An Interview with Faith Durand
May 29, 2013 by Lindsay
We recently chatted with Faith Durand. Durand, the executive editor of the Kitchn, is not only a blogger extraordinaire (over 11,000 posted), but the author of a recent cookbook, Bakeless Sweets: Pudding, Panna Cotta, Fluff, Icebox Cake, and More No-Bake Desserts. She discussed the motivation and purpose behind the cookbook, as well as the difference between writing a blog and a cookbook.
(And she’s also offering three copies to EYB members – just post
a comment below by June 7 describing your favorite no-bake dessert.
Make sure you are signed-in so we can contact you.)
“When I tell people I just wrote a cookbook with 150 recipes for
pudding and other no-bake desserts (B), their eyes go wide. “What
did you DO with all that pudding?” they exclaim. Then come the
consoling noises about the prolonged sugar coma I must have
endured. Yes, my refrigerator was consistently studded with bowls
of pudding this past year (not to mention Deepest
Chocolate Mousse, and Salted
Caramel Risotto, and
Yogurt Pudding Squares with Raspberry, and Lemon
Icebox Cake…), but far from this being a hardship, I felt like
the luckiest cookbook developer in the world. Pudding is one of the
great desserts, and it deserved its own book.
Pudding, to me, is one of the most deeply luxurious desserts, made
to be slowly licked off a spoon, swirls of butterscotch or coconut
cream pudding in a pretty bowl. I grew up with homemade custards
and chocolate pudding, and as I fell in love with cooking, I found
some of my favorite authors shared a nostalgic love for this homey,
often British-inspired dessert. Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking and More Home Cooking frequently
celebrate the simplest pleasures, like the slow-cooked lemon rice
pudding made of just four ingredients, or the deeply awesome coffee
fluff – a blend of coffee jelly and whipped cream. She
introduced me to Jane Grigson, whose
honeycombed lemon jelly beats Jell-O to a pulp with its fresh lemon
sweetness. Trifles, custards, jellies, no-bake cookies and the
homey American icebox cake – these are all the desserts that are
special and delicious (a strawberry icebox
cake recipe at The Kitchn has been viewed over a
million times; people love these!).
It’s very rare to find a space in the cookbook world that is
not comfortably covered a dozen times over by other authors. But
the cookbook that celebrated the art of pudding and other no-bake
desserts was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t believe my luck; these
are the desserts I love the most, and that bring the most pleasure
when I make them, so the opportunity to write this book, Bakeless
Sweets, felt like the biggest treat in the world.
It’s different from nearly every dessert book out there right now,
and while I adore my well-read shelf of baking books, I wanted this
pudding book to stand beside it.
Writing a book, however, is very different from
writing for the web – which is what I do every day. In my day
job, as executive editor of The Kitchn, I
write and edit for home cooks (over the past 6 years I’ve written
over 11,000 blog posts). The feedback loop is immediate: I can have
an idea, write it up, and hear from a reader five minutes later
that it really could use some improvement!
Cookbooks have a different cycle, obviously. The
website is a work in progress; it’s easy to change and update as
time goes by, and we’re always working to make our recipes, tips,
and cooking lessons even better. With a book, however, eventually
you get to a point where it’s all set firmly and irrevocably in ink
on paper. But I love the way that readers talk back to us
about our recipes at The Kitchn, and bring their own
stories into the mix. I wanted that for this book, even in a small
way, so I asked some food writer friends to share their own stories
about puddings and some tips for their favorite no-bake desserts.
Dorie Greenspan told me what she loves
most about creme brûlée; Monica Bhide describes
what makes a really good kheer; Nancie McDermott instructed me in the
classic Southern banana puddin’. I felt I drew a little of the blog
world into the book, with many voices adding their
experience.
And of course every cookbook, in some way, offers many voices, each recipe rising up out of many kitchens. The butterscotch pudding in Bakeless Sweets, while tested and tweaked in my own kitchen, is very close to the butterscotch pudding, thick and creamy, that has been delighting people for hundreds of years. I’m just the latest voice in the chain of cooks, and I hope that more carry on with their bowls of pudding, their tiramisu, their summery panna cotta, because of Bakeless Sweets and the voices inside.”
As mentioned above, we have three copies of Bakeless Sweets to give away – just post a comment below by June 7 describing your favorite bakeless dessert. Make sure you are signed-in so we can contact you if you win.
This contest is now closed. Using a random number generator, our lucky winners are ellabee, dbielick and rivergait.
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