Over the next few weeks, I’m digging into how your diet impacts your hormones, what’s going on with fake meat, and how to be a guest in an etiquette-less world. I’d love to hear from you!
Dear reader (or listener!),
Last week, I caught up with chef, entrepreneur, author, and mother
to discuss my two great loves: reality TV and food. Emma is a self-taught chef, former top finalist on Food Network Star (season 10), and co-founder of the glamping destination in Ithaca, NY, Firelight Camps. The full conversation is available here and I’ve clipped the juicy bits for you, below.
You were a finalist on Food Network Star a few years ago, but now you’re cooking for two young kids in the country. How is it different?
Before having kids, I would have said it's night and day, because on the show, there's always intense time pressure and usually some other kind of pressure. And before having kids, cooking was this luxurious thing that at the end of the day that I got to relax into.
But with kids it feels like it's really high stakes almost every night, because you're trying to rush to get dinner on the table. It's the end of the day, the kids are tired. You're trying to avoid meltdowns, someone's picky, yada, yada, whatever it is. But I will say that I've been trying to go back to claiming that space again and reminding myself I can pour a glass of wine and put on some good music and make this a fun environment where I'm not actually racing to get dinner on the table.
Who’s a harsher critic: your kids or Alton Brown?
Alton Brown, I think. I don't take it as personally when it's my kids. And, yeah, Alton Brown's pretty harsh. He's either really hot or really cold, and you don't know what to expect.
One thing I'm always curious about is if you're allowed to bring recipes to have as a reference or if you try to do any sort of panic memorization of key ratios. Can you tell me a little bit more about the prep there?
No, you can't bring anything. I did memorize several recipes. I don't think I ever had the opportunity to use any of them — they were never the right conditions, prompts, or ingredients. But I code wrote one recipe in my journal just in case, and they took my journal when I got there.They took literally everything that could possibly be a source of entertainment while I was in my hotel room. So I couldn't use it anyway.
They tried to keep you from cheating! Kind of a curveball question, but how did you think about what you were going to wear?
That's so funny that you asked that. Before I went on Food Network Star, I was a total style disaster. I mentioned I have an identical twin, and she has always been the fashionable twin. She lived in the city for 15 years. She's always, always been into clothes and style. And I was a hippie wearing patchwork and then morphed into rock-climbing-outdoor-guide. My motto was, if I can't go climbing in my clothes, I'm not wearing them. So before going on the show, Dimity, my twin, came and brought a ton of options from her wardrobe, and we laid out what I could wear over the course of 13 episodes if I made it to the end.
If you could give anyone who's thinking about applying for a show like that a couple words of advice, what would you tell them? Don't go?
Don't take the bait. There's a story that producers are trying to tell and the more drama you give, the better the story. That is what reality TV thrives on…I had to have unbelievable self awareness so that I wasn’t saying something that could be sliced up and cut in a way that could be framed negatively or be hurtful towards someone else. In the interview room where you're being grilled and encouraged to say things again, I was constantly bringing it back to my own experience and not throwing other people under the bus or criticizing other people.
Some people are drawn to that.That's not my thing. I was really happy when I left the show and didn't feel like I was framed in a way that was out of alignment with who I am. I didn't say something that was out of alignment with who I am.
[on one of the most stressful moments of the show]
I successfully completed my task with plenty of time to kill. A producer came over to me and he was like, “Oh, no, it wasn't like X amount of portions. You were supposed to prepare this amount of portions,” which was like five times what I had prepared. And I immediately saw five cameras being rolled over to me to catch me, like, freaking out or crying. And I was like, “Just stay calm. Don't give them anything.”
Now that it's finally almost spring, what are you most excited to pick up from your farmers’ market?
Well, I'll backtrack to say what I'm actually most excited to pick up from the ground. Nettles and ramps! Ramps make an amazing pesto… and nettles are delicious cooked fresh with garlic and butter.
Thank you, Emma, for joining me! Check out her newsletter for new recipes and musings.
Things to Chew On
The HHS is due to release new dietary guidelines in December, but top nutrition experts don’t know what will be included. Will seed oils be spurned? Will the NIH have funding to research the impact? Time will tell.
The fight over who will pay for GLP-1s like Ozempic has begun in earnest. The math doesn’t math: the cost-benefit analysis for employers, who cover the brunt of the pricey medications, doesn’t make it worth their while. That said, these are the most effective and safest drugs available and people will pay to lose weight. It’s in everyone’s best interests to figure out how to get the right people on the right medications.
You’ve probably read enough about tariffs already to give yourself heartburn — but they haven’t hit your grocery bill yet. I’m working on something to help.
Glen Powell released a line of condiments and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I’ve seen Top Gun: Maverick five times and have held Glen Powell stock for nearly a decade. On the other hand, ketchup is one of the only foods I refuse to eat and his childhood story is revolting.
Ty Haney, the founder of Outdoor Voices, is back with a new venture: a sports drink called Joggy. It’s very… green.
The founder of Pirate’s Booty, who calls himself Captain Bootyhead, attempted a coup.
Recent Bites
In a double gut punch, Marlow & Sons (a beloved mainstay in Williamsburg for 21 years) closed this weekend, less than a week before Pop-up Bagels opens a few blocks away. I stopped by for the soft opening — the bagel is okay (too chewy for me, but the everything seasoning was well-distributed), the staff is nice, and the lines will be insufferable.
Apple and Olive Oil Harvest Cake from Emma’s book, Seasonal Family Almanac, is the perfect mashup of apple cake and olive oil cake — and it’s even better for breakfast.
Banana Cake with Tahini Fudge from
’s new cookbook, Third Culture Cooking. This is one of the most eclectic and beautifully shot cookbooks I’ve seen in a while.I brought a taco spread to friends this weekend — pulling recipes from Diane Kennedy’s Oaxaca al Gusto and a cooking class I took this winter at Marilau Mexican Ancestry Cooking School in San Miguel de Allende. It was a good reminder that delivering food can be more fun than hosting (fewer dishes) and leftovers are a gift.
a very good breakfast cake (l); banana cake of my dreams (c); duck in guajillo, arroz verde, beans, lots of toppings (r)
‘til next time (Friday),
Sophia
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