“The Thoughtful Influencer” Transcript

Molly Yeh: Hi, I'm Molly Yeh. And you're listening to Radio Cherry Bombe. You're the bombe.

Kerry Diamond: Hi, Bombesquad. You're listening to Radio Cherry Bombe where we celebrate those women cooking up a storm, kicking down doors, and making the food world a better place. We're also the number one female-focused food podcast in the universe. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. Let's thank today's sponsors, Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Schools, and Emmi, the makers of beautiful cheese from Switzerland.

Kerry Diamond: Happy birthday to the Cherry Bombe cookbook. Our baby turned two on October 10th. This might be an obvious statement, but I love our cookbook. I get so happy every time I see that pink cover. If you already owned the book, thank you. If you don't, pick up a copy from your favorite indie bookstore, or head to cherrybombe.com for a signed copy. I will personally personalize it. That sounds redundant. But hey, I'll be there with my Sharpie waiting.

Kerry Diamond: The Radio Cherry Bombe Food for Thought Tour is headed to Kansas City, Missouri on November 4th. We'll be hanging out at Corvino with the local Bombesquad. Tickets are available at cherrybombe.com. Thank you to Kerrygold for supporting our tour, and thank you to everyone who came to our Houston stop at Nancy's Hustle. I loved meeting the H-Town Bombesquad.

Kerry Diamond: Let's talk about today's guest, Aran Goyoaga. She is a photographer, blogger, mother, pastry chef, and warm, wonderful human. She's also the author of the brand new cookbook Cannelle et Vanille. Aran will be joining us at Jubilee Seattle on November 2nd. She'll be interviewing Alison Roman for one of the keynote conversations, and I cannot wait. Jubilee is sold out, but keep an eye on our Instagram for some other cool events we're hosting in the city that weekend.

Kerry Diamond: Before we hear from Aran, let's hear a word from Emmi cheese from Switzerland. Hey, Bombesquad. Let's talk about Emmi cheese from Switzerland. Emmi's beautiful variety of cheeses are crafted from the freshest milk from local Swiss farms. One of our favorites is Emmi Le Gruyère AOP with notes of candied walnuts, spice, and dried fruit. Emmi's Le Gruyère AOP is perfect for snacking.

Kerry Diamond: And if you want to get more creative, you can do what chef Elizabeth Falkner does and make an apple and le Gruyère crumble. This perfect fall recipe is fragrant with nutmeg and cinnamon. And the apple and Gruyère are perfect companions. Make it next level by melting some Emmi raclette on top. Looking for something more savory, how about this special recipe from chef Elizabeth, French onion soup pizza with Emmi Gruyère AOP, fresh thyme and mushrooms. You can find these recipes and more at emmiusa.com, and you can find Emmi's delicious cheeses, Switzerland, the ones with the distinctive blue and red logo at your favorite grocery store or cheesemonger.

Kerry Diamond: And now my conversation with Aran Goyoaga. You've been blogging for so long, you're one of the-

Aran Goyoaga: The OGs.

Kerry Diamond: One of the OGs.

Aran Goyoaga: Not as OG as like Heidi Swanson, but I started in January of 2008. So I feel like, yeah, definitely before people were monetizing, or worried about who was reading, or nobody really had eyes on them necessarily.

Kerry Diamond: It's funny to know who we think the OGs are, and who they think the OGs are. So Heidi Swanson. Okay, shout out to Heidi.

Aran Goyoaga: Heidi Swanson. Yes.

Kerry Diamond: I haven't seen Heidi in awhile.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah, she's amazing.

Kerry Diamond: She's great. We are so excited you're here. Welcome to New York.

Aran Goyoaga: Thank you for having me.

Kerry Diamond: Are you having a good time?

Aran Goyoaga: I always love coming to New York. From kind of sleepy Seattle, it's a nice pace.

Kerry Diamond: It's so funny. When we go to Seattle, I do not think of it as sleepy because there are so many people now who we love in Seattle-

Aran Goyoaga: Of course, of course.

Kerry Diamond: ... and we have to get to all their restaurants.

Aran Goyoaga: But why know the West Coast is, there's space, and just trees, and it just feels open.

Kerry Diamond: Seattle's great. The air, I feel like the air is so much nicer in Seattle. It's chill. The food is beautiful. You guys got it good out there.

Aran Goyoaga: I think so. That's why I'm there.

Kerry Diamond: All the fruit trees. There are fruit trees everywhere.

Aran Goyoaga: Everywhere.

Kerry Diamond: You just walk down a sidewalk, and there are fruit trees just dropping fruit.

Aran Goyoaga: And some of the neighborhoods actually put nets around the trees so the neighbors can collect them so they don't go to waste. And there's actually an organization that it's, I think a nonprofit, that goes around the city, and you just tell them, "Okay, I have this tree. I don't have time to pick the fruit." And they come and pick it for you, and then they distribute it.

Kerry Diamond: I think that's called gleaning. Someone did a story for us about, it's called gleaning. That there're all these trees, all these fruit bearing trees across the country where the fruit just goes bad because it falls to the ground. It's not harvested. And there are all these organizations out there that will go and collect the fruit and make sure it's distributed to food shelters, or places where people will actually put it to good use. But I saw plums and quince, and oh my God, so many beautiful-

Aran Goyoaga: Apples and pears right now everywhere. I feel like it's a really conscientious city, and very environmental obviously.

Kerry Diamond: When you say conscientious to tell us more what you mean by that.

Aran Goyoaga: I'm talking specifically about food, ultimately also social issues, which are, social justice issues are really important to me. But with food about sourcing, which everybody talks about this now, but Seattle was one of the first cities that I ever knew where the city was composting, or every Sunday there's a farmer's market. And it's not just a wholesale farmer's market where the farmers go. Kind of like what you have here in New York, but not at other places that I've lived in the US had that. And so people really put money where their ideas are, and I really respect that, and I feel at home there.

Kerry Diamond: Tell us the journey from Spain to Seattle.

Aran Goyoaga: So I grew up in Bilbao which is the Basque country in Spain.

Kerry Diamond: With the famous museum there.

Aran Goyoaga: Yes. And actually my father worked on that museum. So I have kind of like an emotional connection to it. But I grew up there. I went to school. I went to school for business. And then right after I finished university, I moved to the US. I had an American boyfriend who's now my husband. And we lived in various places. We lived in Denver, and in Florida for 11 years.

Kerry Diamond: You lived in Florida-

Aran Goyoaga: I did.

Kerry Diamond: ... for 11 years? My gosh, I had no idea. What part of Florida?

Aran Goyoaga: West Palm beach.

Kerry Diamond: Wow.

Aran Goyoaga: So I started my blog. I went to culinary school in Florida. I was a pastry chef in Florida.

Kerry Diamond: This whole side, I had no idea. Okay.

Aran Goyoaga: You probably wouldn't picture me in Florida.

Kerry Diamond: No. My dad's in Palm beach. Yeah.

Aran Goyoaga: Oh, okay.

Kerry Diamond: I would not picture you down there.

Aran Goyoaga: So I was in Jupiter, if you know where that is. And my husband had a business and he sold it, and we were free to go wherever we wanted. And we thought, away from Florida. Sorry, Floridians. So we picked Seattle, and I'd been in Oregon as a teenager as an exchange student when I was 14 and 15. And I always loved it. I loved Portland. I was always a music fan. So of course Seattle was kind of like a reference point.

Aran Goyoaga: And then I had friends through blogging there. And my husband is from Northern California, so it just suit what we were looking for. And as soon as we arrived, everything kind of fell into place. We found a place to live. I found a studio. My kids made friends. So it just became a thing very quickly. So I feel like I'm from there now.

Kerry Diamond: That's amazing. So when you got there, what was the plan? Were you going to continue-

Aran Goyoaga: So by then I was already blogging, and I already had my first cookbook.

Kerry Diamond: Oh, by the time you moved to Seattle.

Aran Goyoaga: So I've been there six years, and my first book came out in 2012. Obviously I'm a freelancer. So I can work from anywhere. My husband didn't have a job.

Kerry Diamond: But you weren't broke because he had sold his company.

Aran Goyoaga: We had a little, like a tiny, tiny. I don't want it to seem like, Oh, we were just like going from-

Kerry Diamond: Bill Gates.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. No, no, no. We just had a little bit of money to maybe last six months without him having a job. So we found this house, he was kind of renovating it, and I was working freelance work. Just like I kind of continued doing the blogging. Any editorial work that was coming my way. I did a few shoots for Cherry Bombe.

Kerry Diamond: You did. Beautiful stories.

Aran Goyoaga: And so we kind of got settled, and that eventually, he found a job. So we're definitely grounded, and Seattle is our home.

Kerry Diamond: You do so many things well.

Aran Goyoaga: Thank you.

Kerry Diamond: You write beautifully, you take beautiful photographs. You are also a recipe developer, and a blogger, and all these things. When did you put it all together that, oh, I could turn this into something professional?

Aran Goyoaga: Oh my goodness. That took a long time. I think when my first book came out, I felt, okay, I got paid for this, so I must be doing something. But I felt, and this is very common, I think you probably hear this a lot, but I felt like an imposter for many years. I knew I was good at cooking and a professional pastry chef, and I had been that for many years. And I come from a family of pastry chefs. But the photography aspect and the writing came after.

Aran Goyoaga: And because I'm also European, I think I don't have the American... Sometimes I'm very jealous of Americans who can easily say, "This is mine. I made this mine. It's my thing." And sometimes I think it's just false modesty. I don't know. I struggle with that a little bit. Why can I just own what I do, and and say, "Yes, I do all these things." But anyway, not to bring it down, but it took me a long time. I would say I started blogging in 2008, and probably 2013 or so, I felt like, okay, I have some skills.

Kerry Diamond: For folks who are out there who, they're blogging, they're recipe developing, they're doing all those different things who are like, how do I make this a living? What advice do you have for them?

Aran Goyoaga: Oh, it's so hard. I think I actually cannot make a living only from the editorial side of things. So from cookbooks or blogging. For me. I'm speaking of my circumstance. I know a lot of people that participate in advertising through blogging, and they can make revenue. But for me, my income that sustains me comes from all the commercial jobs I do.

Aran Goyoaga: So clients, commercial clients, that it's not necessarily my vision, and I'm just an executer of what they have to say. And I don't maybe talk about that side of my work so much because on my Instagram or my blog is usually my ideas that I share. But definitely financially, and that's another aspect, how to maintain financial freedom and all of that is really important to me. But I juggle between these two sides.

Kerry Diamond: And you're also a mom.

Aran Goyoaga: I am a mom.

Kerry Diamond: We've had some people reach out to us just asking for us to ask more mom questions.

Aran Goyoaga: Oh yes.

Kerry Diamond: And how do moms in the food world do it? So we met your lovely young daughter, and she was at work with you.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. So I have two kids, and I quit my pastry job because it didn't pay enough to pay for childcare. So I think now, and I didn't have any role models for women chefs that had both things. And I think if you own your own business it's possible because it gives you flexibility. But when you're working for someone else it's very difficult because wages are just so low. And well, I've been out of it for 13 years, but back then definitely I couldn't. I couldn't.

Kerry Diamond: Well it hasn't changed. And there's still not much in the way of childcare. So you've got these two great kids. How do you do it?

Aran Goyoaga: So currently, they're 13 and 10. Right now I have childcare one day a week. And then I have another mom who picks up for me if I have a shoot that day, or anything I need. And then my husband has some flexibility. And then my oldest son, he's 13. So he can actually walk home. But when they were little it was very difficult. And I worked from home a lot when I was writing my first cookbook. I worked from home. I had childcare three times a week. My parents flew from Spain and stayed with us three months.

Kerry Diamond: Wow.

Aran Goyoaga: I don't come from money, and I actually always wonder how do people do that? Because it is so expensive, and I want to know the financial behind all the things. And I don't come from money. I don't make a lot of money. And I say no to a lot of things that I sometimes want to take. So it is...

Kerry Diamond: Because?

Aran Goyoaga: Because my children at are an age that I feel like physically they can do a lot for themselves, but emotionally they need some more presence. And they don't have grandparents around, or other family members. So it's just me and my husband. And I struggle with guilt of not giving them sometimes what they want. Which I do, I mean, I give them so much. Mom guilt is real, financial strain is real, and this country needs to really support families. Not just saying things, but actually putting policies in place.

Kerry Diamond: Absolutely.

Aran Goyoaga: And a lot of it is financial structure. Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Yeah. And you also have a job where it's not like you can say, okay no problem, I'll do this later. It's dependent on is the light good? Is the 20 minutes that this thing took to bake done. You can't just be like, "Oh I can leave that in the oven. It'll be fine." It won't be.

Aran Goyoaga: But I do have a studio, and I have to say it allows me to separate a little bit from home or the kids, or it gives me a little bit of structure and separation because my job is very sort of like, oh I'm cooking, so it's just like the boundaries are a little blurry. But having a physical space where I can go to is good. And I can bring my kids there. My son can be home by himself now, and he can actually babysit my daughter for a bit. And she comes with me, and there's a lot of times that she comes with me.

Kerry Diamond: Have they shown any interest in what you do professionally?

Aran Goyoaga: It's funny, my son is always looking at my Instagram stories, and he kind of follows along what I'm doing, but he doesn't really participate. They like cooking, but I wouldn't say, oh my kids love cooking. Yeah. So I don't know where it's all going to go for them, or what they think.

Kerry Diamond: You've a pretty big following on Instagram. Do you have any advice for folks building their own accounts?

Aran Goyoaga: I'm also conflicted about this. Because I mean I was lucky that I started early on, so I just got noticed easier because there weren't so many other accounts to look at. I've lost following. So that's the truth. It's normal because we are bombarded by content, and with content all the time. So I think it's okay to actually reach... I love organic growth and sustainable growth. So I'm okay with the people that are not going to really want to see it, I don't want them to suffer by looking at it like, oh my God.

Kerry Diamond: We have that debate in the office a lot because we have done absolutely zero to juice our numbers. And I'm always like, "I'd want people to follow us because they want to follow us."

Aran Goyoaga: Yes. And to find you, and that they are excited. So I think my advice truly, even if this sounds so vague is to really do whatever are eventually seeing yourself doing, put that work out every day, and that's what I try to do. That doesn't mean I don't sometimes doubt myself, or think, oh, should I post this or that?

Kerry Diamond: You talked a lot about this veneer of perfection and how social media contributes to that.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. And I think that perfection is still currently exist, but I think people are talking more and more about truth, about full disclosure of how... like the questions that you were asking me. I want to know how people make it happen. How financially, whether it's family structure, the support system, do they have a team? Those are the questions that interests me. Because I don't really care what it looks like. I want to know how it's built. That's where I'm going to... because I have my own vision for what I'm creating, but it's like how the business aspect is not... it doesn't come so easy to me. So how can I build my business in a way that it's sustainable, that I don't burn out.

Kerry Diamond: Do you do sponsored posts?

Aran Goyoaga: Occasionally. Yeah. And it has to be things that really I feel like I can make it work. And it resonates in some way. But I don't have an agent for it. It's not things that I seek out. Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Have you ever once called yourself an influencer?

Aran Goyoaga: No.

Kerry Diamond: You had to think about it.

Aran Goyoaga: No, no. I was going to say something. No. No. But again, it's because that word influencer now has a connotation, but I do want to influence people with my work. I do want to bring them to ideas to think about what they eat, how they shop, how they think of themselves. All those things are important to me. So maybe not influenced her in a paid sponsorship context, but definitely I want to influence those who have eyes on me.

Kerry Diamond: That is the most beautiful explanation I've ever heard of being an influencer.

Aran Goyoaga: Well, thank you.

Kerry Diamond: Yeah, we'll be right back after this quick break.

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Kerry Diamond: Back to my conversation with Aran. Let's talk about your gorgeous new cookbook. I'm sure you'll be influencing a lot of people to cook from it this fall. But I want to first talk about you being gluten free. So you started as a pastry chef. When did you find out you had aversion to gluten in some capacity?

Aran Goyoaga: I had a formal diagnosis in 2010. So I've been gluten free for over nine years now. When I think back, I always had symptoms as a kid. I was, probably too much information, but I was always constipated. I suffered depression, anxiety. I had anorexia. So many things. And I think food really aggravated all of that. And then I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease and Hashimoto's.

Kerry Diamond: I know Hashimoto's. What is Meniere's?

Aran Goyoaga: Meniere's disease is inner ear inflammation. So it gives you a vertigo, migraines, hearing loss. So I'm deaf in one ear right now. So all of that, it really was stabilized through diet. And I hate the word diet, but I mean, way of eating, and things that I was eating and not eating.

Kerry Diamond: When all this started to happen, where you still in Spain or were you in America?

Aran Goyoaga: No, I was here. Okay. I was in Florida, and I started vertigo attacks.

Kerry Diamond: Vertigo, for anyone who's never had vertigo, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Aran Goyoaga: It's horrible. Episodes that would last 12 hours. Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: I'm so sorry.

Aran Goyoaga: With vomiting.

Kerry Diamond: That's brutal.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. Too much information, but really difficult. My parents had to come and live with us for three months so they could take care of me, and home with the kids. But it really set me off on this, kind of redirected me. And the same path, but with another focus.

Aran Goyoaga: So it was taking something that I carried from my heritage, from my grandparents and my parents, and really give it something that was mine because I always was looking for that. I was looking for some sort of identity that was mine, separate from my family, but it's still like have a line through. So I felt very excited.

Aran Goyoaga: People ask me all the time like, "How did you feel? Was it difficult?" I was like, "No." In fact finding what it was that was contributing, it's not the only cause I have to say, but contributing to my illness, or my momentary disorder kind of-

Kerry Diamond: Did you have sympathetic doctors?

Aran Goyoaga: Well that's another conversation. But I did not.

Kerry Diamond: Because with Hashimoto's, we've talked to people before who have that, and sometimes doctors just make you think it's all in your mind.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah, and especially back then. So this is, Hashimoto's was first 13 years ago, 14 years ago. And nobody ever talked to me about stress management, nourishing foods, lifestyle. Nobody ever said anything. They just said take this. And I think doctors have come along-

Kerry Diamond: I don't know.

Aran Goyoaga: Really?

Kerry Diamond: I don't know. Well, certain doctors. I am still amazed when I go to primary care that they don't ever ask what you eat, ever.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. Or disregard. I've heard people tell me that their doctors say that gluten cannot be in it. Oh, don't worry about it. It's like, well really? It's so easy to look into it.

Kerry Diamond: From what I hear and read, yes, things are changing, and there are definitely more mindful practitioners out there. We've met a lot of them. But I don't know. I'm going to the wrong doctors. But so much of it is dictated by health insurance, which I'm lucky to have. Yeah. But sometimes-

Aran Goyoaga: That's another crazy thing in this country, the whole-

Kerry Diamond: It's a mess.

Aran Goyoaga: ... healthcare system. And that's a big undertaking.

Kerry Diamond: But you go to these places-

Aran Goyoaga: I can get really political.

Kerry Diamond: I know. And there are a hundred people in the waiting room, and the doctor's just going to do the bare minimum of what the doctor has to do to get you in and out, and see all those patients.

Aran Goyoaga: And it's all about codes.

Kerry Diamond: Yep.

Aran Goyoaga: They can't treat outside of those codes because it has to be specific testing. And I went through a lot of testing that I had to pay out of pocket.

Kerry Diamond: I can imagine.

Aran Goyoaga: So, yeah. Yeah. That's it.

Kerry Diamond: Oh my God. We'll save for the rest of that tangent for another day. But okay, so you did find doctors, you did start to put the pieces together yourself about stress and diet.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. I was really excited. I wanted to explore a different way of baking because gluten free cooking, it's fairly simple, right? But the thing that came from my family that I was doing as a profession, as a career that I loved was all around wheat and gluten. So to kind of final alternative ways to recreate, and make my things be really good on their own right. Not just say, "Oh, it's good for gluten free," but actually make them like sourdough bread, or puff pastry, or things that are really delicate and a little bit temperamental, I was really excited about. And I think I've captured that in this book. And I'm not one to really, you know me. It's not like I'm a seller of anything.

Kerry Diamond: You are so not.

Aran Goyoaga: But I'm really proud of it. I have to say.

Kerry Diamond: Well, you should be. Absolutely.

Aran Goyoaga: When I got it, my heart was pounding, and I was walking to my publisher's office. And my editor had left a copy there for me, and I was like, oh my gosh, what am I going to find? And I opened it and I was like ahhh. It was the biggest really... because I knew I spent so much time, but then how it all came together. The paper, the colors, like I just, yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Yeah, the color palette's beautiful. You match your color palette today by the way.

Aran Goyoaga: I do.

Kerry Diamond: Intentional or not. And even just the cover, I know it's always such a struggle trying to decide what food to put on the cover of a cookbook. But this is really so mouthwatering.

Aran Goyoaga: Oh, thank you.

Kerry Diamond: It's these beautiful roasted carrots. It's just gorgeous.

Aran Goyoaga: Can I give a shout out to Aliza Simons?

Kerry Diamond: No. Of course you can.

Aran Goyoaga: From Henry Street Studio.

Kerry Diamond: You can shout out your whole team. Tell us about the amazing team you worked with.

Aran Goyoaga: So first, my agent Judy Lindon from Stonesong. And then my editor Susan Roxborough, and then Aliza from Henry Street Studio who is a ceramist in Brooklyn that I love so much, and her ceramics are all over my book. And I feel like the carrots that you're talking about really come to life with her ceramics. And then Jen Utley who is a friend of mine, and she helped me kind of extract the story that I wanted to say with this book. Dorothy Brand who shot portraits of me. Jenn Elliot Blake who helped me with some styling setups. Yeah, and just friends that kind of let me crash their beautiful yards and let me take apples from their trees and all of that.

Kerry Diamond: For everybody who's a cookbook nerd, and I know that's a lot of you, even before you get to the recipes, there's so much about this book, like you're talking about even just the creaminess of the paper stock that you chose. It's startling almost because you're so used to a brighter, whiter paper stock, and yours is like, I mean it's almost the color of butter.

Aran Goyoaga: That was-

Kerry Diamond: Beautiful butter.

Aran Goyoaga: I love it. That was Anna Goldstein, who is the art director at Sasquatch, my publisher.

Kerry Diamond: Sasquatch does beautiful books.

Aran Goyoaga: Yes. Yeah. They did-

Kerry Diamond: They did Renee Erickson's-

Aran Goyoaga: ... Renee's book.

Kerry Diamond: ... which is so fabulous. So tell us how this is different for folks who have your first cookbook. How is this one different?

Aran Goyoaga: Definitely the photography is influenced by Seattle, and the first book was in Florida, so totally different lighting and mood. The first book was around seasons, and this one is through a day in my life. So it starts with the basics, building basics for your pantry, breakfast, midday, every day dinners, gatherings, and then desserts, and a section of baked bread. So things that you would make when you have time.

Aran Goyoaga: Sort of like meditative. I feel like baking, making bread, rolling dough is really meditative and there's a section just for that. And so it sort of goes through a day. And the introductions are really much about how I approach another day. And not trying to be too precious about it, but really why I do what I do, or how I think about things. How I think about mindfulness beyond just all the things that people talk about, but really like eliminating... I always say it's like take away anything, just take stock of what you have, be efficient with your food, be minimal, just sort of like disciplined without being too rigid. But I think that it's kind of the message that I wanted. I wanted to strip down the recipes of anything that wasn't necessary.

Kerry Diamond: Where is a good place for people to start? It's not always at the beginning with a cookbook.

Aran Goyoaga: I think they need to read my introduction. I have a little short mini series called A Cook's Remedy, and it's five episodes of video, and it's like five minutes each. It's a couple of years old. So sometimes I think about the stories that I wanted to tell then, I've kind of told them and I've moved on. But a lot of that essence lives in the four first pages. I think you can get kind of a, even though it's not a recipe, it gives you kind of how I come to it, and what my perspective is on own cooking, and cooking for yourself, and for other people. And I don't want it to be stereotypical. But I think why you do what you do is so important, not forgetting that. And I think the introduction, if you read the interaction, it'll be your introduction to the world of this book.

Kerry Diamond: Which recipe is the most you?

Aran Goyoaga: Well, I make the sourdough bread every day. So I make that every day. I don't even have to look at a recipe. It's in my head.

Kerry Diamond: Do you have your own starter?

Aran Goyoaga: I have my own starter. There's a recipe, how to get your own starter. And it's really simple.

Kerry Diamond: It's alive right now.

Aran Goyoaga: It's alive. It's in the refrigerator, and it's four years old.

Kerry Diamond: Really?

Aran Goyoaga: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Kerry Diamond: Did you name it?

Aran Goyoaga: It's called Mother. That's kind of boring, isn't it? I call it mother in Basque, which is "amachu." And it has a tag on it, like a label on it.

Kerry Diamond: We did a whole little thing on people starters in the new issue, and what they named them. It was cute.

Aran Goyoaga: I should have been clever. Too late.

Kerry Diamond: But that's beautiful. Mother in Basque. That's a beautiful thing to call it. Yeah.

Aran Goyoaga: Because that's, obviously, I call my mom, amachu. And so I always thought of her. So, but beyond, I mean I think that's the kind of like what I'm most proud of in this book, and people ask me the most about it. Yeah. And there's lentil soup that I make once a week at home, Spanish tortilla, which is also one of the things that I'm asked to make the most.

Kerry Diamond: Oh really?

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. Oh my God. Well like all my friends when they come over, "Can you make us some tortilla?" And yeah.

Kerry Diamond: A good tortilla is the thing of beauty.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Tell people what goes into making a beautiful tortilla.

Aran Goyoaga: And I actually have a video, and I don't have any ads on this, or any sponsors, so it's really to teach people how to make it. If you go to my site, you can see it under videos. And it's olive oil, onion, although onion is contentious in Spain. If you're a purist, no onion. But I like onion. Potatoes, salt, and eggs. That's all. It's five ingredients.

Aran Goyoaga: You use a lot of olive oil. You're essentially poaching the potatoes in oil, then they get drained. So it's very slow cooking for a long time. Probably like 20 minutes. They get drained, seasoned with salt, mixed with eggs, and then you... it's not a frittata, so a lot of people put it in the oven, it's not. So you cook it on one side, and then you have to flip it. And you don't just flip it like when you see chefs flipping things on the... You actually use a large plate, or a lid of a pot, or something to flip it, and then you finish cooking it on the other side.

Aran Goyoaga: And it's so simple. But it's in Spain, you go to one tapas bar because there's a competition in towns when they have festivals, tortilla making competition. So it's a very prideful thing.

Kerry Diamond: But it's like a perfect omelet. It sounds simple, but it's so about the technique and the beauty of the ingredients.

Aran Goyoaga: Yeah. And your touch. Did you brown it too much, not enough? Anyhow.

Kerry Diamond: Are you a José Andrés fan?

Aran Goyoaga: He had a show on the Spanish channel. He was already in the US but he became famous a little bit later, and he is so warm. But then everything he's doing for social justice, and all climate, like the storm, obviously in Puerto Rico, but anything he does, Haiti-

Kerry Diamond: In the Bahamas, yeah.

Aran Goyoaga: Yes. So thoughtful, again-

Kerry Diamond: He's my... Yeah.

Aran Goyoaga: Giving me goosebumps right now.

Kerry Diamond: You are one big goosebump right now.

Aran Goyoaga: I'm excited for people like that who have built something and they wish nothing more than good for others. And I get really emotional.

Kerry Diamond: Yeah. I think it's great that we have him in the industry, to have someone like him to look up to. But the reason I ask is because he opened that beautiful little mercado over at Hudson Yards. It's so wonderful. I mean, he's wonderful. We hate the guy who owns Hudson Yards, but whatever. That's another story for another day. But we love José Andrés. And we had tortilla. Did you have it, or was I the only one who had it, Jess? You had some too. Really just wonderful tortilla-

Aran Goyoaga: Oh good.

Kerry Diamond: ... but he's got all these little kind of booths and stalls, and he's making everything. You can go get paella, and tortilla, and ice cream, and just sort of everything your heart desires.

Aran Goyoaga: You can tell by the way he works and builds things, he's very generous. And I admire that. And no scandals.

Kerry Diamond: Exactly. Yeah. I do appreciate that.

Aran Goyoaga: Yes.

Kerry Diamond: What are you excited to make as the seasons change? What just excites you so much about fall and fall produce?

Aran Goyoaga: I love quince.

Kerry Diamond: So what do you do with quince? I think that I wouldn't know the first thing to do with it, to be honest.

Aran Goyoaga: Quince you have to know, you cannot eat it raw because it doesn't really have much... It smells incredible, but it doesn't taste, it's very hard. It's hard to peel it. So sometimes you kind of have to be a little careful when you're peeling it. And you have to cook it so you either make jams with it, you make paste, so membrillo. You roast it, you poach it, jams. So anything that it requires a little bit of sugar, but then cooked. It needs to be cooked. And usually there their methods of preservation.

Kerry Diamond: So I've had membrillo with cheese. What else can you serve it with?

Aran Goyoaga: The membrillo, like with-

Kerry Diamond: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Aran Goyoaga: ... quince paste? Good question.

Kerry Diamond: What do you do with it?

Aran Goyoaga: I serve it with cheese and nuts, and well, we used to eat sandwiches with it when I was a kid. It was a baguette with cheese and membrillo in it. So I don't know-

Kerry Diamond: Yum.

Aran Goyoaga: ... besides cheese. Honestly, the membrillo itself, the paste. But with the fruit-

Kerry Diamond: Oh, a sandwich sounds fab.

Aran Goyoaga: Oh yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Oh yeah. Why didn't I ever think of that?

Aran Goyoaga: It was baguette. Crusty baguette, sliced cheese, and slice membrillo.

Kerry Diamond: Beautiful. So where can people see you? Are you touring?

Aran Goyoaga: I'm not really touring. I want to focus-

Kerry Diamond: You ought to come to Jubilee Seattle.

Aran Goyoaga: Yes, I will be, right?

Kerry Diamond: You will be.

Aran Goyoaga: I'll have my book there. Yeah.

Kerry Diamond: Yeah, 100%.

Aran Goyoaga: I'm touring. I shouldn't say that because I'll be touring in Seattle. My book launches at Book Larder which is my favorite. Those who are not from Seattle, if you ever come to Seattle, and love food and books, you should visit Book Larder. And my first book was launched there even though I didn't live in Seattle then. And my second book will be launched there, and Laura Hamilton is amazing. And then I have a few events. I have an event with Linda Derschang, who you know.

Kerry Diamond: Oh, fantastic. We love Linda. The rock and roll restaurateur.

Aran Goyoaga: Frankie and Jo's.

Kerry Diamond: Frankie and Jo's. Okay. See, you all have to come to Seattle Jubilee because it's just such a great place. It's a wonderful place for women in food. And I don't think it gets recognized for that.

Aran Goyoaga: Maybe because I live there, but I think more and more. I mean through you, I've already, you've mentioned some names that I didn't know, and I'm excited to meet at the Jubilee. So I'm thrilled.

Kerry Diamond: That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Aran for sitting down with me. We cannot wait to hang out with you at Jubilee Seattle. Be sure to check out Aran's latest cookbook Cannelle et Vanille. It's a beauty. Grab a copy of your favorite indie bookstore. Thank you to today's sponsors for supporting our podcast, Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Schools and Emmi cheeses from Switzerland. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe Media. Our show is edited, engineered, and produced by Jess Zeidman. Cherry Bombe is powered by Lauren Goldstein, Audrey Payne, Kia Damon, Donna Yen, and Maria Sanchez. Our publisher is Kate Miller Spencer. Our theme song is All Fired Up by the band Tralala. Thanks for listening everybody. You are the bomb.

When Harry Met Sally Clip: I'll have what she's having.

Austa Clausen: Hi, my name is Austa Somvichian-Clausen, and I'm a freelance writer covering food and drink, travel, and culture. Do you want to know who I think is the bomb? The founders of Pineapple Collaborative, Ariel Pasternak and Atara Bernstein because they're creating inspiring and innovative ways for all self-identifying women who love food to connect and learn together.