Michele Anna Jordan
& Susan Brady
ExpatWomen's Interview with Susan
ExpatWomen: Susan, congratulations on co-publishing this hearty book, The World Is a Kitchen, with Michele Anna Jordan. I started to salivate just reading the table of contents! What made you think of collecting stories about food?
Susan: Food is how I travel the world. Working for a travel publisher introduced me new countries several times a year. I wasn ' t able to actually go to each one, so I taught myself how to cook the cuisine of each area we did a book on. That led to reading more on foreign foods and collecting stories. Once I got a green light from the publisher, I also solicited stories from original writers to round out the book, and when Michele joined the team she brought some great material.
ExpatWomen: I love the way we can travel around the world, and not only learn about the wonderful food that is being prepared there, but also get a glimpse into that country's culture. How did you choose what countries to highlight? |
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Susan: The book is broken up into 5 world regions and we tried to be representative of each region and of different food cultures. While we could not cover every country on the planet, and we did not get stories from many of them, The World Is a Kitchen has a rather expansive sampling. Given the length constraints of the book, I think we did a good job of touching on a good cross-section of cuisines. |
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ExpatWomen: These stories are written by regular people -- casual cooks, seasoned travelers to the serious gourmands. How did you find the authors? |
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Susan: Some of the stories we had read in other publications, such as Gourmets " A Cooking School in Bangkok " by Kemp Miles Minifie (my original inspiration) and " A Taste of Ghana " by Lydia Polgreen which appeared in The New York Times. Beyond that, we solicited stories via the publisher ' s website and sent requests to a variety of writer ' s organizations, such as the International Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association. We were amazed at the response and the quality of writing. We must have read over 200 stories covering a huge variety of experiences, not to mention dozens of books and hours of internet searches. I have to say that it was difficult to narrow it down to the amount that we did, which is why we tried to add in sidebars throughout, to give more voices to the book. |
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ExpatWomen: One of the most interesting things about your book, is that is also includes recipes-- from African mafe to Russian pelmeni, and Mexican mole verde to theFrench tarte tatin. Did you test them yourselves to ensure that the ingredients were easy to find the local supermarket or specialty food shops? |
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Susan: All of the recipes were tested by the authors, and I personally tested almost every recipe myself. In addition, I sent out an alert to food bloggers for help and second opinions on the recipes. So each one was tested 2-3 times. Living in the Bay Area (San Francisco, California, USA) , I was able to easily find all the ingredients, and with only a few exceptions, the recipe testers had success as well. |
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ExpatWomen: Susan, both you and Michele have extensive knowledge of cuisine. Please tell us about your backgrounds, the books you have authored or published and your websites all about cooking. |
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Susan: Michele is amazing and more traditionally trained. She has done 16 cookbooks, several for Williams Sonoma, and has been regularly published in newspapers and magazines for the last twenty years. In addition, she teaches cooking classes, does wine and food judging, and has a food-centric radio show called "Mouthful " , available on iTunes and Yahoo.
I, on the other hand, am mostly self-taught. I have begged and cajoled foreign friends to show me the ropes, and I have been to several cooking schools around the world, trying to become more knowledgeable. I write a food blog aimed at suburban families, trying to get them to branch out from their standard meatloaf and grilled chicken. In addition, there is a website on culinary tourism that went live when the book was published. |
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ExpatWomen: What would be your Top 5 Tips for women looking to find cooking schools, classes, culinary tours, etc. abroad? |
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Susan:
- Set a budget, but be realistic. It is cheaper to fly to Italy than Thailand, but once in Italy it can be more expensive to stay and travel. Cost is probably the biggest factor and determinant for your travels, as is the quality of the stay.
- Try to narrow down the type of food or region you wish to travel in. Europe? Asia? Africa?
- Determine what type of class you want: Traditional or casual? Cooking schools, restaurants and hotels have more traditional classes, where homes, B&Bs and villas have less structure and can be more affordable.
- Utilize the Resource & Reference Section in the back of the book. We did extensive research on cooking schools, classes, culinary tours, and various other resources to help people plan a journey (including website links). There are 36 pages just on these 3 topics, along with a great bibliography of books and magazines.
- Be thorough. Once you narrow down your search to a specific country and several tour/class choices, call and talk to someone. Do not blindly pick one and hope for the best. Know what you are getting into. Look for reviews online. Or, if already in a country, get recommendations from chefs, a hotel concierge, or a local tourist bureau.
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ExpatWomen: Thank you again for giving away 5 copies of your book to five lucky ExpatWomen newsletter subscribers. Who knows, they maybe inspired to make a feast fit for the United Nations! |
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Susan: One can always hope! |
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