by Sam Tackeff | Dec 20, 2012 | Lunch
This weekend I started finally unpacking boxes, and putting cookbooks up on the shelves. At some point I’ll have to find a place for this bookshelf that isn’t hit by the sun, but fortunately, the winter light at this latitude doesn’t pose much of a bleaching risk. I still need to organize the books, but it’s a relief having them in plain sight. I’m debating arranging them by genre, color, size or by publisher. Ideas?
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Last week was a very long week. It qualified as a ‘Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week’, culminating with the terrifying news of kids getting slaughtered. I’m angry, devastated, and there are no words appropriate in this situation. It took me a week to post this because there was so much to process and I was hoping to say something meaningful, but indeed the words still haven’t come, and I’m not sure they ever will. My own experiences this week seem trivial, but I wrote them out to let go of some of the stress, so here they are:
We officially announced that we are closing down Tasted Menu, the startup I’ve been working at since moving home to New England. It’s painful to let something go that you care deeply about, nurtured, and put so much of yourself into. I’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness of friends (and even strangers) expressing their sadness and support.
I’ve been interviewing, trying to find my next new project, the next thing that will have me thrilled to wake up each morning and go into work. It’s simultaneously exciting and draining. There are so many formidable people out there doing exciting things.
We are reaching the end of Startup School, and I had to pitch myself in front of a few hundred people. Admittedly I’m not afraid of getting up in front of a crowd, but after six weeks of massive daily input my nerves were fried. And pitching yourself is much more difficult than pitching a product, giving a talk, or making an announcement – but I think it went well.
Coupled with a few unrelated issues including my car’s starter being “finicky”, and some massively bad luck with several external hard drives, this was certainly a week that tested me – but the reality is, there is so much that I am grateful for, and I’m truly lucky for the life and opportunities I have.
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When we first moved to San Francisco, Wednesday evenings were my dinners alone, the nights when I’d eat “girl food”, load up on leafy greens, and eat through the odds and ends in the kitchen. While I’m not particularly fussy about what goes into these meals, the goal is always to find some sort of balance, and get a nice mix of salty, bitter, sweet and savory. It’s my favorite way to nourish myself after a week of stress or poor food choices.
Yesterday I put together one of those meals for lunch. Into the frying pan went a huge handful of parsley that had been sitting in the back of the fridge neglected and semi-frozen, some leftover cooked red cabbage, and a scoop of Italian Salsa Verde, with capers, anchovies, and olive oil.
At the last minute, I heated up the last bit of roasted carrots, and added them to the bowl, and topped it all with a few eggs. Another one of those odd meals that I find comforting and satisfying.
Before I leave you, here’s some afternoon light coming in. For those of you prone to worry, I urge you to grab a camera and search for some light. Cheers me up every time.
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 8, 2012 | Blogging, Books, Writing
Last month I got to visit the gorgeous offices of Harvard Common Press not once, but twice, and let me tell you – I’m about ready to move in there.
The second trip was with Boston Brunchers, founded by the multi-talented Renee Hirschberg. Renee works full time, is getting her masters, blogs several times a week, and runs a real life community whisking lucky bloggers to brunch several times a month in the Boston area.
This time she managed to swing a doozy – brunch for 40 at Harvard Common Press, complete with a question and answer session about publishing a cookbook with HCP’s associate publisher and digital media director Adam Salomone, owner Bruce Shaw, and marketing director Nancy Grant Mahoney (who’s name was too long for her Twitter handle, and got cut off – perhaps fortuitously? – to “Mahon”, a delightful cheese).
Writing a cookbook can be a two year process (or more). Here were some of the details in a snapshot:
Finding your Publisher:
- Use Social Media to make friends with publishers: HCP has published authors they have gotten to know through Twitter!
- In thinking about your blog and brand, remember what you are passionate about.
- Engagement level: HCP will address many different aspects when evaluating a potential author. For bloggers, this includes writing, photography, voice, knowledge and interest, compete.com traffic, blog comments, twitter and facebook usage.
Process: so you’ve made it! You’ve waded through and have a publisher. What can you expect next?
- Material Sources: It used to be that you could use 25% of previous blog recipes, now most publishers expect your cookbook to be 100% new material. (More work for you!)
- Editorial Process: At HCP, editorial director Dan Rosenberg helps authors come up with a work plan, the developmental stage that helps you assess what needs to be in your cookbook.
- Writing the manuscript: This can take 9-12 months, and realistically if you are a blogger, this means a lot less time eating out, cooking for the blog, and blogging in general.
- Editors: You’ll likely have a robust back and forth with your editors. You’ll bang your head, panic, go a little crazy. This is good.
Ultimately, you, the editor and the publishers have the same goal in mind – to make your cookbook the best book it can be.
Once published (or almost published): Publishing houses used to have in-house marketing and do everything to pub and market a book. Now, authors can work closely with the publisher to promote the book. Bloggers have a built in market, and HCP works with the author with a wide variety of social media tools including tweet tours, blog tours (where the author may guest post on 10 or more different blogs), and in person tours.
(If you write a book, you can give a talk at Omnivore! Just make sure you ask Celia to provide some wine!)
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One more note, from me. If you want to write a cookbook, but aren’t ready to take the plunge, consider working for a published cookbook author on their next book. You will wash a lot of dishes, learn an enormous amount about the process, and be well–prepared when you eventually decide to write your own.
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Bruce Shaw, owner of Harvard Common Press, on Bloggers: “You are technically our competitors, but you are also our life blood here!”
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And some photos of the office:
A big thank you to the kind folks at Harvard Common Press for letting me snoop around!
Harvard Common Press
HCP Dishes Blog:
HCP Blog Eats (new in the blog world): http://www.blogeats.com/
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 19, 2010 | Books, Challenge
There is nothing quite like a little forced introspection to make you sit down and realize that you’ve had one of the most jam-packed years of your life. (Literally, lots of jam.) In this case, a competition — Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog is the name of the game. Their first challenge requires me to define why I should be the Next Food Blog Star. Perhaps I should start be re-introducing myself to them, and to you.
I’m Samantha. And I love food.
Two years ago I needed a change of scenery and decided to move three thousand miles from the comfort of New Hampshire to bustling San Francisco. To be honest, this decision was probably made years earlier when I first watched the film Mrs. Doubtfire. Few things live up to the wide eyed optimism of a seven year old, but San Francisco held up its end of the bargain. I love it here.
Continuing with the spirit of reinventing myself, I started a food blog upon my arrival.
Little did I know where it would lead me. Shortly after joining Foodbuzz, I participated in Foodbuzz 24,24,24 and got an amazing dream meal at chef Chris Cosentino’s Incanto. This connected me to an internship at a Food P.R. firm. I started working with chefs and restaurants on recipe organization, development and testing, and fell in love with all the hard work behind creating a dining experience. Okay, truthfully this love started when I became a stagiere in a local restaurant at the age of 12.
Somewhere along the line I also became the research assistant and recipe tester on a cookbook by “Jam it, Pickle it, Cure it” author Karen Solomon (see, lots of jam). I became involved (re: obsessed) with Omnivore Books on Food, and eventually ended up pretty much moving in, thanks to Celia Sack offering me a mercy job. All the while, I took control of my own health, got back into shape, and I went back to school at Integrative Nutrition to become a Health Coach and help others do the same.
And for the sake of full disclosure, I should confess the number of cookbooks I own now well exceeds the bookshelves I own to store them.
Why do I blog you may ask?
Ultimately, it comes down to the people I get to meet and be truly inspired by. For me, food blogging is not just about the chow, but integrally about those who are a part of it. I realized early on I wanted to share their stories with you. And in many ways, that’s what The Second Lunch has become.
In the past year, I’ve met so many wonderful chefs and insiders of the industry — I truly feel blessed for where my passion for food has led me. For this post, I decided to make a list of some of the folks I’d met, thinking that I’d get a good paragraph out of it. I did not expect this brick wall of superstars. This shocks me every time I glance down at it.
The short list includes: the wonderful folks from Big Sur Bakery, Polly Adema, Arthur Allen, Nate Appleman, Rose Levy Beranbaum, Ed Behr, Amy Besa, John Besh, Carole Bloom, Mark Bittman, Kim Boyce, Bruce & Eric Bromberg, Frank Bruni, Novella Carpenter, Mark Stewart Cassidy, David Chang, Nan Chase, Anita Chu, Andrew Coe, Langdon Cook, Chris Cosentino, Temra Costa, Elizabeth Crawford, Dave Cruz, Tod Davies, Penny De Los Santos,Tracy Des Jardins, Elan Drucker and Brett Emerson, Tara Duggan, Gordon Edgar, Elizabeth Falkner, Sarah Max Feldner, Jeremy Fox, Zoe Francois & Dr. Jeff Hertzberg, Fran Gage, Marcia Gagliardi, Anna Getty, Barbara Ghazarian, Darra Goldstein, Evan Goldstein, Joyce Goldstein, William Grimes, Giuliano Hazan, Dierdre Heeken and Caleb Barber, Jaden Hair, Pauli Halstead, Gerald Hirigoyen, Fergus Henderson, Lauren Hoover, Dianne Jacob, Madhur Jaffrey, Michael Kalanty, Niloufer Ichaporia King, Thomas Keller, Shelly Lindgren, David Lebovitz, Matt Lewis & Renato Poliafito of Baked, Barbara Lynch, Kermit Lynch, Deborah Madison, Jacqueline Mallorca, Harold McGee, Nancy Mehagian, Dr. Daphne Miller, Kate Moses, Marion Nestle, Cynthia Nims, Andrea Nguyen, Barbara Passino, Greg Patent, Cindy Pawlcyn, Georgia Pellegrini, James Peterson, Gayle Pirie, Michael Pollan, Michael Recchiuti, Peter Reinhart, John Relihan, Sara Remington, Tori Ritchie, Chad Robertson & Liz Pruitt, Lorna Sass, Rachel Saunders, Jennie Schacht, Lisa Schwartz, Kim Severson, Andrew Smith, Karen Solomon, Andrew Swallow, Heidi Swanson, Michael Symon, David Tanis, Pim Techamuanvivit, Corinne Trang, Patricia Unterman, Alice Waters, Max Watman, Tara Austen Weaver, Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, Ari Weinzweig, Joanne Weir, Laura Werlin, Kathy Wiley, Victoria Wise, Molly Wizenberg, Paula Wolfert, Scott Youkilis, Grace Young, and Jane Ziegelman – Not to mention the hundreds of other food lovers that I’ve had the pleasure to meet over the past two years. (They would fill another post in itself). And I already know I’m forgetting some wonderful people on this list.
And that’s only in the past year. In the next month I’m going to add Rene Redzepi, Tyler Florence, Michael Chiarello, Dorie Greenspan, Jordan McKay, and Diana Kennedy to that list. And who knows who else?
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Just incase you need another reason to push me onto the next round, here are several awkward and embarrassing photos from my childhood revolving around food. From top left: The taste tester, baking cookies with Sarah and Sara, hugging the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut, and picking apples from a tree.
Mostly though, I blog because I love it here. I love being part of a greater community who cares just as much as I do, and doesn’t bat an eye when I whip out a camera at dinner and debate the origin of our meal with my dining companions, purchase another cookbook I don’t have space for because I don’t want to deprive myself of knowledge, wait an hour in line for crispy pork skin because well, it’s crispy pork skin, or wade through thousands of hungry hippies at the farmers market for the perfect summer peach.
Yes, my name is Samantha and I love food.
But equally, I love everything that surrounds it.
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 3, 2010 | Books, Indian, Pantry Staples
For the past few weeks I’ve been cooking up an South Asian storm. I love the flavors and spices in all types of South Asian food – and use many traditional ingredients in my everyday cooking – a lot of ginger, turmeric, cumin, and coconut milk to name a few.
I just wrote my first review up at The Good Taste Review for Ruta Kahate’s book ‘5 Spices, 50 Dishes’. Head on over and let me know what you think!
I didn’t want to leave you all hanging, so this chickpea recipe is one of my favorites that I tried from the book. I love chickpeas in any permutation, but this recipe was particularly fresh and light. It could either make a nice side dish, or a good vegetarian meal if served over rice. When I first made it, I ate it as my dinner, and was quite satisfied. Although the recipe called for canned chickpeas, I made this with Rancho Gordo chickpeas that I had soaked overnight and cooked.
Chickpea Curry with Fresh Dill Leaves
from ‘5 Spices, 50 Dishes’, page 42
Serves 4
This recipe traditionally uses a split and skinned Indian chickpea called chana dal, but I’ve found that canned chickpeas work just as well – which makes it possible to create this dish in minutes. The other interesting thing is that it uses dill leaves in the typical Indian style – as a vegetable, rather than as an herb. Serve with Marathi Yellow Fried Rice (page 103), and Roasted Onion Raita (page 98) for a hearty vegetarian meal.
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2 tablespoons canola oil
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1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
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1 teaspoon cayenne (or less)
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1 teaspoon coriander seeds, finely ground
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1 teaspoon finely grated garlic (about 2 large cloves)
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1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger (about 2-inch piece)
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1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
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1 medium tomato, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
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3 cups finely chopped dill leaves and tender stalks (about 2 bunches)
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One 15.5 ounce can low-sodium chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
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1/4 cup water
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1 teaspoon salt
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and sauté the onion over medium heat until it has softened, about 5 minutes. Add the cayenne, coriander, garlic, ginger, and turmeric and stir for 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the tomato and cook until it is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the dill, chickpeas, water, and salt, and simmer until the dill is soft and tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Serve warm.
