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Jan. 25th, 2012 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutI think I have a crush on Anita Lo.
The abstract, celebrity-and-fan type of crush, I hasten to add (with reason, see below). It's not something I'm particularly prone to, usually, so this is kind of unusual. I'm going to just roll with it.
I don't watch a lot of television, and I no longer really follow the trends and gossip of high restauranteurism, so I am just now discovering Lo even though apparently she's been all over the Food Network forever (beat Mario Batali on "Iron Chef America!") and was named one of "Food and Wine"'s Best New Chefs way back in 2001 (in an article I probably skimmed, making brief note of the fact that, ooh, a woman chef in F&W's annual lineup who isn't doing pastry! How unusual). 2001! Yes, I am ten years behind the curve.
But Lo has just released her first cookbook, and it is there that I discover: she was raised in Detroit! (OK, Birmingham.) She's a big ol' dyke and totally casual about it! I like her palate -- dare I suggest it's very Bay Area? Still, Cooking Without Borders is fancy food for the most part and nothing I will ever cook at home (give or take a few dishes), not because it isn't likely to be delicious (it looks delicious!) or because it's too technical for my abilities, but because it's just not my style; the recipes tend to retain a certain modicum of restaurant fussiness that if I want it, well, I'll go to a restaurant. Well, some cookbooks I read for the practical bits and some cookbooks I read for everything else surrounding the recipes. OK. So this cookbook I will treasure because of its inclusion of Chicken Paprikash a la the nun-turned-nanny from Budapest; its praise of deep-fried wing tips and chicken butt; its quiet main dish beef pun on "tongue and cheek." Clever! And yet not for the sake of cleverness (she pointedly does not underline the joke, I notice). Oh, how droll, Anita! Tell me a little more about yourself, she said, fluttering her eyelashes shamelessly...
The abstract, celebrity-and-fan type of crush, I hasten to add (with reason, see below). It's not something I'm particularly prone to, usually, so this is kind of unusual. I'm going to just roll with it.
I don't watch a lot of television, and I no longer really follow the trends and gossip of high restauranteurism, so I am just now discovering Lo even though apparently she's been all over the Food Network forever (beat Mario Batali on "Iron Chef America!") and was named one of "Food and Wine"'s Best New Chefs way back in 2001 (in an article I probably skimmed, making brief note of the fact that, ooh, a woman chef in F&W's annual lineup who isn't doing pastry! How unusual). 2001! Yes, I am ten years behind the curve.
But Lo has just released her first cookbook, and it is there that I discover: she was raised in Detroit! (OK, Birmingham.) She's a big ol' dyke and totally casual about it! I like her palate -- dare I suggest it's very Bay Area? Still, Cooking Without Borders is fancy food for the most part and nothing I will ever cook at home (give or take a few dishes), not because it isn't likely to be delicious (it looks delicious!) or because it's too technical for my abilities, but because it's just not my style; the recipes tend to retain a certain modicum of restaurant fussiness that if I want it, well, I'll go to a restaurant. Well, some cookbooks I read for the practical bits and some cookbooks I read for everything else surrounding the recipes. OK. So this cookbook I will treasure because of its inclusion of Chicken Paprikash a la the nun-turned-nanny from Budapest; its praise of deep-fried wing tips and chicken butt; its quiet main dish beef pun on "tongue and cheek." Clever! And yet not for the sake of cleverness (she pointedly does not underline the joke, I notice). Oh, how droll, Anita! Tell me a little more about yourself, she said, fluttering her eyelashes shamelessly...
