In a recent post, I put my flag in the ground, claiming vehemently (almost in a braggy kind of way) that I am not a foodie. And low and behold, here I am four days later reviewing a podcast that has me possibly rethinking that declaration. Nothing new for me. I used to hate cauliflower too. Now I can’t get enough of it. I’m wishy washy that way.
In episode 414, Marc chatted up Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. And it proved to be a solid, revealing, mouth-watering hour and a half. Here’s a snippet posted on the WTF site.
I almost didn’t listen though. I was positive an episode about competitive cooking, even on WTF, would be boring. But Maron sold it in the intro, citing Guarnaschelli’s “New York edge,” or something along those lines.
Guarnaschelli is currently the executive chef at Butter, a hip East Village greenmarket offering. She also has a buttery radio voice. Very easy on the ears.
Maron is very much the food enthusiast, so he almost immediately began talking shop with Guarnaschelli. He talked about his own experiences with food, both as a cook, and as an eater. Listnening to two people who genuinely get this foodie thing can be revelatory, and I wanted to get it to. Plus, these two have no issue holding up their respective ends of the conversation.
Guarnaschelli has a silver tongue and a savviness so commonly associated with a Manhattan upbringing. She’s not brusk, nor is she an elitist — just a good chef with a kick-ass resume and a way with words.
She peppers her stories with movie metaphors/similes. There was one that spoke to me directly. She compared perfectly browning a piece of meat to the scene in Teen Wolf with Michael J. Fox (Scott Howard) when the titular character reveals his lupine tendencies to a near-empty auditorium of stunned high school basketball fans. She said cooking, when it’s right, is like the punctuation of Scott slowly bouncing the ball. Genius.
This one’s a good listen, regardless of your opinion about Food Network programming.
