Welcome to CulinaryWoman!
I’m so excited to bring you the first issue of the CulinaryWoman Newsletter.
CulinaryWoman talks about the dollars behind the dishes. We look at interesting people and trends in food, and explore the economics behind them.
These are the types of stories I’ve written about for Forbes.com and other publications. Now, I’m bringing them directly to you.
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Meet Alma Martin Gill: Advice Columnist, News Veteran and Savvy Home Cook
Alma Martin Gill has so many admirers in Washington D.C. journalism circles that if you say the name, “Alma,” everybody immediately knows who you mean.
I met Alma when I began working at USA TODAY. She was the administrative assistant in the Money section, where I wrote about the automobile industry.
She’s since moved on to the Washington Post, where she’s an indispensable staffer in National News.
Alma also has another identity: advice columnist. Her Ask Alma column is syndicated in Black media. She’s become known for her saucy answers to people whose problems might make you say, “Girl, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
Along with her professional accomplishments, Alma is a wife, mother, grandmother, and a very savvy home cook.
During the shutdown emergency, Alma and I have been exchanging emails and messages about the meals we’ve been making, and I learned she can teach us all some great ways to organize ourselves in the kitchen.
How she does it
Alma’s way of cooking is what I call Assembling. In stories that I’ve written for The Takeout, I’ve told how you can take a centerpiece ingredient and turn it into several meals.
Alma does that, except she can make her grocery trip stretch for a week.
Because her husband is a retired U.S. Army veteran, Alma is eligible to shop at the commissary at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Now, you might be seeing the family meal kits that a lot of restaurants are selling that are supposed to feed a number of people for several days. A lot of those kits run $100 and much more.
You get a lot of food, but for many of us, that’s kind of a big ticket item.
Alma can take $100, and come out of the commissary with enough food to feed herself, her husband Gill, and members of her son’s family, including her granddaughter Ava, for an entire week.
Alma has a strategy. First, she is not looking just to get food on the table: she’s putting the philosophy of her mother, a housekeeper, into play.
“It was like my mother told me. If you are cleaning, everything should shine. If you are sweeping, you should sweep better than anybody else,” she says.
That applies to meals, too. She wants her family to eat delicious, healthy food but she wants to keep her weekday prep time to a minimum.
Alma makes her shopping trip every Monday after work. Before she leaves, she checks her pantry, fridge and freezer.
“What do I have that’s in there, and what can I do with what we have?” she says. “It’s like flipping houses. That’s what I’m doing.”
Unlike a number of grocery shoppers, Alma does not go in armed with a list of what she’s going to buy.
Instead, “I write down the meal,” she says. “If I do a list of items, and go in there, I can get a little overwhelmed. But if I say, ‘On Monday, I’m doing chicken and rice,’” I can process it a little better, and I don’t buy items that I don’t need.”
She’s also not a fan of formal recipes. The danger, she says, is that she might use an ingredient once, and then the remainder just sits there, taking up fridge or pantry space.
Alma says that she’s now passing her knowledge on to the next generation, teaching Ava how to make cookies, or put together panini with pizza sauce and pepperoni.
But she’s determined not to share some of the cooking habits that she was taught. Things like her mother’s succotash are “so unhealthy and laden with lard. I don’t want you to learn to cook that way,” Alma says of her granddaughter.
Alma’s Meal Plan For Rotisserie Chicken
I thought you’d like to see one of Alma’s meal plans in action. So, here’s how she uses a rotisserie chicken to get several meals.
“I can’t leave the commissary without buying a rotisserie chicken, and neither should you,” she says. “Why on earth would anyone roast a chicken? I mean, you can buy a rotisserie chicken nowadays at the gas station, LOL.”
She goes on, “Rotisserie chicken is good for you and a great addition to any family meal. One fully cooked chicken can feed a family of four three times a week.”
What to do first: “After you get home from the supermarket and you’ve put all your groceries away, dismantle your chicken. Hand shred your chicken. You can use a knife if you wanna be fancy, but cut the chicken into small pieces, about the size of a quarter. Some pieces can be even smaller, depending on your slicing techniques. Cut off the wings and the legs for whomever in the family drools for those favorites.”
Next step: Separate the shredded chicken into three different Tupperware containers for your three meals this week. A fourth one can hold the extra parts.
First meal: Chicken and rice.
Ingredients: one container of shredded chicken, one 13 ounce package of frozen peas, two packages of Uncle Ben’s Roasted Chicken Flavor Ready Rice.
Preparation: Microwave the frozen peas; set half aside for another meal. Spray a non-stick pan with Pam. Lightly brown the chicken for about three minutes. Add the rice, and peas. Stir until combined, and serve.
Second meal: Chicken broccoli macaroni & cheese
Ingredients: one container of shredded chicken, one package Kraft or Velveeta Macaroni & Cheese, one 10 ounce bag of frozen broccoli.
Preparation: microwave the broccoli for two-three minutes. Combine with the chicken. Add about 1 teaspoon of a favorite spice, such as rosemary or oregano, or simply salt and pepper, and set aside. Make the mac & cheese according to the package directions. Stir in the chicken and broccoli mix. Alternatively, add only the chicken, and serve the broccoli on the side.
Third meal: Salad with chicken
Ingredients: one container of shredded chicken, two bags of pre-washed salad mix (look for the kind that includes different types of ingredients, like Taylor Farms Mediterranean Crunch Chopped salad), your favorite dressing. If we can ever access salad bars again, you can craft an attractive salad there.
Preparation: place the salad in a bowl, top with the chicken, and toss. Add dressing or serve it on the side.
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With all that time saved, says Alma, “Girl, look at you, you’ve got time to take a bath!”
Alma is going to be a regular contributor to the newsletter, so keep an eye out for more meal plans from her. (I’m eager to hear what she does with salmon.)
A Couple Of Cookbooks To Know About
It’s been so difficult for authors who’ve launched cookbooks for the pandemics. Book tours were canceled, interviews had to be done remotely. And while many authors have come up with alternative promotion ideas, it’s a major challenge to get attention for a new book.
As an occasional feature at CulinaryWoman, I’m going to point you to cookbooks I’ve enjoyed and written about. I also recommend the Cookery By The Book podcast, hosted by Suzy Chase, to keep up on the latest books.
If there are cookbooks you’ve bought lately, or used and love, feel free to mention them. I’m happy to check them out.
My Korea, by Hooni Kim.
I was looking for a good Korean cookbook when an advance copy of My Korea arrived at my door. My Korea is more than a cookbook, it’s like a memoir with beautiful photographs and delicious recipes. Hooni, who as you may know is a Michelin star chef, told me that he’s only planning to write one cookbook, so he wanted this one to speak for his life and career. It took three different tries to hit on what he wanted to say. You can read my interview with him here.
American Tacos, by Jose Ralat
Like lots of us, I’ve eaten tacos most of my life. But I really got turned onto the many variations of tacos when I lived in Phoenix. Jose Ralat has the enviable job of taco editor at Texas Monthly. He’s traveled all over the U.S., studying how tacos have evolved. His book is divided into categories, and there’s literally a taco for every taste. You can read my story on his book here.
CulinaryWoman Of The Week
Each week in this newsletter, I want to honor some of the women in the culinary world who’ve inspired me. The first person is Dorie Greenspan. I call her my culinary fairy godmother.
Dorie and I met last decade, by email. When I was at the Times, I wrote her a message to compliment her on an article in the paper, and she wrote back, expressing admiration for my work. (I blush to mention it.)
Over the years, we became fast friends entirely over email, although we had many mutual friends. I’ve bought multiple copies of her books for presents; she sent me personalized book plates. Dorie supported Curbing Cars and my other journalism ventures, and has always provided advice when I needed some.
Once we finally met in person, we chatted for hours and every time we are together, whether in New York, or Ann Arbor, we pick up where we left off. I’m hoping someday I’ll be in Paris at the same time she’s visiting her flat there.
Dorie has now become a culinary icon, a social media star and has admirers of all ages. She’s one of the smartest people I know, and also the kindest. I love the fact that when you visit Julia Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian, Dorie’s phone number is on Julia’s speed dial.
I never got to meet Julia, so I feel like Dorie is my link to her. The photo above, from Dorie’s Instagram account, shows them together in 1999. It was taken by Daniel Boulud.
May you all have a friend like Dorie — I would not be here without her encouragement. Meri, chere Dorie!
What I’m Up To
Each week, I plan to keep you up to speed on my writing and other projects.
Most recently at The Takeout, I wrote about my affection for my French rolling pin — something that’s shared by Dorie. I discovered it when I took a cooking class with Patricia Wells (more about her soon). But, I never understood how much I relied on it until I went to the King Arthur Flour baking school in Norwich, Vermont, to make sticky buns.
Meanwhile, I’ve started work on my book about Zingerman’s (some of you have signed up for this newsletter through an invitation from Ari Weinzweig, thank you, Ari!) It’s going to be published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in fall 2021 or early 2022, in time for Zingerman’s 40th anniversary in March, 2022. Zingerman’s is doing some pretty innovative things to manage its business during COVID-19, which has been so tough on the entire industry. I’ll have lots to write about.
Send me feedback and ideas!
Are there some culinary world people you’d like me to talk with, or are you spotting trends I should know about? I’d love to hear directly from you. You can reply to this newsletter, or you can email me privately at mamayn@aol.com.
Follow CulinaryWoman on Twitter @culinarywoman. I’m also @michelinemaynard on Instagram. If you let me know you’re a newsletter subscriber, I’ll be happy to follow you back.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to share this newsletter. Have a great holiday week, and see you next Sunday!