A Bite with Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers, loved by so many. In memoriam, here’s an article in Gourmet Magazine where she chats about food in her inimitable style ~

Gourmet Live: Do you cook?

Joan Rivers: I don’t cook. My big joke is that the B on the oven stands for “burn.” I can’t cook, and it makes me terribly sad. I would love to be all things to everybody, but I can’t. My big threat to Melissa (her daughter) as a child was, if she was really bad I’d say, “You’re going to bed with dinner!” She’d cry and cry and cry. I have a chef now.

GL: So when did you hire your chef?

Joan Rivers: I was doing the Carson show as a guest and I came home afterwards and cooked a meal for my husband and some friends. After dinner we took a walk and all my guests stopped at a deli and got sandwiches. And my husband said to me, “You know, you can’t cook. You can write a joke. So hire someone that can cook and you write the jokes.”

 

To continue reading please go to Gourmet Magazine 11/17/10

Short-Form Journalism: Food Celebrity Live Chat

As chefs, foodwriters and anyone else having to do with food (famous eaters, anyone?) become more celebrated in our culture, knowing what they’re up to is important. Here’s one way to find out: the short-form group interview – planned ahead by the writer to fit the style of the journal. This one went ‘live’ online.

THE NEW YORKER: Ok, let’s get started. Hello Burkhard, Lauren, and Calvin.

LAUREN COLLINS: Hello everyone.

BURKHARD BILGER: Howdy.

QUESTION FROM TIMOTHY: Do you do more eating when you’re working on a food piece than you normally do?

BURKHARD BILGER: Not always, but in this case my article was about home fermentation, so I spent a fair amount of time brewing stuff up: sauerkraut, sourdough, goat kefir. My kids kept telling me that I should write an article on Belgian chocolate instead.

LAUREN COLLINS: Hi, Timothy. The answer is yes! I thought I was going to develop gout after that trip to California with April and Ken.

QUESTION FROM TOMMY: Mr. Bilger, why is the FDA so bent on regulating bacteria?

Continue reading this article in The New Yorker: The Food Issue.