Capturing someone else's voice

[ChocoKitty]

Michael, thank you for coming to eGullet and sharing your knowledge. I've enjoyed all of your books so far and look forward to more!

In your books with Thomas Keller and Eric Ripert, you were able to capture the chef's voice and make it sound like the chef did all the actual writing. What techniques do you use to keep your own voice from intruding? Do you analyze the chef's speech patterns and go from there? Or does it just come naturally from working so closely with the chef?

Edited August 4, 2003 by ChocoKitty (log)

[Michael Ruhlman]

Keep my own voice from intruding? It intruded constantly. The trick was making the intrusions invisible. With Keller, I think I just got lucky. I understand exactly what he means to say. ripert is a little different, very smart very articulate (in his third language btw), and I don't think in his voice, but now that you made me think about it, it's a form of mimicry. some people are good at mimicking peoples voices aloud, I think I've learned (through too many interviews of other people) to mimic people on the page. You've got to hang out awhile. I take a lot of notes and I record some conversations.