Good Food
Cookbook Ghostwriters; Classic Menus; Linguistics of Food
Does it matter who authors a cookbook if the recipes work? Discover the secret life of a cookbook ghostwriter. Plus, soda versus pop, a linguist explains.
By Evan Kleiman • • 57m ListenDo you say soda, pop or Coke? Bert Vaux and Brice Russ dissect the linguistics of food. Molly Stevens reminds us that the oven is not only for roasting meat, but for veggies too. Russ Parsons describes his ever growing cookbook collection and divulges his favorite sources for rare cookbooks. Ghostwriter Andrew Friedman weighs in on the recent controversy spurred by a New York Times article on cookbook ghostwriters. The New York Public Library is digitizing its historical menu collection and you could help. Librarian Rebecca Federman shares the details. Plus, Jonathan Gold
ventures to the San Gabriel Valley for crab dumplings the size of a grapefruit.
Banner image: Mel Melcon of the Los Angeles Times
In this episode
7 storiesMarket Report
Ari Kolender is the chef de cuisine at Red Medicine . He requested that Jaime Farms bring green strawberries to the farmers' market so that he can pickle them. Kolender shared his Master Pickling Liquid with us on the Good Food Blog so that you can pickle green strawberries at home too.
Read the story7 minAll about Roasting Vegetables
Molly Stevens' latest book is All about Roasting : A New Approach to a Classic Art. A recipe for her Quick-Roasted Sugar Snap Peas with Toasted Sesame Salt as well as a recipe for her Orange-Roasted Carrots with Gremolata are on the Good Food Blog .
Read the story8 minClassic Cookbooks
Russ Parsons is the Food Editor for the LA Times where he writes The California Cook column. His article about cookbooks that bring comfort inspired this segment. His favorite sources for acquiring first edition and signed books are used bookstores and alibris.com .
Read the story7 minThe Secret Life of a Cookbook Ghostwriter
Andrew Friedman runs the website Toqueland.com . He's also a cookbook ghostwriter, and was quoted in a controversial New York Times article about ghostwriting that saw high profile celebrities like Rachel Ray and Gwyneth Paltrow taking umbrage.
Read the story10 minThe New York Public Library's Menu Collection
Rebecca Federman is the Culinary Collections Librarian at the New York Public Library . She's spearheading the What's on the Menu? project, an initiative in which the general public is helping the library digitally transcribe its more than 40,000 historical menus.
Read the story8 minSoda, Pop or Coke? The Linguistics of Food
Bert Vaux is Professor of Phonology and Morphology at the University of Cambridge in the UK. He was formerly an Associate Professor of Linguistics at Harvard where he studied regional differences in words and pronunciation. He discusses the regionality of words like soda, pop, Coke and icing versus frosting.
Read the story11 minSlurping Dumplings through a Boba Straw
Jonathan Gold visits Wang Xing Ji in the San Gabriel Valley. What separates this dumpling house from others is that it is Wuxi food, from a city on the outskirts of Shanghai. Jonathan recommends the Pork Soup Dumplings, Wuxi Spare Rib, Crab Soup Dumpling, Salt and Pepper Crispy Cake, Stir Fried String Beans and Fried Rice with Pork Belly.
Read the story7 min
