A moment with ... Marian Burros, food writer/author

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

Marian Burros is never out of reach of her editor. This veteran New York Times food writer/columnist and author of 13 cookbooks was in Seattle last week to promote her latest book, "Cooking for Comfort" (Simon & Schuster, 209 pages, $24), when she got a call and an assignment: to interview Mario Batali's father. We know him as Armandino Batali, the owner of Salumi in Pioneer Square. Burros now knows him as the man who won't quit serving her wonderful salami and other cured meats -- Italian comfort food, perhaps? Burros noticed that 9/11 kicked off a surge in comfort food's popularity. She started digging in her files and her friends' files for comforting recipes, and a book was born.

On comfort food: Comfort food has never gone away, so it's crazy to say that it's coming back. I've gotten pretty disgusted with architectural food, with 42 ingredients. Instead of sitting and eating, you're doing this intellectual exercise picking it apart.


	Burros

On what makes comfort food comforting: Whether it's the physiology of the carbs comforting you or the psychological reminder of your mother's kitchen and a time when somebody else was taking care of you, food is comforting. The actual process of cooking is comforting, too. You start with these seven ingredients and through alchemy you get this result that's better than the individual ingredients.

On mothers and cooking: I feel so sorry for the generation of people whose mothers didn't cook. For me, it turned out to be hugely significant that my mother cooked. I was making recipes for the book and I went back to look at (my mom's) recipes in this box, hidden high up on a shelf. A lot of them were in my mother's hand. (Seeing that) was an enormous impact.

On writing for The New York Times: It's not what you think. Their standards are so high and you're always learning something new and always trying to be on the cutting edge. (Writing a cookbook) is a vacation. You don't coast at The New York Times.

-- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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