Chef's Kiss
Hello! Welcome to A Newsletter #33. If you’ve found your way over by some miracle but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that:
What a day over here in New York. Spring: She really does DO it!
Beginning next week, I will be starting a new bi-weekly column for paid subscribers on this here newsletter called Chef’s Kiss. A place for recommendations, opinions, advice, questions and answers.
I’ve done variations on this theme throughout the years, mostly in fleeting 24 hour stories on Instagram, but after answering the same question to only a few people every time, I thought: There must be a better way.
Given the overwhelming number of questions via DM or comment or email or both, and it has become nearly impossible to keep up with answering them in a timely or efficient manner. But I want to! God, do I want to. The questions are good! Sharing information and resources is a wonderful thing! Plus, giving people my opinion is my favorite hobby. Alas, glued to your phone pathologically refreshing any sort of inbox is not congruent with other things like deadlines, mental health or “a good use of ones time.”
So: enter this very special column, a focused time and place to get into the things you would like to know most. I’ve always said, if you have a question, chances are someone else has that very same question (my experience in answering questions has confirmed this is true), so hopefully even if your question is not answered, you will find the whole experience helpful (or at the very least, a delightful read).
To submit a question, head here.
I expect most of these will be cooking/dining/eating/kitchen/hosting/writing/book related, but honestly, I love to give opinions on just about anything. Smaller questions will be given the rapid-fire treatment, longer, more existential ones will be given a novel, or something close to one.
Okay, moving on. If you came here for something to eat, I get that. But personally, today, I can not relate. Lately I have found myself irrationally annoyed that I’ve been eating nonstop for 35 years and don’t get one single day off. My friend Elizabeth texted me a similar feeling, so maybe there’s something in the air or maybe it’s simply that we are still living in a simulation where we don’t leave the house all that much or move our bodies like we used to and we are burned out of doing the same things every single day, including feeding ourselves. Who could say.
The most excited I was able to get about anything in a while (so excited that I’ve considered making it again less than a week later) was a chicken dinner I made last Sunday. I say “a chicken dinner” and not simply “a chicken” because it was less about the chicken and more about the things the chicken was served with and next to, experiencing the whole dinner together (though the chicken was very good).
That will land in everyone’s inbox next week, so stay tuned for a perfect Spring Chicken experience. See you then!
For the month of April, a portion of profits from paid subscriptions will go to Welcome to Chinatown, a NYC based grassroots initiative that focuses on the preservation and protection of one of New York City's most vibrant and culturally significant neighborhoods.
Past supported organizations to put on your radar: The Okra Project / Food Issues Group / La Cocina / Heart of Dinner / ACLU / FAIR FIGHT / Feeding America / Restaurant Workers Community Foundation / For The Culture Magazine
Can totally relate to the feeling of being exhausted about having to eat. I’ve been skipping lunch the past few days because I just can’t work up the energy to make something, even when it’s just throwing some fridge things together.
I did, however, make your paprika chicken tonight (sans paprika and fennel because I’m on a stupid elimination thing), but it’s officially my favorite way to cook chicken. I did a lemon garlic version and the little caramelized bits of salty-lemony-garlic-schmaltzy drippings was divine to dip the chicken into. Ty for that guideline! It’s one of my favorites.
Dear Alison,
As much as I love your recipes, I love your stories and your writing style even more.
Have you ever thought about writing short stories or a novel?