read. 

Letter to Leonard Cohen

I never got into poetry.  It isn't that I don't like it but was never turned on to it. 

Emily had a teacher in third grade who loved poetry and it was definitely a decent portion of their curriculum that year. I remember thinking how cool it was that she was into poetry and teaching her students a love that I never found.

My friend, Nancy Hechinger, who continues to impress me is not only a woman of endless talents and smarts she is also a poet.  We went to her book party last night and unfortunately left before she read her poems because we had an event in Brooklyn. 

While relaxing early Friday evening before going out I read Nancys book, A Letter to Leonard Cohen.  I loved it.  Her poems are funny insightful and modern. The book of poems isn't long but a worthy read. I plan on rereading the poems again this week. 

A completely different form of literature that I rarely partake in.  These poems pack a powerful punch. 

Blood, Bones & Butter

Gabrielle Hamilton rules.  Not only am I a huge fan of Prune from the day the restaurant opened...and have returned many times over the years, I just love her. Just a note that I have written three separate blog posts on Prune over the years. 

The book is about family and quite frankly the education of Gabrielle Hamilton.  She is a wonderful writer.  The words flow in Blood, Bones and Butter.  She is completely transparent about her rambling life that found her drawn to the kitchen no matter where she ended up. 

Hamilton is a tough cookie who grew up in NYC in the 80's like I did.  Traveled through Europe, married into an Italian family, had two kids, had a difficult relationship with her own childhood, got an education through all the drifting she had but through luck and timing Prune exists today.  Food is the epicenter of her existence.  She has lived life on her own terms.  Just a great memoir.  She is a serious badass. 

Downtown Potluck

For me, I love the involvement of food when it comes to family, friends and frankly just life.  Years ago annual cookbooks were just an accumulation of recipes from communities.  I have a few.  That ritual seems like one of the past.  Our kids school where potlucks pretty much happen at every event over the course of the year just published A Community Cookbook from Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School called Downtown Potluck.  I love the name!

This book truly represents the community my kids have grown up in and we have become part of.  It is an eclectic group of diverse people that bring their traditional recipes to each potluck.  I have had Moroccan, Egyptian, Indian, Israeli, Italian, Spanish, African and Chinese food at one event from appetizers to dessert.  All home made and all delicious.  A melting pot of spices and people.

Our school has had a partnership with the food pantry at St. John the Baptist Church for many years.  St. John the Baptist Church provides meals for more than 30,000 people a year.  Each of our kids have worked the pantry.  So in LREI spirit and in continuation of our support we will share the proceeds of this book with them. 

As we find ourselves in a fast moving tech oriented world it is nice to see a cookbook like this come out which is about community and getting back to the basics.  Click here and buy the book.  You get a great cookbook and your money goes not only to St. John the Baptist food pantry but Little Red Elisabeth Irwin where 25% of their operating income goes directly to providing financial aid for the community of students that attend the school.  That alone is something that truly makes LREI a special place. 

 

i think i love you, a novel by allison pearson

Cover of David Cassidy

I stayed up last night to finish i think i love you, a novel by allison pearson.  the book is very british in its humor.  i had a hard time getting through the first half but really enjoyed the second half.  like theater, i generally check out after the first half if i don't like it but i stuck through it because i had to see what happened in the end. 

why did i had to stick it through?  because the book is about david cassidy.  two 13 year old girls who worship david cassidy in the first half of the novel and then in the second half, at middle age, they reconnect to go see him perform and meet him in person.  you can only laugh and relate if you were a david cassidy fan.

teen beat was one of my all time favorite magazines growing up.  i had david cassidy pictures on my wall just like the girls in the book but i wasn't loyal.  i also had bobby sherman and as much as i though donny osmond was cute i couldn't get pass the mormon thing ( even at that age ). 

that time of my life was short lived.  i was into plastering the wall next to my bed with their posters at 9 years old and then it was over.  but i can recall those posters as if they were yesterday.  hence, i had to finish the book and the hilarious insightful recent interview the author has with david cassidy at the end of the book.