Emily Weinstein Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe. And I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe Magazine.
Thanksgiving is one day away, so Emily Weinstein, the editor-in-chief of Cooking and Food at The New York Times, is joining me today to talk turkey, sides, leftovers, and the super useful new book from NYT Cooking, “Easy Weeknight Dinners: 100 Fast, Flavor-Packed Meals for Busy People Who Still Want Something Good to Eat.” Raise your hand if that's you. That is definitely me. If you need any last-minute advice or inspo, we've got you covered. If you're cooking this holiday, be sure to tag Cherry Bombe on Instagram. We would love to see what you're making. Stay tuned for my chat with Emily Weinstein.
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Now, let's check in with today's guest. Emily Weinstein, welcome back to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Emily Weinstein:
Thank you, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond:
It's always fun when we get to see you, because you are inevitably here to talk about a really cool project. We are going to talk about the brand new cookbook from New York Times Cooking.
But first, we're going to talk about Thanksgiving, because this is like Super Bowl week for the folks at NYT Cooking.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, yes. We have been training, we have been prepping.
Kerry Diamond:
When do you start preparing, practicing, all the things?
Emily Weinstein:
Well, there's this recovery period after Thanksgiving and the holidays. Then around April is when I usually start looking around and thinking, "Okay, it's time for us to really get a handle on this." Because if we're doing things right, and we're getting everything lined up and all our ducks in a row, we're making a lot of the work over the summer.
We usually start having meetings April, May. We firm up the line-up more and more, we're looking at video first. Then we're building editorial plans around our video ideas and that part of our operation. We're really shooting everything over the summer, and then the photography in October. Then we're bringing it all together in November.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you looking at trends from the previous year, and traffic trends?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, absolutely. There are some really steady things. People who love to cook are thinking about Thanksgiving I think in early November. But most people are starting to think about it let's say a week out. That's when they really start to get serious. They know what they're doing, in terms of their plans, but they might not know exactly what they're cooking if they're cooking something. They're still putting the pieces together.
About a week out is when we start to see people really hungry, no pun intended, for the recipes, the inspiration, the advice. A lot of advice. Thanksgiving is hard. I'm not here to say Thanksgiving is easy. Thanksgiving is a big project, and we want to be able to help.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a hotline? Didn't you have a hotline one year?
Emily Weinstein:
We used to have a hotline a long time ago. Sam Sifton and I used to run the hotline. People would write in or they would tweet.
Kerry Diamond:
On Thanksgiving, you were answering things?
Emily Weinstein:
On Thanksgiving we were answering things. I have this really clear memory of just being at the office on Thanksgiving Day until about 3:00, just me and Sam. I'm processing all the questions, and Sam's answering them as fast as he can. I'm editing it.
Yeah, we did that for a little while. Then at a certain point it was like, "Well, we've answered all the questions." Every once in a while, we'd get something out of left field. But we came to understand that, first of all, most of the questions at the end of the day are about turkey.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. I was going to ask. That was my guess.
Emily Weinstein:
Yes. Most of the questions are about turkey. It's like, "Well, we're probably doing something more useful if we just make a big turkey FAQ, and put it out in front of our readers every year." That's what we do now.
But every once in a while, we'd get a question out of left field.
Kerry Diamond:
America has such a love-hate relationship with turkey. Why does it continue?
Emily Weinstein:
I know. It's funny, food professionals I think in particular don't love turkey. They just know that there are better things out there. But the reality is turkey is nostalgic, and so much turkey is still sold for Thanksgiving. It really is still the centerpiece of this holiday. There's no indication in sales or in patterns that it's not. People really still want to do this.
I think it's a rite of passage, too, for cooks. If you've never made a turkey, you make it for the first time. If you've made it before, now's your year to master it. This is a big, honking bird that I think is hard to get perfect. It's not hard to just cook it, but it's hard to get it so you get the juicy breast meat, the succulent thigh meat. It takes some practice.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you feel like you've had good turkey?
Emily Weinstein:
I have had good turkey. I'm really proud of myself when I cook Thanksgiving and we have a really good turkey year. Nobody else notices, that's the thing. It's like, "Oh, the turkey's great," and then they all move on. But I can tell the different year-to-year, so every once in a while. I usually try a new turkey method every year from NYT Cooking. I tend not to go back to the same recipe. I like to try all the new stuff.
Kerry Diamond:
I've had good turkey a handful of times. Chef Kia Damon, she would do I think it was a braised turkey leg, a drumstick, something like that. But a braised turkey part, and it was so good. I was like, "Oh my gosh, why are we eating these poor, desiccated roasted turkeys?"
The second one was my chef ex-boyfriend deep-fried a turkey in Arkansas.
Emily Weinstein:
Deep-fried is delicious. It is hard to get New Yorkers in particular to deep-fry. But everywhere in the country-
Kerry Diamond:
You had to do it outside.
Emily Weinstein:
Exactly. Everyone's deep-frying. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I watched all the insurance videos beforehand, made sure we had, what was it, the fire extinguisher nearby. You know the stories. If you don't defrost it properly, it can become a projectile.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. You've got to do your homework before you're deep-frying. A lot of people do it and it's delicious. Braised turkey legs are amazing.
There's a bar in Brooklyn that does a turkey leg, I think it's braised in milk, for a sandwich. Not just for Thanksgiving, they do it all year round. There are these delicious ways to cook turkey.
But you know, the very traditional Thanksgiving vision of the turkey that's presented to the room. The trick is the timing. The trick is getting it so you still get juicy breast meat while cooking through the legs.
Kerry Diamond:
What are you doing tomorrow?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, gosh. Okay. For the first time ever, I'm going out to dinner for Thanksgiving. I almost always have Thanksgiving with my family. Somebody was telling me that they went to Keens pretty recently, maybe last year or the year before.
Kerry Diamond:
A famous steakhouse here in the city.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah, famous steakhouse. I just had this vision of somebody putting steak in front of me on Thanksgiving. And creamed spinach-
Kerry Diamond:
Wait. No turkey for you on Thanksgiving?
Emily Weinstein:
Well, it turns out we are actually not going to Keens. We're going to a different steakhouse. But I truly love Keens. We're going to a different steakhouse, and I do believe turkey will be an option. If there's turkey, and I can have turkey and steak, yeah, I'll have a little bit of turkey. It's Thanksgiving, okay. But yeah, just the idea of having steak just felt so luxurious. I'm sure I will cook Thanksgiving again next year. But this year, I'm going to be out on the town.
Kerry Diamond:
I do want to give a shout-out to all the people that have to work on Thanksgiving. All our hospitality industry friends, thank you.
Emily Weinstein:
Yes. Thank you so much. Thanks for doing that.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest.
This episode is presented by Meridian Printing. The family-owned printing company based in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Meridian has printed Cherry Bombe Magazine for the past several years and it's always a pleasure working with the team at Meridian. They are meticulous, and professional, and care more than any other printer we've ever worked with. They are amazing partners. When I wanted to print three covers of our Icons issue, they said, "No problem." When I wanted to put a Molly Baz poster in every copy of our Molly issue, they said, "We got it." They were amazing about helping us get the pink shade just right for our new Ina Garten issue. If you have an idea for a magazine, or a zine, or maybe you want to do books on demand, you should talk to the team at Meridian Printing. Visit meridianprinting.com for more information.
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Let's talk about sides. Any intel on sides this year?
Emily Weinstein:
We're seeing people respond to those classics, not necessarily the classic preparation. But potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce.
I think there's a lot of room to play for Thanksgiving, but people usually, it seems to me, they plan their menu, they have a few things they love that they always make. Maybe they're traditional in the Thanksgiving menu, maybe they're traditional to your family. And then, they'll experiment with one or two things. That's what we're seeing every year, that's what we're seeing this year.
Kerry Diamond:
What is this macaroni and cheese recipe on NYT Cooking, where you don't even have to boil the pasta?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh.
Kerry Diamond:
is it Melissa Clark's?
Emily Weinstein:
Yes, it's Melissa Clark's. It's just meant to be incredibly easy. We really do want to make Thanksgiving as easy as possible. It's difficult, and it's really difficult because of the sheer volume of the dishes and the timing. But that doesn't mean each dish has to be difficult. If we can save you even just a tiny step and one pot to wash, because if you're doing the dishes, I am looking out for you. It's Melissa Clark, so you know the recipe's going to be fabulous and it's going to work perfectly.
Kerry Diamond:
It seems like it's a pretty popular one from the site.
Emily Weinstein:
Yes, it is really popular. It's finding a lot of fans right now. Then, we've also got a Southern macaroni and cheese from Chef Millie Peartree that people love.
Kerry Diamond:
Love Millie. I've had that macaroni and cheese. It's spectacular.
Emily Weinstein:
It's deeply, astonishingly cheesy. It's really, really great.
Kerry Diamond:
I think it's Kenji Lopez did a mayo-rubbed turkey recipe. Because you've got the traditional buttermilk brines, the wet brines, the dry brines. But then there was that Kenji mayo recipe. What's that all about?
Emily Weinstein:
I made that recipe the year it came out. Remember I said I try different turkey recipes. I made it, it's delicious. It's not so different in the outcome than the buttermilk turkey. Obviously, the buttermilk imparts a different flavor. But with the mayo, you're getting a really browned skin, and it's really delicious. He gives you the option to do an herbed mayo. You're also, if you choose to do this deeply herby-green mayo, you're getting that extra level of flavor. But it's really good.
You have to get your head around smearing a bird with mayo. But I'm open-minded, so I did it.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a lot of mayo.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah, it was a lot of mayo.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
I love mayo.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, let's talk about this amazing new book. It's so fun. It's perfect for everyone I know, because everyone is so busy these days. It's “Easy Weeknight Dinners: 100 Fast Flavor-Packed Meals for Busy People Who Still Want Something Good to Eat.” That's the Holy Grail of dinner, right? Everybody just wants easy and delicious.
Emily Weinstein:
And good.
Kerry Diamond:
And good.
Emily Weinstein:
And good. I guess delicious is good. But everybody wants something easy, there are a ton of options for easy. You can just buy a frozen meal. Not super cost-effective, but you could do it. But for people who love food, don't you want it to be good, too? Good does not have to be fussy. Good does not have to be complicated, it does not have to be hard.
For dinner last week, I basically had egg rice for dinner, which is a recipe in this book. It's Eric Kim, and you're cooking eggs in butter and soy sauce, and you're serving it on rice. It couldn't be easier. To me, that is just a perfect fast dinner.
The book is full of recipes like that. Some simpler, some a little bit more involved. But still, something I would make on a weeknight. There's nothing in this book that I would not personally make myself at home after work.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm curious what inspired the book. Were you all standing around, just talking about what cool book ideas would be?
Emily Weinstein:
The Times has this long history of doing cookbooks, but we hadn't done one in a couple years. We have a fabulous new editor at the Times who is looking at how the Times is showing up in books, and TV, and film. A brilliant editor named Caitlin Roper. She's so brilliant I want to say her name on the podcast. She was just really clear about how we could help people, and also bring them some joy. We've got a couple books coming, and this is the first.
She was just so sure right away. She's like, "This is a service. We can make it delightful with the writing. We can add all these touches in the book. It doesn't have to be serious, it doesn't have to be heavy. We can be someone's friend in the kitchen." She was just very sure of it. It builds very seamlessly on the work we're already doing. It wasn't this huge leap to think, "Oh, we have to pivot." We, several years ago, identified that our readers had this need, and we could be for them and meet this need.
I write a newsletter called Five Weeknight Dishes, and it's one of the biggest newsletters at the Times. It's because people really need this kind of work from us.
Kerry Diamond:
And it involves the whole NYT Cooking Marvel Universe of characters.
Emily Weinstein:
Yes, yes. I also think of it as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I'm glad you said that.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us some of the folks that people would recognize.
Emily Weinstein:
Well, we already mentioned Melissa Clark, and Eric Kim. Yewande Komolafe. Ali Slagle has a bunch of recipes in the book. I think Ali just is a genius for this kind of cooking. Hetty McKinnon has a ton of vegetarian recipes in the book, brilliant recipe developer. Rick Martinez has some recipes. Kenji Lopez-Alt. Just a number of really great Times cooks.
Kerry Diamond:
There are a lot of potential holiday dinner recipes in this book. I know you did not design the book this way. But especially in the vegetable, beans, and tofu section. That's a brilliant section. I think almost everything in that section could be a side dish for the holidays, especially if you want to do something a little special.
I flagged a few of them. Butternut squash kanji. That, I would want breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Emily Weinstein:
So delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
But if somebody served that to me for a holiday dinner at Thanksgiving as the starter, I would be thrilled.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. Especially if you had ... I'm a big fan of toppings bar style cooking. If you had chopped scallions, and chile oil, and a bunch of basically condiments that you could add, and people could customize. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Just the color from the squash. It feels, for a dish that is really very at it's core, comforting, cozy, simple food. You can make this really beautiful.
Kerry Diamond:
Then there was a faro with roasted squash, feta, and mint.
Emily Weinstein:
I loved that recipe. That recipe was actually initially conceived as a big dish that you could make if you were having people over. It's one of those recipes that we retrofitted for dinner. It's like, "Well, there's no reason this just couldn't be somebody's grain bowl." That's primarily how I make that recipe now.
Kerry Diamond:
This one's semi-similar, but warm roasted carrot and barley.
Emily Weinstein:
Same deal.
Kerry Diamond:
For all you carrot girls out there.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. All you need is the combination of a grain, a delicious vegetable. I like to have Greek yogurt in these sorts of bowls, or some sort of sour cream, something a little creamy. And some nuts.
Kerry Diamond:
Obviously, I have squash on the brain. I love this time of year at the farmer's market. The butternut squash, the little honey nut squashes.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, I love those.
Kerry Diamond:
Delicata. Kabocha.
Emily Weinstein:
I'm right here with you.
Kerry Diamond:
I love all them.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I also flagged pasta with sausage, squash, and sage brown butter.
Emily Weinstein:
That is a recipe from a seminal Brooklyn restaurant called Frankie's.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, wait. That's one of the Frankie's recipes. Okay. Oh!
Emily Weinstein:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Is that the ravioli?
Emily Weinstein:
It's a cavatelli.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, right, right, right.
Emily Weinstein:
Unless I'm misremembering.
Kerry Diamond:
I should know that. I should know that because I've only eaten that dish eight million times.
Emily Weinstein:
Ali Slagle adapted that recipe. It's not really their recipe, it's very much inspired by that recipe. But at the time, they told her it was the most popular recipe ordered on what they assumed to be first dates. The wait staff picked up it was a first date, and people are eating the cavatelli. Which is a fun, neither her nor there detail, but I love.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that dish. I live right near Frankie's. Actually, when I had Thanksgiving in a restaurant, it was at Frankie's.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, I bet it was great.
Kerry Diamond:
It was great.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so there was that one. Okay, no squash in this one. This is a simple one, but so flavorful. Cumin and cashew yogurt rice.
Emily Weinstein:
Ah, so good. That, to me, again, is this meal, it's really simple, it's really satisfying. You can make a chien. You could really easily make a chien, in terms of the condiments you're using. Or you can just do it so straightforward. It can work every which way.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Nice to have some side dishes that just aren't the same old, same old.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. It's nice to change it up a little bit. Changing it up can take all sorts of forms.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
But, why not have the cashews and the yogurt? It's just a great combination. Again, really simple, and really easy to take in whatever direction you want.
Kerry Diamond:
It is all about the sides.
Emily Weinstein:
Yes. It is all about the sides. It is.
Last year when I cooked Thanksgiving, I just decided that I was making two stuffings. I was like, "This meal is all about the sides." I had two different contenders for the stuffing I was going to make. I was like, "I'm making them both. This is my house, my rules."
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about the two stuffings.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, one-
Kerry Diamond:
The tale of two stuffings, go for it.
Emily Weinstein:
A tale of two stuffings. One is a cornbread stuffing. For as long as I can remember, my family's had a cornbread stuffing. Technically, these are dressings because they're baked on the side. I don't actually stuff a turkey. So, cornbread and sausage, I just love that combination. That's not something that's in my rotation. I love cornbread, I just don't eat very much of it. I very much associate it with this time of year, which is nice to have a flavor that just circles back to you at a particular moment. Cornbread.
Then, I wanted to do something really creamy and egg-y, that's almost like a bread-and-pudding. I made a mushroom bread pudding as a stuffing.
Kerry Diamond:
That is brilliant.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. Then I was like, "Two stuffings." I should say two stuffings, and not that many people.
Kerry Diamond:
I love the idea of a bread pudding as a stuffing.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, it's fabulous. It's fabulous. It's so creamy. Creamy, Thanksgiving's creamy. It's beige and it's creamy, so it fits right in.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about leftovers. I love a Thanksgiving leftover turkey sandwich.
Emily Weinstein:
Me, too. I do mayo, and cranberry sauce.
Kerry Diamond:
No stuffing?
Emily Weinstein:
No stuffing. No.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Maybe you ate it all the day before.
Emily Weinstein:
Well, the cornbread stuffing doesn't go.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
To my mind, it doesn't go so seamlessly into the sandwich.
Kerry Diamond:
True. It has to be that sage, bread-y stuffing.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. I'm more likely to put, if I'm going to add something else, I'm adding a layer of green something. Not cooked greens. Lettuce or arugula, whatever I've got around. But, yes. Turkey, cranberry sauce, mayo.
But I've made a bunch of more elaborate recipes. They're not hard. But it's not the sandwich. We have new leftovers recipes this year from Rick Martinez, including a turkey biria that I cannot wait to make. I'm going out to dinner, so we'll have to figure this out. Really, it looks amazing.
And then, Samin Nosrat, several years ago, did a recipe for turkey tikka masala and a turkey pho. I still make these recipes.
Kerry Diamond:
You can make great broth out of your turkey bones.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
The same as you do with a chicken broth.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, yeah. If I'm cooking turkey, I'm making turkey broth. And I'm doing it the next day. It's get those bones out of your fridge, get that carcass out of your fridge.
Kerry Diamond:
I probably don't have a pot big enough, with all those turkey bones.
Emily Weinstein:
This is a little graphic. You can get in there and break it down. You do want your biggest pot, though. I use a very, very big stockpot. I'm making a lot of stock. Then I freeze it. I bring it out and I use it in a lot of moments where I might have reached for chicken stock, I'll use turkey. Not all, but a lot.
Kerry Diamond:
If you are going through the trouble of roasting a turkey and you have all those bones, make a stock.
Emily Weinstein:
I know people who do it that night.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
Which I'm totally impressed by, because you have to summon the energy.
Kerry Diamond:
You don't need all the things. I roast a lot of chickens, but I don't always have carrots, and onions, and bay leaf, and this and that. I'll just throw whatever I have in there.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Peppercorns, half a lemon.
Emily Weinstein:
It's my general feeling about everything, your house is not a restaurant. The stock doesn't have to be perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
Your house is not a restaurant. That's a good thing for some of us to remember. Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. First of all, a lot of times, it's you and your loved ones, whoever they are, and they're the principle people eating the food, and they're not restaurant critics. Most people are just happy that you cooked something for them. I wouldn't put any pressure on yourself, anyone out there, to perfect your stock.
Kerry Diamond:
True. But get yourself some quart containers, because you're going to have a lot of stock.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It lasts for a long time.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
That's part of the reason I like doing it. It's one shot.
Kerry Diamond:
Broth elevates everything.
Emily Weinstein:
It really does. That's one of those things that I think people who don't cook, they think that the boxed broth is the same. It's really not. I hate to be that person. But if you have it within you to try making stock sometimes, I do really recommend it. It's one of those ingredients that makes a big difference.
That said, in this “Weeknight” cookbook, we have plenty of recipes that start with boxed chicken broth or Better Than Bouillon, which is a product we used.
Kerry Diamond:
No shame in boxed.
Emily Weinstein:
No shame in boxed. We account for that. I just feel we're not helping people if we insist they do things one particular way. We've got to give people different avenues into the kitchen.
Kerry Diamond:
True. Like our Patron Saint Ina Garten says, "Store-bought is fine."
Emily Weinstein:
Store-bought is fine.
Kerry Diamond:
Speaking of leftovers, and store-bought, and broth, and soup, and all those things, there is a recipe in the book for lemony white bean soup with turkey and greens. That's the perfect combo.
Emily Weinstein:
So good. Yeah, it is the perfect combo. It's the only recipe in the book that uses ground turkey. You could totally use leftover turkey. It's really about the flavor combination, and about giving you something perfect for a chilly night, or you're feeling cozy.
Kerry Diamond:
Where do you stand on sharing your leftovers versus hoarding them so you can eat them for the next few days?
Emily Weinstein:
If you're coming to my house for Thanksgiving, I am sending you home with leftovers. It's just the right thing to do.
I used to do a leftovers party, actually. It was my way of doing Friendsgiving. I wouldn't do a Friendsgiving before. I would do a day after, "Everyone bring your leftovers over, and we're going to have a big party." I did that for a while. But you know, I've been known to hang on to a preferred leftover for myself. I've been known to keep that stuffing in the back corner of the fridge.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, I was going to say I'd be pretty stingy with the stuffing. I'd probably be fine, take as much turkey as you want, mashed potatoes, all that. But yeah, I would hide the stuffing.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah, I'm with you.
Kerry Diamond:
Definitely. Then when it comes to your leftover containers, I don't know if you saw that video with Oprah. But Oprah was like, "Do not take my tupperware. If you do, return it."
Emily Weinstein:
I relate to that, don't you? I really relate to that.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't. I know my mother thinks about all the things I take from her. She'll be like, "You took that Christmas container from me. Could you bring that back?"
Emily Weinstein:
My poor mother. I actually have acquired a lot of my mother's tupperware over the years. My mother buys nicer tupperware than I do.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
There's that. Now at this point, I have everything, I'm running the gamut. No, I'm hopeful that my containers come back to me. But more and more, I'm also sending people with old takeout containers. You know what, it's fine. We're all really relaxed about it.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about you, because you know this, everybody is still obsessed with food media. We've got so many listeners who want to be part of food media, we get tons of resumes and emails. I'm sure you do as well. If you were a young person, and you loved writing, food, all things, you watch Food Network, you read NYT Cooking, you read Cherry Bombe. What would you study in school, and what would you be interested in doing after college?
Emily Weinstein:
Such a good question. I would not do journalism as an undergraduate. Maybe. But, I would not do that. I would focus on learning an area of study where you're going to learn something that isn't necessarily just skills-based. In the process of studying that, you're going to acquire the skills that'll make you a good journalist. You're going to learn how to do research, you're going to learn how to ask questions, you're going to learn how to write.
At the Times, we're looking for people who are curious. And they've developed skills that help them maximize that curiosity. They're asking really good questions. They can write. They can come up with big ideas. Look, it's the Times, so we're also looking for a certain level of skill. You need to have those skills, and you need to know about something that isn't just the trade of journalism. Also, journalism is changing really, really fast.
I certainly would recommend journalism if people were interested in going to graduate school for journalism. But I think undergrad, don't limit yourself to just that practice. Think of those as a set of skills to layer on top of whatever it is you're studying. Whether that's literature, history, sociology, any of the traditional areas, or the non-traditional areas.
I studied urban studies. I was an urban studies and art history major. I was really interested in cities and how they evolve, and the global evolution of urban life. This really dovetailed nicely with my interest in restaurants in New York City. And I started in food as somebody who was more interested in the restaurant side of things than the home cooking side of things.
Kerry Diamond:
One thing I was going to say about college. Don't forget to do all the extracurriculars. You don't have to study journalism, but you should still go do the school paper, or website, or TV station, or whatever it is.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, totally. Radio, if your college has radio. Or a podcast. Yeah, absolutely. I always worked on the school paper. From when I was a kid, I loved to work on the school paper.
When I was in elementary school, a friend and I made a newspaper called Kids News. We had this little cat that was the icon of Kids News. We would get it photocopied, and we would disseminate Kids News. Then I worked on the high school paper. This was before I was thinking when I grew up, I want to be a journalist. This was just what I liked to do for fun. I think in college, when I realized that what I wanted to do was be a writer and editor, it made a certain kind of sense.
Kerry Diamond:
Then, how about internships? I feel like internships are a little dead these days.
Emily Weinstein:
I know. I learned a lot from internships.
Kerry Diamond:
I would not be where I am today if it weren't for internships.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. I feel the same way. I'm at a loss to suggest what could replace them. The mentorship, just being in the office, too. I do think that, in the wake of COVID lockdown and work from home, I think younger people in their profession are people who are looking to start out in the profession. They don't get the benefit of just sitting in an office, or being in a meeting or conversation with journalists who've been doing this for decades.
My first desk at the New York Times was two or three cubicles away from David Carr.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow.
Emily Weinstein:
David Carr was this, unfortunately he passed away maybe about a decade ago, but he was really a legendary media reporter at the New York Times. And really known for his interview style, his frankness in his writing. Amazing journalist. If you sit two or three cubes away from David Carr, you're hearing him talk to editors. It's not like eavesdropping, it's just being in a newsroom. I would hear him on the phone talking with people, and asking questions, and absorbing how he conducted interviews. He would stop and chat with me. I was the most junior person anywhere, and he was really gracious.
Those were the moments you'd get in a newsroom, and they just cannot be replicated if you're at home, with your roommates or by yourself. It's a different thing.
Kerry Diamond:
Not to talk politics, but crazy to think that David Carr missed out on the entire first Trump Administration. Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
I know. Also, I used to work at the Village Voice.
Kerry Diamond:
So did I.
Emily Weinstein:
Really?
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
Oh my God.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. I was an intern. I worked for Bill Bastone and Wayne Barrett.
Emily Weinstein:
I worked for Wayne Barrett!
Kerry Diamond:
Another legend.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah, another legend. Wayne Barrett was an investigative reporter who always had this team of interns doing his research and reporting. Now I know Kerry and I were both in the trenches with the same guy. He, years and years ago, wrote these big books, real investigations, of Trump and Rudy Giuliani.
Kerry Diamond:
And Mayor Koch. I worked on the Mayor Koch one.
Emily Weinstein:
Yes! And Ed Koch. I couldn't believe, he passed away right around the time Trump was elected.
Kerry Diamond:
Right. He did, too. Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
It was like, "Oh! This should have been Wayne's moment." It was tragic for many reasons, and that was one of them.
Kerry Diamond:
I know we're not talking about turkey and stuffing, people, but bear with us for one more second. You know who makes me the saddest that she missed the first Trump Administration? Joan Rivers.
Emily Weinstein:
Good call.
Kerry Diamond:
I wish that Joan Rivers had been alive for that.
Emily Weinstein:
I know. God.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, absolutely. I wish she was alive now. She was so funny.
Okay. Let's do a speed round, and we'll get you back to the office after that. We'll talk food again, folks. Emily and I could nerd out on journalism for a while.
Emily Weinstein:
I know.
Kerry Diamond:
Because I was that kid also making the school newspaper in fourth grade, and selling it for 10 cents.
Emily Weinstein:
I will say, I will offer one more tip. If people want to write for us and they want to work with us, increasingly of course, people have all these tools and ways to do it that didn't exist before. I do look at people's Substacks if they want to write for us, or I look at what they're posting on social media. If somebody can really put together a sentence, if they have an original voice, if they have original thoughts, all of that stuff shines through. It's no longer going through several rounds of editing, so I can see it in a more unfiltered way. It is really valuable. I know this is not Earth-shattering advice. "Hey, start a Substack."
Kerry Diamond:
But hey, start a Substack.
Emily Weinstein:
But hey, start a newsletter.
Kerry Diamond:
I've hired people based on their Instagram captions.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. I think the really good writers, the people with a voice ... It can't just be voice, you have to have some skills, you have to have knowledge, you have to have something to say. But the cream rises to the top. You really can show off what you can do that way, and you can also hone your skills that way. I think that's really important, too.
Kerry Diamond:
Absolutely. The cream does rise to the top. Way to bring it back to food, Emily. Thank you.
Okay, Speed Round. What beverage do you start your morning with?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, coffee.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you take it?
Emily Weinstein:
Okay. I never thought I wanted this, we just had drip coffee forever. And before that, we had French press. We got a fancy espresso machine as a Christmas present last year. It's an espresso machine. It's not Nespresso, it is espresso. Now every morning, I have a cappuccino, a double-shot cappuccino. Oh my God, it's so fancy. I love it. I absolutely love it. But this is a fancy thing.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm impressed. What kind of milk?
Emily Weinstein:
Whole milk.
Kerry Diamond:
Whole milk? Okay.
Emily Weinstein:
Dairy.
Kerry Diamond:
Look at you. Wow.
Emily Weinstein:
From the cow.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. What's always in your fridge?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, a million condiments. A million condiments. Then, yogurt, eggs, cheese. Big dairy. We always have tofu, firm tofu. Stuff to make salads. Obviously, as a lot of us are, I want as many veggies as possible into a meal. You'll see in this cookbook there are a lot of recipes where I'm like, "Just throw on some arugula and call it a day." I'm a big believer in that.
Kerry Diamond:
What was your favorite food as a kid?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, it still is my favorite food. Ice cream! Ice cream is my enduring love.
Kerry Diamond:
What's your favorite snack food?
Emily Weinstein:
Good question. I am a snacker, but I am not a devoted to one thing snacker. I'm an all access, whatever's around snacker.
A thing I actually do when I'm at home, working at home munching, sometimes I use spicy peanut butter.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. What are you streaming these days?
Emily Weinstein:
I just finished “My Brilliant Friend’ on HBO, which is the adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novels. I just started watching Say Nothing on Hulu. This is the miniseries adaptation of this nonfiction book, which I actually have not read, but everyone says is amazing, called “Say Nothing” about The Troubles in Ireland.
And I'm watching the new season of “The Great British Bake-Off,” which I had not watched in years. But then, all these random people in my life, many of whom I know love food but don't work in food at all, they don't work in food media, randomly would be like, "Are you watching the new “Bake-Off”?" I'm like, "Are you watching the new “Bake-Off”?"
Kerry Diamond:
Is there more drama than usual?
Emily Weinstein:
They have a new cohost. I think she's new this season. It is delightful! I had really forgotten the joy that “Bake-Off” delivers. I've started watching that again, too.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, same. Yeah.
Emily Weinstein:
A little light thing after I watch my incredibly serious, highbrow streaming main course, I have “Bake-Off” for dessert.
Kerry Diamond:
What's your favorite food film?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, man. “Big Night.”
Kerry Diamond:
Good one. Dream travel destination?
Emily Weinstein:
I have never been to Korea or Japan. I've been wanting to go for years. I was going to go ... In 2019 I was like, "Oh, maybe I'll be able to go in 2021." Obviously, COVID has derailed all of that, but it's still very much a wish that I have. I want to block off two, two-and-a-half weeks to go. I cannot wait to go, and travel, and eat.
Kerry Diamond:
Amazing.
Emily Weinstein:
It's going to be amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
I think the reason I haven't gone is exactly what you said. I don't want to just go for five days, and then come back, because all that travel time. I want to go for a big chunk of time.
Emily Weinstein:
Yeah. That's part of why I put together 10 days last fall where I could go away. It was like, "Should we go to Tokyo?" Then I was like, "Oh, I don't want to rush." I'm waiting until I can put together a heftier chunk of time, and then I can really go travel and relax.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, let's do the last question. If you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Emily Weinstein:
Oh, it probably would be Ina. Maybe I just have her on the brain, but she came up earlier. Hopefully, when we're on the desert island, we have the makings of martinis or something. I can just picture sitting there, and sighing, and saying, "Oh, well, cheers." And chatting. I think it would be Ina.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Good choice, good choice.
Well, Emily, it's always a pleasure to see you. Congrats on the new cookbook.
Emily Weinstein:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Say hi to the team. Everybody loves what you all are doing over at New York Times Cooking.
Emily Weinstein:
I love what you are doing with Cherry Bombe. Thank you again for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. I would love for you to subscribe to Radio Cherry Bombe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and leave a rating and a review. Anyone you want to hear on an upcoming episode? Let me know. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Joseph Hazan is the studio engineer for Newsstand Studios. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Jenna Sadhu. And our editorial coordinator is Sophie Kies. Thanks for listening, everybody. You're the Bombe.