Given that I've always been more of an "inside, please" girl, summer and reading have always gone together like caramel and whipped cream over a fantastic cup of strongly brewed espresso. Sure, I like the sunshine and fresh air like everyone else, but given my pasty white skin and serious aversion to mosquitoes, the great indoors suits me far better as long as the air conditioning is blasting.
In fact, I remember spending many, many Wisconsin summer afternoons in the chilly confines of the local library's basement. It was there where I discovered Judy Blume's Blubber, and later, Deenie and journeyed to far-off places with all of Austen's leading ladies. In a word: heaven.
And while I have a sizable stack of novels I was hoping to plow through this summer, our big move to Texas (and all the shenanigans of getting settled in) has seriously cut into my reading time. It's already August 4, and I've read exactly one and a half novels—Jenny Nelson's superb debut Georgia's Kitchen and half of Jennifer Weiner's latest Fly Away From Home, which I'm also totally loving and can't wait to finish.
Now I have to say, I was pretty sure I was going to love Jenny's book given my love of all things Italian (especially the extraordinary cuisine) and was thrilled beyond belief to score myself an advanced copy. What I didn't anticipate what not being able to put it down once I started. With a winning protagonist, a gorgeous backdrop, and of course, the luscious descriptions of food, I was hooked immediately and finished in about a day and a half (a girl's gotta get her beauty sleep, after all, right?).
And now in celebration of her debut hitting store shelves yesterday, I just had to chat with the author herself. So with no further adieu, here's our illustrious Q&A...turns out, we'd both love to cook with Giada and share many of our earliest influences (like the aforementioned Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary). Very, very cool.
CB: So how
amazing was the research for your novel? How did you go about suffering for
your art?
JN: Let’s just
say that eating at incredible restaurants and calling it research was very easy
on my taste buds and my mood, harder on my wallet, and hardest on my waistline.
To repent for all of that indulgence, I logged some serious miles on my
treadmill! That said, enjoying good food and wine is part of my life and by
virtue of that, so is running. It’s not a bad tradeoff.
When you
frequent your favorite Italian restaurant (name and location please), what’s
your order of choice (including antipasti, cocktails or wine)?
My favorite
Italian restaurant is Mercato, in Red Hook, NY, where the chef/owner is
Francesco Buitoni (as in the pasta), who’s from Rome and whose pedigree
includes stints at several Mario Batali restaurants. As my husband says,
Francesco’s the real deal.
I’d start
with a glass of prosecco, share an antipasto plate with my husband, work my way
into the kale, pecorino and pine nut salad (my fave, plus it makes me feel
somewhat virtuous), and a glass of Roero Arneis (I much prefer white wine to
red, sacrilegious but true), then either a simple pasta al pomodoro (his is
amazing) or maybe the seared scallops or orata, if it’s on the menu. For
dessert, a few sinful bites of Francesco’s tiramisu, which my husband orders no
matter how stuffed he is and which I eat, no matter how stuffed I am.
Do you
enjoy cooking all things Italian as well? What’s the best dish you make?
I love
cooking Italian, which to me is very forgiving – it’s hard to really mess it up
(although I’ve managed!). My favorite dish to make is risotto, all kinds, but
I’ve been told my shrimp and fennel is pretty tasty and everyone is shocked to
learn there’s no cheese in it.
As someone
who’s about to finally make it to Rome next year, any recommendations for
out-of-the-box dining, sight-seeing and the like?
You’re in
for a treat. I’m sorry to say that I used to have the Rome list to end all
lists and I can’t find it anywhere. I’m better on Florence.
You had
Giada DeLaurentiis, one of my favorite chefs, endorse your book, just how cool
are you?
I am beyond
thrilled that Giada wrote that blurb. I love her food and her spirit – she’d be
so fun to cook with!
Now talking Georgia's Kitchen, how much of yourself makes its way into Georgia’s character?
In a word –
none. Well, maybe her dry sense of humor is sorta similar to mine, but that’s
about it. Swear. Oh, and I love jeans almost as much as Georgia.
How long
did it take you to write your novel, and what inspired the decidedly Italian
feel of it?
It took me
about two years to write it, then longer to revise it, sell it and now,
finally, publish it! It’s been a long process, but well worth every step and
setback along the way.
As for the
Italian slant, I am an Italia-phile. I love Italian food, fashion, design,
wine, people and above all the country itself. My husband and I have traveled
extensively throughout Italy and were married in Florence ten years ago. Part
of my rationale behind making Georgia a chef was so I could send her to Italy
and revisit (if only in spirit) some of my favorite places in the world.
What are a
few of your favorite novels of late, and for the uninitiated, why should
everyone read Georgia’s Kitchen prontissimo?
Not a
novel, but a collection of stories: Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri, which
ranks right up there with my favorite books of all time. Other recent favorites
include The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout,
Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin, Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch.
As for why
everyone should read Georgia’s Kitchen...at its
essence, Georgia’s Kitchen is the story of a woman determined not to give up on
herself or her dreams. Her journey takes her from the chic cityscapes of New
York to the charming hill towns of Italy and back again. Along the way, she
meets amazing people, finds herself in incredible places, eats and drinks like
a culinary queen, turns up the heat with a sexy Italian winery owner, and
embarks on a crash course in self-discovery. If you’ve ever wondered what it
takes to be a top chef, or make it in New York, or what really goes on in a
professional kitchen, or dreamed of chucking it all and moving to Italy,
Georgia’s Kitchen is for you. It’s packed with heart and humor, glamour and
guts (not to mention food porn galore!) and a heroine you’ll root for to the
very end.
Team
Edward, Team Jacob or don’t care?
Took me a
while to figure out who you meant (saw the first two Twilights but haven’t yet
seen Eclipse and haven’t read any of them), but I’d say Team Edward all the
way. He is gorgeous and I’m a sucker for that pale, otherworldly kind of
beauty.
Who'd play Georgia in the big-screen rendition of Georgia's Kitchen and who'd portray the oh-so-smooth
Gianni?
All along
I’ve thought Drew Barrymore would be a terrific Georgia, but then I met Parker
Posey at a film festival and started thinking she’d be a great too, in a
totally different way. Anna Kendrick or Amy Adams too! Gael Garcia Bernal would
be perfect for Gianni, but maybe too gorgeous. How would Georgia ever turn him
down? James Franco would be terrific.
When did
you know that you wanted to write a novel?
In high
school, when I enrolled in a summer creative writing program taught by Michael
Cunningham. This way well before he wrote The Hours and won the Pulitzer prize,
and he was a terrific teacher and a super cool guy to boot. By the end of the
program I’d caught the writing bug in a big way.
Who were
some of your earliest writing influences, and who is your writer crush?
Laura
Ingalls Wilder, Beverly Cleary, and Judy Blume were my three biggest early
writing influences. I was the kid under the covers with a flashlight and a
book. As for a writer crush, I think I’d have to go Sebastian Junger. There’s
something about a man who’s drawn to danger AND able to string together a mean
sentence that does it for me.
What’s a
book you love so much that you wish you’d written it?
Oh, boy.
There are about a zillion books I wish I’d written! How about The Great Gatsby,
for starters? The House of Mirth? Persuasion? Great Expectations?
What’s
your favorite guilty pleasure movie and/or TV show?
I love Top
Chef, but have convinced myself it’s part of my research so I don’t feel even a
twinge of guilt watching it. A true guilty pleasure is Real Housewives, the New
York version, though I’m looking forward to checking out the DC wives too.
Another is, gulp, Bethenny Getting Married and The Rachel Zoe Report (yes, I
love Bravo). As for movies, I’m a sucker for a good teen movie. 10 Things I
Hate About You is still one of my faves.
If we
peeked in your purse right now, what would we find?
Hello Kitty
band aids (at least two, one for each of my daughters), two hair bows, same,
Bobbi Brown lip gloss (I’m addicted), my Blackberry (ditto), Coppertone Babies
sunblock stick, which I swipe across my forehead whenever I remember, Lorac
powder and a Sephora retractable brush I adore, a tin of peppermints, a small
Kleen Kanteen filled with water, because I basically live my life dehydrated, a
wallet strangely devoid of cash but stuffed with credit card receipts, and
tissues, all of which look a little worse for wear.
Lastly
where can people keep up with you online?
At my
brand-new website: www.jennynelsonauthor.com, on Facebook and Twitter.
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