Welcome Mistake-Makers!

The cover of my new book, out on October 14, 2014. Published by Ecco. 

Welcome to all the mistake-makers of the world. I've come to believe that people who make mistakes, and are willing to embrace them in order to correct them, are the greatest people in the world--risk-takers, learners, achievers, dreamers.

I'm new to this way of thinking, and it's changing my life.

Here's how I got to this point. A couple of years ago, something began to trouble me. I'd been Editor in Chief of Food & Wine Magazine for almost two decades, but I consistently made mistakes when I was cooking for my family and friends. Every meal had an I-can't-believe-I-just-messed-that-up moment. It seemed like a cosmic joke. How could someone (me!) know so much about food, be friends with the best chefs in the world, eat out all the time, and still get tripped up in the kitchen?

To find out and to improve, I decided to tackle my problem head-on. I contemplated my options--cooking school, hours of instructional video on YouTube, cooking shows--but then figured out the right choice for me: enlist my favorite chefs to identify my errors and show me how to fix them. At some point along the way I decided I wanted to share the amazing lessons I was learning, and that's why I wrote my first cookbook: Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen.

My Year of Cooking with Julia

Julia Turshen on set for my cookbook, Mastering My Mistakes In the Kitchen.

Since I've already confessed that I'm not a great cook, I'm sure you'll understand why I wanted to find a terrific recipe developer and writer to help with my book. I lucked out that Julia Turshen was available to be my collaborator. At Food & Wine, we pride ourselves on identifying emerging talent and the fact that we hired Julia to be an intern, while she was still a sophomore in college, proves that point. She has gone on to become a fantastic cook, working on impressive projects with, among others, Mario Batali, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jody Williams. This year she received a contract from Chronicle Books to write her own cookbook.

The process of developing the recipes involved a lot of brainstorming. In some cases, I felt as if I was a cartoonist sketching my ideas, and Julia was an animator bringing them to life. Tasting a recipe that, until then, had only existed in my mind was exhilarating. We revised the dishes until we thought they were perfect. What does perfect mean? Streamlined for the home cook, accessible ingredients, high yum factor.

Personally I've never seen Julia make a mistake, but she told me about a recent flop, a recipe that she's developing with Hot Bread Kitchen––the New York City-based organization that helps low-income individuals find jobs in the food industry. Here's what Julia told me about her naan #fail:

Julia's failed naan that was almost a biscuit, and then it wasn't.

"I was testing a recipe for naan and the dough was so wet and was rising like crazy that I knew it wouldn't work properly as naan. I was scared to throw it out in fear that it would continue to rise in the trash! I decided to bake it, thinking if nothing else, it would at least stop the rising so that I could throw out something solid instead of something alive and growing! As it was baking, the kitchen smelled wonderful. I thought I was genius: the naan would be a gigantic biscuit. I started fantasizing about the peaches I was going to get at the market that I would slice and sugar and sandwich between the biscuit with cream. As I took it out, it was puffed up and gorgeous. I thought I hit the jackpot. As it cooled however, it completely deflated, and the end result was such a disgusting texture, like congealed yogurt. Ugh. Fail!"

Thanks Julia for sharing your #fail!

My Food Stylist: Susie Theodorou

On set with my stylist: Susie Theodorou.

In creating images for my book, I knew I needed an incredible food stylist. Many cookbook authors make the dishes themselves. But that was not a task I was ready to take on—it requires not only being a good cook, but also knowing how to make food look delicious for the camera. So I reached out Susie Theodorou, whose work I admired in Food & Wine Magazine. I adore her style. The food looks loose, exciting, enticing, natural, vibrant. Not cheffy or precious. I also asked Susie to bring the props—not something few food stylists are equipped to do. Luckily, it turned out Susie had as fantastic taste in objects as she did in food. And perhaps more importantly, I discovered she could multitask magnificently. She could plot a photo shoot like a General, keep a team of cooks on track like a French chef, work with the photographer on set like a co-conspirator, pepper star chefs with questions as she prepped the food, make a quick lunch for the crew in "down time", pick out the next apron for the talent (me!).

Given that Susie herself is such an expert, I was particularly curious about what she gleaned on the set of "Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen." Always on high alert for something new or interesting, Susie learned a few things that she's shared here:

On lobster from Eric Ripert: "My assistant Brett nicknamed Eric the "lobster whisperer." By holding the lobster claw at an angle, then holding the knife at an angle and whacking it once into the claw and then shifting it, he made taking the meat out of the claw so easy. I still can't do it, but I put it down to being shorter than he is."

Eric Ripert showing us how to hold the knife.

Eric Ripert, the lobster whisperer.

On kimchi from Dave Chang: "I loved the way he cut an X through the cucumbers so he could stuff them without the filling falling out. It was a great way to be sure the cucumbers would be saturated with flavor."

On tomatoes with Jose Andres: "I did not know that by looking at the tomatoes bottom (not stem end), you can work out how many chambers in each tomato has. I was very impressed by that. I don't really love tomatoes, but Jose inspired me to want to like them."

Whenever I think of Susie on the shoot, it makes me smile. I loved her spunk and generosity.