Cooking For Kamala: America’s Celebrated Chefs Stand Behind Kamala & Tim
In a recent ZOOM, dozens of America’s premiere chefs, restaurateurs and food writers gathered in their kitchens across this country to stand in solidarity with two Americans who value food and filling hungry students’ bellies, vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz. The virtual, organized by California Congressman Eric Swalwell that raised more than $250,000 for the Harris Victory Fund, lasted about three hours and offered viewers a smörgåsbord of recipes as well as political understanding about the importance of food.
Famed food writer Ruth Reichl in her time during the Zoom session reminded us that food must be political and cited reasons why. She also offered her two cents about bacon and bacon fat, answering Padma’s question, Is bacon a spice?
Historically, the culinary industry has steered clear of politics, their reasoning ‘not good for business’ understandable. When I joined Facebook in 2007, the message for writers was similar: steer clear of politics, the reasoning much like that in the culinary community, your readers come from all political sides. Don’t alienate anyone.
Too late for me. in 2007, I joined Facebook to advocate for Barack Obama’s candidacy. I felt he was the right candidate for the job, and it did cost me. I wrote a piece about growing up in a community on the southside of Chicago that turned from tranquil to threatening during my pre-teen years in the 1960’s. Trying to understand my own prejudice was the intention of this piece that most of my family still residing in Chicago recoiled against. That’s when I began to understand the influence of politics on our culture.
Forever, it seems, I’ve been fascinated with American chefs and have written many stories about them during my freelance career. At the turn of the 21st century, I crafted a book proposal with a focus on chefs that is uniquely American, their good hearts concerning the have-nots. In my research for this proposal, I learned that the melding of food with nonprofits was not role modeled by their European counterparts, the group that role modeled most all trends American chefs set stateside.
Back in the 1980’s, Share Our Strength was founded and by the time I began covering the nonprofit sector in southern California in the 1990’s, nonprofits like S.O.S. had participated in many fundraising events hosted by the fairly rich and sometimes famous. I met and interviewed Food Network’s first celebrity chefs, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger several times back then and had them as guests on my public radio show.
Fast forward to 2020. Like most on lockdown, I needed to focus on positivity and for me, the combination of watching chefs compete while they cooked on camera served as more than a positive diversion, it’s where I got my idea for Madame Chef: Celebrity Chefs and Mentors. In the early years of reality tv, most chefs on these cooking competition shows were men but as these shows evolved, more women chefs appeared. Some began winning. Watching them compete gave me an idea for a chapter book offering BIOs of celebrity chefs including their climbs to success enabled by appearing on these cooking shows. I thought this collection would appeal to traditional New York publishing’s gatekeepers, literary agents. However, and despite having American chef superstar, Chef MarySue Milliken onboard to write the Madame Chef FOREWORD, I got few replies from the massive number of queries I pitched.
But that was then. These times we’ve been living in have been tough but to quote the lyrics from a Leonard Cohen song: “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” I now see a crack with light seeping in so I’ve decided to retool Madame Chefs. I’ve always believed there’s a significant audience of the ever-growing group of foodies who would read this collection. Perhaps these times ahead may nudge NYC publishing’s gatekeepers to reconsider opening their gates? Worth pitching again is this writer’s thinking. Stay tuned.
Ending this love letter to American chefs and the culinary industry with this video by Chef Tiffany Derry, a Top Chef finalist and one of the ‘titan chefs’ on Bobby’s Triple Threat. One of the last chefs to speak on Cooking For Kamala, Chef Derry’s summation of the role politics plays in food was eloquent. And then Chef Derry shared some tasty tips on the rendering of chicken skin. She should know. Her restaurants in the south are known for ‘all parts chicken.’ Apologies for accidently cutting off the end of her last comment about ‘perfectly crisp chicken skin’ but here’s what she said: For the crispiest roasted chicken skin, avoid butter. Instead, rub that bird with oil!
Who knew? Not this home cook but I do now.
