Cream of Caroline Caroline Hatchett

John Birdsall joins the Cream to talk about his forthcoming biography of James Beard, The Man Who Ate Too Much. We talk about Beard’s take on casseroles, life in the Village, his irrepressible style and pursuit of pleasure, and how both Beard’s gay community and his closeted public persona shaped his life and work.

Writer and béchamel enthusiast Hannah Selinger and I get granular about the creamiest of mother sauces: how to make it, how you can screw it up (and fix it!), what wines to drink with it, and all the ways you can use it to make a simple, delicious dinner. We also talk about nostalgic 90s snack foods, growing up with magazine cuisine, and what and who is important to support in the food world right now.

Jarry editor and cookbook author Lukas Volger and I discuss queer food culture and representation, James Beard (aka the first daddy of American cooking), casseroles from our 80s childhoods, and his latest book, Start Simple: Eleven Everyday Ingredients for Countless Weeknight Meals.

Chef Chris Shepherd joins me to talk about how he changed his business model overnight from dine-in service to stocking HEB grocery stores with take-home meals, including king ranch casserole and wagyu burger helper. Chris is also the co-founder of Southern Smoke Foundation, an organization that’s providing direct relief to restaurant workers who have been laid off in the Covid-19 crisis. The need is great. For the last month, I’ve been working with Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation to raise funds, half of which we’re sending straight to Southern Smoke. This episode is at the intersection of some of the things I care about most: restaurants, the hospitality professionals who make them special, and, of course, casseroles.

Indulge me as I transform commercial curds into a hot and heavy cottage cheese dip, courtesy of a vintage James Beard recipe. Editor Joe Sevier joins the show to give us an education on cottage cheese brands, curd size, and other technical terms in the dairy category. And Leah Hammerman and I talk about cottage cheese’s fairest partner: nacho cheese Doritos. If you don’t know, now you know.

Right before New York City shut down this spring, Clay Williams joined me for a casserole lunch to talk about his work as a food photographer, his history with the James Beard Foundation, and Black Food Folks, a group he formed last year with Colleen Vincent to support and bring together people in the black food community.