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{You Pick Six} An Interview with Writer + Cheese Maker: Korsha Wilson

September 5, 2020September 14, 2015 by Lisa Johnson 2 Comments

Have you ever met a cheese maker? Well, you’re about to! While, she is now a former cheese maker, it’s still quite a unique skill set to bring to the table, especially as a food writer.

Last summer while eating lunch at a Drive the District food blogger event, I met Korsha Wilson. I was fascinated to learn back then that she made cheese for a living and also writes about food.

Some of her older writings were at The Industry Press, where people in the Boston area restaurant industry shared their stories.

As a writer, her repertoire is constantly expanding. She’s written for Eater, New York Times Food, Civil Eats, Food & Wine and more. Follow her on Twitter to find her latest articles.

Let’s learn a little more about this prolific food writer, as Korsha answers six questions for the third part in the interview series, You Pick Six.

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What is a favorite snack?
I’m obsessed with french fries. I get cravings for them on a very regular basis and am constantly seeking out restaurants and bars that make them well. A good french fry (crispy and salty with great potato flavor) is surprisingly hard to find.

What is a favorite food movie?
Eat Drink Man Woman is one of the most underrated food movies in my opinion. It really captures the the beauty of preparing a meal for loved ones. Ratatouille is one of my all-time favorite movies and I think it does the best job of illustrating food’s ability to create connection. Also, there’s a bad ass female chef as one of the central characters and she has the same name as my mom.

What do you think that most people don’t understand about food?
I think a lot of people in this country feel like their love of food isn’t valid if it isn’t ‘fine dining.’ The proliferation of food media has led to the general public having a lot more food knowledge but it has also led to people feeling like food has to include certain ingredients or be cooked a certain way to be ‘good’. The food world is made up of everything that everyone eats. Period. Food belongs to everyone and everyone has a valid palate. I meet a lot of people who are afraid to tell me what they like to eat or cook because they assume that since I went to culinary school and worked in restaurants that all of the food that I eat is high-end or expensive. If you’re using great ingredients and cooking with care, whatever you’re cooking is going to be delicious and it’s worthy of being talked about.

What is the best meal you ever had and where was it?
That’s tough. I believe that every restaurant experience or every meal you make at home is different depending on your mood and other factors. My most recent favorite meal was at a small restaurant in Genoa, Italy.

After a day of sightseeing, my boyfriend and I had a drink at a local bar and asked the bartender where to have a good dinner. Instead of just giving us his answer, he asked the rest of the bar patrons and the kitchen staff what they thought and they all agreed that we should go to Locanda Spinola, a new restaurant nearby. Long story short, it was amazing. Homemade pastas, simply prepared fresh seafood and local wine. The service was so hospitable and warm! My boyfriend and I stayed after our dinner (and after the restaurant closed) drinking beer with the staff and talking about restaurants in the U.S. and Italy. It was wonderful.

How did food become an important part of your life?
Food was always an important part of family gatherings. I’m lucky to have grown up with great cooks on both sides of my family and I learned early that food is a way to communicate love. That pushed me to go to culinary school and journalism school, work in restaurants and write about food for a living.

Tell me about what you’re working on now.
I am currently working on lots and lots of freelance writing. Haha. Ultimately, I would like to contribute to a more diverse food media landscape and explore different media projects. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

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Thank you so much for participating Korsha!

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Photos provided by Korsha Wilson.

{You Pick Six} An Interview with Writer: Richard Auffrey

July 30, 2020September 8, 2015 by Lisa Johnson 2 Comments

If you’re a food blogger or writer in the Boston area, you may have already met Richard Auffrey at a food event around the city.

He is a familiar face that I always enjoy seeing in a crowd. Richard’s blog, The Passionate Foodie, is aptly named, because as a writer, he has a true love for food and drink. He also strives to bring more inclusiveness to the food blogger community and celebrates its diversity.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy learning more about Richard as he answers questions for the second part in the interview series, You Pick Six.

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What is a favorite simple recipe to prepare at home?
I make a simple Teriyaki sauce. Simply add 7 parts Sake, 7 parts Mirin, 7 parts Soy Sauce & 1 part Sugar to a sauce pan. Bring to a boil under a medium heat, stirring constantly until all the sugar dissolves. And that’s it! Once it cools, you can bottle and refrigerate it for future use. If you want, you can also add minced garlic.

What is a favorite dessert?
I love a well made Bread Pudding, though it can’t have raisins. I think it is also a versatile dessert and I’m surprised that no bakery has chosen to specialize in Bread Pudding. Forget all these cupcake shops, give me a Bread Pudding bakery.

What is a favorite quote?
“O what an ugly sight the man who thinks he’s wise and never drinks sake!”
–Otomo no Tabito (c. 662-731)

What is a favorite food movie?
Ratatouille, the animated film about a rat who becomes a chef. Besides being a fun movie, it has so many excellent lines such as “Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only to be aware to stop and savor it.”

What is a favorite childhood food memory?
My mother’s Cinnamon Rolls, especially when they are still hot and fresh out of the oven. They always brought me joy and I saw them as a sign of my mother’s love. And after all these years, my mom still makes those Cinnamon Rolls, with the same recipe, and they immediately bring me back to my childhood and they also still are a sign of her love.

Tell me about your book.
Halloween Nightmare At Fenway is my third novel in the Tipsy Sensei series, which centers on a Boston-based Sake expert who learns that the supernatural creatures of Japanese folklore are real. In this latest novel, the darkest element of Japan from World War 2 spawns supernatural creatures which now threaten Boston, choosing Fenway Park during the World Series as the site of their primary threat. Nate, the Sake expert, must stop the threat, assisted by an immortal Japanese samurai and a homicide detective, a woman of color. As the novel occurs in Boston, I also mention some of my favorite restaurants. The Tipsy Sensei series is a way for me to share my passion for Sake and to tell a thrilling tale.

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Thank you so much for participating Richard!

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Photos provided by Writer Richard Auffrey.

{You Pick Six} An Interview with Writer: Anastacia Marx de Salcedo

July 30, 2020September 1, 2015 by Lisa Johnson

Happy September! Since it’s the first day of a new month and back to school time, it seems like the perfect day to begin something new. You Pick Six is a new interview series where I email several questions to interesting New Englanders and let them decide the six questions that they would like to answer.

There are so many fascinating people in the New England area. With this new type of interview, I hope to learn a few things and share some of these people with you.

Let’s get this first interview started with writer Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, who has a new book out called Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat.

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What is a favorite simple recipe to prepare at home?
I don’t have a favorite recipe; I have a favorite way—actually ways—to turn vegetables delectable, and those rely on two workhouse appliances, the toaster-oven and the blender. The toaster-oven is great for roasting. I cut all sorts of things— cauliflower, eggplant, okra, peppers, Brussel sprouts, zucchini—into bite-size chunks, toss with olive oil and sea salt, and cook at 400 °F for anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. I serve these at parties as finger foods and people can’t stop eating them. My other infallible vegetable cookery method is a smidge more complicated, which is to braise in water or stock such standards as asparagus, broccoli, carrots, and mushrooms; make a white sauce (aka New England soul food); puree the vegetables in the blender; and then mix everything together in a soup pot. Great winter night fare!

What brings you peace every day?
Running. Laughing with my kids. Being in bed with my husband.

What is some of the best advice you’ve ever received?
When you can’t solve something, keeping reading. Thanks, Dad!

What three people do you admire most?
I admire many ordinary people, drawing from them a collection of the qualities that seem necessary to live a good life. Some of those are courage, optimism, and dedication. Personally, I’m always asking myself if I’m being a good role model for my children. If I’m behaving in a way that I’d like them to emulate, I feel good about my decisions.

What is the best meal you ever had and where was it?
Tiny, just-dug, hot potatoes sprinkled with kosher salt eaten from a plastic sandwich bag; a hard-boiled egg (undoubtedly laid that day), also with kosher salt; and sweet coffee eaten in a small, Ecuadorian mountain village at sunrise. Why was it the best? I was hungry. I was happy. It was a moment of purity.

Tell me about your book.
My book untangles the profound influence the US military has had on American food science and processed foods. If you’d told me ten years ago that I’d be writing about this topic, I would have been very surprised. But one day I started thinking about a sandwich—specifically that its components all had a rather long shelf-life—and that led me down a rabbit hole into the military’s involvement in our food system. The book’s got a lot of important 20th century food science in it, although it’s been digested by me, the ultimate layperson and written in lay terms. Writing about it made me realize how scarily little we humanities types often understand about how the material world works. Time to change that, y’all!

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Thank you so much for participating Anastacia!