Your desert island picks?

[babyluck]

First of all, I want to thank you for Culinary Artistry. One day, about 9 months ago, I suddenly decided that I would apply myself to bringing my cooking to a new level, especially in combining flavors and menu planning. Your book popped up as if by magic -- exactly what I was looking for. I've read it cover to cover several times, forward, backward, and at random. My cooking is starting to evolve in just the way I had hoped.

My question: you must have thought about what 10 food items you would bring to a desert island while working on the book. I'm very curious to know what they would be. You can answer that separately or together -- separately would be more interesting, don't you think?

P.S. My husband, a photographer, is in love with the shot of you two on the back cover of Culinary Artistry. It's very expressive and intimate. Was it posed or did the photographer catch you off guard?

[Andrew&Karen]

We're delighted by your kind words for our book CULINARY ARTISTRY -- not to mention our author photo, which was taken by Mike Donnelly, the wildly talented photographer who has shot the photographs for our books DINING OUT, CHEF'S NIGHT OUT, THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF and the newly-revised edition of BECOMING A CHEF. (It's on our Web site's home page in the upper left-hand corner of www.becomingachef.com, so you don't even have to buy the book to get to see it! The photo, by the way, is a rather miraculous one: We HATE having our picture taken, and Mike is so good that he managed to capture this shot in between moments of our being incredibly self-conscious.)

Great question -- what 10 ingredients would WE take with us to a desert island?? We've answered this before, but instead of looking up our previous answers, we thought we'd put ourselves in the hot seat (just like we did to the chefs we interviewed for CULINARY ARTISTRY) and give you our spontaneous answers. So, here they are at 8:45 pm on 9-24-03 -- after eight hours of travel today, and five hours of sleep last night!! (In other words, we might be a LITTLE punchy....)

ANDREW:

1) chicken

2) corn

3) garlic

4) lemon

5) arugula

6) two pigs, one male & one female

7) white peaches

8) fresh thyme

9) aged Parmesan

10) red wine (California Zinfandel)

KAREN (admitting that her first choice would be to land on Andrew's island, because everything sounds so good):

1) perfect peaches and/or mangoes

2) blueberry muffins from the little store on River Road in Lambertsville, PA (Bucks County), which are FULL of wonderful fresh blueberries

3) Epoisses cheese

4) soft-shell crabs

5) Terra chips

6) Quady Elecktra

7) iced tea

8) the tonkatsu special from Katsuhama in Manhattan: fried pork cutlets with grated cabbage and amazing homemade dressing plus the kimchi, rice, miso soup, etc. that come with it

9) Chock full o'Nuts French Roast coffee (as rated the #1 French Roast coffee in the June 2002 issue of COOK'S ILLUSTRATED)

10) Andrew (who I know could cook me something delicious out of anything that might be found on the island and/or in the sea!!)

Now, what would YOU take with you to YOUR island??

Cheers,

Karen & Andrew

[Andrea Dawn]

I am new to studying fine cuisine...wondering why you would want a male and female pig

Andrea

[babyluck]

Hmmm. I bet the other people who asked you that question thought it was pretty original too. But I'm real glad you did it on the spot for me! It must have been hard saying no to some of the chefs who pleaded for more time when interviewing for the book.

Here's my list:

1. Guinness

2. Red wine

3. Bread

4. Breeding pair of cattle -- sheep would be better companions and I prefer lamb but I can't imagine putting sheep milk in my...

5. Community Coffee (Red Pack -- with chicory)

6. Onions

7. Garlic

8. Olive oil

9. Tart apples

10. Spinach

I'll have to check out those blueberry muffins. I grew up pretty close to Lambertville but never discovered them. (Lambertville is in NJ but New Hope is across the bridge in PA & there is a River Road on both sides of the river, so you've made it an extra-tough scavenger hunt. That's OK. I like a challenge.) I would live on either of your islands. An unlimited supply of tonkatsu is definitely tempting...

Thanks so much for your reply. I look forward to your upcoming books and seeing more of Michael Donnelly's photography.

[Andrew&Karen]

Dear Andrea,

It would be in the hope of assuring a lifetime supply of pork products (if the two of them in fact hit it off, that is)! ; )

Best wishes,

Karen & Andrew

[ExtraMSG]

Culinary Artistry truly is a great book. I have one suggestion for you, however, on new editions: cut page edges. My friend actually took his in to Kinko's and had the pages evened out. In a book where you so often want to use it as a reference, it's rather annoying to not be able to flip through.

[Andrew&Karen]

Oops....No wonder you never discovered those muffins in Lambertsville (NJ) -- I think I'd meant to write Carversville (PA), which is across the bridge and a bit further down River Road, as I'm sure you know. (It gets a bit confusing out there because these tiny towns in Bucks County are so close together.) We have friends who've had a house on Fleecydale Road in Carversville, from which you hang a right onto River Road and go less than a quarter mile or so to the General Store, which also serves wonderful deli sandwiches and has a selection of gifts, cards, and local travel and New Age books -- in addition to the single best blueberry muffins I've ever tasted in my life!

Most blueberry muffins have 10-20% fruit, tops. I swear, these muffins are at least 40-50% fruit -- they're absolutely loaded with big juicy blueberries, with just enough batter to hold the blueberries together. I honestly can't eat any other blueberry muffins after having tasted them, because they've spoiled me for life.

Community Coffee? Have you spent much time in New Orleans, and/or did you find a great mail order source?

Cheers,

Karen

[Andrew&Karen]

Hi ExtraMSG,

You're of course referring to the fact that our publisher left the pages uncut of our first three books, for more of a "rustic," "artsy" look.

Thanks for the feedback that this hasn't allowed the book to be as user-friendly as it should be, as we hadn't heard it before. We do believe form should follow function, so it's helpful to know!

And we're especially delighted to know that this inconvenience hasn't prevented you from finding CULINARY ARTISTRY "a great book"! We appreciate the kind words!

Best wishes,

Karen & Andrew

[babyluck]

Community Coffee?  Have you spent much time in New Orleans, and/or did you find a great mail order source?

Yes and yes. The first 5 business trips of my career were to New Orleans. That doesn't exactly make me a local, since I only got to venture outside the Quarter to go to Commander's Palace, but I got to know the bellstaff at the Marriott well enough so that they'd ship me some Red Pack after I got home. When I ran out, with no trips lined up, I discovered www.communitycoffee.com where they have the New Orleans blend for $4.95 a pound, about what you'll pay in Walgreens in NO vs. the $10.99 I saw it going for at the French Market. They also have 8 oz. bags of chicory for $1 -- I stock up on them so I'll always be able to satisy my craving by adding it to whatever coffee I have around. I also have to admit that Café du Monde has some pretty great coffee too, and for some reason you can always find it in the Asian markets in NJ.

Thanks for the details on the blueberry muffins. I will make it a point to stop there when I'm in the area next.

I'm glad ExtraMSG spoke up about the deckled edges of the book making it hard to flip through. I was actually going to mention it in my first post, but didn't want to appear too critical! Aesthetically it's beautiful, as is everything about the book, but not very practical. I tend to flip through the book just to reread sections at random, and because of the deckle it always opens to the same pages the way a magazine with inserts will do. It sounds like your publisher isn't doing it anymore, so it's a moot point, but I wanted to second the suggestion just in case!

Thank you again for your recommendations & generosity with your time.

[Andrew&Karen]

We'd heard of Community Coffee when researching our last book CHEF'S NIGHT OUT: From Four-Star Restaurants to Neighborhood Favorites -- 100 Top Chefs Tell You Where (and How!) to Enjoy America's Best.

Among the sections on chefs' favorite spots in each of 28 different markets, Frank Brigtsen of Brigtsen's in New Orleans (a self-described "coffee junkie") mentioned that his favorite coffee is Community Coffee:

"Coffee with chicory is so much a part of our culture in New Orleans. Sometimes I remember to bring it with me when I travel, but when I don't -- boy, do I miss it! New Orleans coffee is full-flavored, and has a dark, roasted richness to it that I have not seen anywhere else. The chicory gives it a bitter flavor, but in a pleasant way. Community Coffee is the brand I drink which has a bunch of cafes called CC's. Another place is P&J's. Both are at the top of my list."

Since CHEF'S NIGHT OUT was essentially a travel guide (as well as a guide to chefs' #1 source of learning: dining out!) published in 2001 -- just as the economy tanked so people were already traveling less and then 9/11 stopped them from traveling altogether -- it didn't have the audience of our previous books. (We were also told by readers that its $29.95 cover price didn't help matters!)

But it's even a great read for armchair readers. We've never tasted Community Coffee ourselves, nor visited many of the wonderful restaurants (at all price points) that leading chefs told us were their favorites, but it's been incredibly instructive to learn how chefs think about food and restaurants. In addition, each of the 100 chefs featured also tells what they hope diners will get out of dining in their restaurants -- which, too, was eye-opening for us.

In any case, thanks for chiming in about the deckled pages of CULINARY ARTISTRY -- we appreciate the feedback. It's great to know for other books we're planning along these lines (now who was asking about our next project??). ; )

And if you get to taste those blueberry muffins, let us know if they don't live up to Karen's enthusiastic recommendation and more! ; )

Best wishes,

Karen & Andrew