Klancy Miller Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe Magazine, and each week I talk to the most interesting women and culinary creatives in and around the world of food.
Today's guest is Klancy Miller, author of the brand new book “For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food.” Klancy's book is rich with interviews, recipes, essays, and illustrations. She and I talk about some of the folks she features, including trailblazer, Edna Lewis and B. Smith, and future trailblazers From culinary creative Sophia Roe, to wine and travel pro, Julia Coney. We also discussed the making of the book and Klancy's love of France, and she shares some remembrances of her late Mother, Rose who inspired her love of food and who Klancy calls an architect of happiness. Klancy's book is dedicated to both of her parents. Stay tuned for my chat with Klancy Miller. Our interview was recorded at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center.
Today's show is presented by OpenTable. OpenTable is proud to sponsor Cherry Bombe's dinner series, Sit with Us, which highlights amazing female chefs and restaurateurs in the Cherry Bombe network. This past summer we traveled to four amazing restaurants across the country and had an amazing time meeting so many of you. Part two of Sit with Us will take place this fall. We're headed to Brooklyn, Chicago, Seattle, and Houston. Stay tuned for details. From helping diners find the perfect spot for any occasion to helping restaurants do what they do better, OpenTable is a champion for dining around the world and works to make the experience better on both sides of the table. Visit opentable.com for more and be sure to download the OpenTable app.
Today's show is also presented by Amaro Nonino. If you've ever tried the cocktail known as the paper plane, you've had Amaro Nonino. This bittersweet herbaceous liquore is beloved by the world's top mixologists and made by the Nonino family famous for their award-winning grappa. Here, at Cherry Bombe, we have a deep appreciation for family run companies and female-led brands, you all know that, Amaro happens to be both. The Nonino family has been distilling in the Friuli region of Italy for 125 years. In the 1970s, Giannola Nonino revolutionized the grappa category when she helped create the world's first single varietal grappa. Today, the sixth generation of Noninos is leading the way. And sisters Cristina, Antonella, and Elisabeta reinvented their family recipes to create Amaro Nonino. Enjoy it in Manhattans, Negronis, Paper Planes or my favorite an Amaro Spritz.The Nonino women have been leading the way in grappa education and excellent cocktail creations for decades, and they look forward to creating more celebratory moments in the decades to come. You can find Amaro Nonino at the world's best bars and liquor stores, and you can learn more at grappanonino.it.
A few housekeeping notes. The third annual Cherry Bombe Cooks & Books is taking place at Ace Hotel, Brooklyn on Saturday November 11th. I am so happy. It is one of my favorite events of the year. So mark your calendar, keep an eye on our Instagram and Cherrybombe.com for more details. And then this Wednesday, October 4th, I'll be at the Barnes & Noble in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn to interview Elizabeth Poett, the Cherry Bombe cover star and the star of “Ranch To Table” on the Magnolia Network. Elizabeth will be signing copies of her brand new cookbook, “The Ranch Table.” The event is free and open to all. So hop on that subway and come join us, Elizabeth, and I would love to see you.
Now, let's check in with today's guest. Klancy Miller, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Klancy Miller:
Thank you. I'm thrilled to be here.
Kerry Diamond:
Your beautiful book is finally hitting bookstores and everybody is so excited, “For The Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes.” What is this book all about?
Klancy Miller:
This book is about celebrating Black women and femmes in food and wine and hospitality. It is a book including 66 Black women and femmes who I interviewed over the course of the past couple of years. It's also a book filled with recipes from all of the amazing people I interviewed, or specifically there are 48 recipes from people I interviewed, and there're also personal essays on culinary matriarchs who are no longer here physically with us.
Kerry Diamond:
It's a beautiful list you've got. Lena Richard and Ed Lewis and many others.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah. People who I think serve as the North Star for so many people in hospitality. So I just wanted to honor a bunch of people who are inspiring to so many, including to me, and share their stories in gems of wisdom.
Kerry Diamond:
You have been working on this book for a long time.
Klancy Miller:
Yes, since 2020.
Kerry Diamond:
The book you had in mind in 2020 and what we are about to hold in our hands, are they different?
Klancy Miller:
They're actually the exact same, so I'm very, very happy. The only thing that's different that I guess is kind of a big deal, I initially imagined portraits that were photographed. My art director, George McCalman, who is brilliant, said, "Nope, that's not going to work. You want illustrated portraits." He really had to convince me because when you have a vision in your head, it's in your head, but the people in this book are all over the world, from West Africa to the Caribbean, to New York City, to states throughout the US and in Europe. So the project of photographing all of these amazing people would in and of itself be an entirely different book and book budget that would cost probably half a million dollars.
Kerry Diamond:
I didn't even think of that. But illustration's not inexpensive and you have beautiful illustrations.
Klancy Miller:
Sarah Madden did the most amazing job. I'm so grateful for her. She and George designed the cover. She brought all of these people to life on the page in such a gorgeous way. I'm so excited for people to see.
Kerry Diamond:
I love these illustrations.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I love the Kia illustration, Kia Simone, I love Sophia's illustration. It's really fun to see people in this way.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I think also because we see everybody on Instagram so much now, that to see someone and love in a fresh way is really fun.
Klancy Miller:
Absolutely. And all in different ways. You can see a different personality in each illustration, and I love that.
Kerry Diamond:
I have to ask, how in the world did you narrow your list down to the people who are in here? That must have killed you.
Klancy Miller:
It was really hard, but I narrowed down the list. Well, I had a list and it kind of got narrowed down naturally because I didn't want to interview too many people because I knew I would be the one doing it, and I knew, in theory, I had a year to complete the book. It took me longer than that. I knew, okay, I'm not going to do 100 interviews because that's more than I want to do. So I had this big list and I just started reaching out to people and the people who said yes, who I was able to get in contact with easily. They are the people in the book.
Kerry Diamond:
You worked on this book during the pandemic.
Klancy Miller:
Exactly, and I totally understand the people who I didn't hear back from, but at a certain point it's like, okay, I've got a long list. I kind of have to keep going so if I don't hear back from somebody, I'm going to the next person and we're just going to make this a body of work based on people who are available. Everyone in this book and everyone on my list is a person who I deeply admire. So there are a lot of people I admire, but I could only interview a certain number. So that's kind of how it came to be, the number that it is.
Kerry Diamond:
You have always been good at being a one woman band. You have always done many things, but I hear you on 100 is a lot for one person.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah. It also, this book taught me that it's time to add people to the band.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's go back to the reflection section because I think that's such a beautiful section and something that a lot of people don't get to put into their books. And I just love how you made the space for them in here. If you want to say a little bit about each person, who they were and why you included them. We'll start with Edna. She's the first one in the book.
Klancy Miller:
Sure.
Kerry Diamond:
We've talked about her a lot. You and I have talked about her a lot. We've talked about her a lot here on the show.
Klancy Miller:
So Edna Lewis is probably, I would say she's the second major huge Black woman in food, who I ever learned about. And I feel like so many people look to her and to her body of work and her career and her approach to cooking as a North Star, as guidance, even if you never had the chance to meet her, eat her food, through her cookbooks, through her body of work, it just shares so much. So it was really important for me to honor her. I wanted to add other people's perspectives too. So Brian Terry, I asked him if he could share some words and he generously did. And I wanted to share what she means to me, a little bit about her life and also what she means to other people too.
Kerry Diamond:
And then we've got Barbara Elaine Smith, who we all know as B. Smith.
Klancy Miller:
So B. Smith is absolutely my number one hero in the world of food. She's the first Black woman I knew as a restaurant owner, and when I graduated from school, we went right after my graduation, my whole family went to B. Smith's because fortunately, it was still around. It's no longer in business, but it was such a joy. I just loved being there and it felt so grand and fancy. And at the time she also had a magazine and-
Kerry Diamond:
And she was so glamorous.
Klancy Miller:
She was so glamorous and she just did it all. She had the TV show, the magazine, she had her restaurants, she had a line of homewares. I just feel like she embodied what so many people aspire to or some aspect of what people aspire to, whether it's the glamour, the entertaining, there's so many parts of her life that are just like, oh my gosh, sparkly and amazing. And she seemed like a real person, glamorous yet down to earth. So she was definitely really important for me to capture because she means so much to so many people and she was the first person I ever saw who I was like, Ooh, her. I want to be like her.
Kerry Diamond:
And then Leah Chase? Who we both love so much.
Klancy Miller:
I love Leah Chase. I mentioned this in the essay. I had the good fortune of interviewing her three times, including once for Cherry Bombe, and I only met her over the phone, but she was so incredibly vibrant and hilarious and smart and just warm. I just love talking with her and her life's incredible. Her business, who has a business that's in business for more than 80 years, and it's still going. She's no longer here, but her legacy is thriving, so she of course was very necessary to honor.
Kerry Diamond:
I just remembered when you said that you did the interview for Cherry Bombe, wasn't that right? When she was in the Beyonce video?
Klancy Miller:
Yes, in Lemonade. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
She had such an interesting life.
Klancy Miller:
Oh my gosh, that was so fun talking to her about. She's the best. I loved her. Loved her.
Kerry Diamond:
From the civil rights movement to Beyonce, lot in between.
Klancy Miller:
Seriously. And she inspired Princess Tiana.
Kerry Diamond:
Disney princess.
Klancy Miller:
Disney princess.
Kerry Diamond:
Then Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor?
Klancy Miller:
Yes. Another incredible person who is very much a multihyphenate in terms of being on Broadway, being in films, being an actress, and also an anthropologist, her body of work has also been, I think, super influential in terms of vibration cooking, and I feel like over the past decade, that book kind of got a second life. But I love what Therese Nelson has to say about her in terms of so much of her work is in conversation with what's going on now in terms of hospitality workers and people who work in service industries, the fact that people in service industries must be honored. And so in many ways, I think she was ahead of her time, of her time, but also ahead of her time, so very much necessary to include.
Kerry Diamond:
And Lena Richard?
Klancy Miller:
Lena Richard. Oh my gosh. I learned about Lena Richard through Dr. Jessica B. Harris, and I didn't know that there was a Black woman who had her own cooking show before Julia Child in the South in Louisiana. To learn about Her story was such a gift because I literally learned about it five or six years ago. So somewhat recently, the fact that she started out as a cook in this family's home, they sent her to culinary school. She was already a talented cook, but she just became more talented. She started her own business, own culinary school, opened a restaurant, was kind of a traveling chef. She had her own culinary television show. She did a lot. She had a frozen food business. So much, this one person in the 1950s, in '40s and '50s. I mean, she was alive for decades, so she was doing this work for a long time, but it was incredible.
Kerry Diamond:
And pretty heartbreaking though that no footage exists. We've got photos, but no footage exists of her TV shows.
Klancy Miller:
That is really, really, really sad.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, it's tragic, but her legacy is here. Fortunately we have her story. Similar to you, I didn't know about her existence and I learned about her at a Toni Tipton-Martin lecture years ago down in Mississippi as part of Southern Food Ways Alliance.
Klancy Miller:
Wow.
Kerry Diamond
Tony was talking about her as part of one of her Jemima code lectures, and I was like, why don't we know about her?
Klancy Miller:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
It just makes me so happy that you're honoring these five and spreading the word about them.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah, thank you. I feel like I have benefited from learning about them and they are wonderful role models. So may we all benefit, may we all learn.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Now let's talk about some of the modern icons, future icons, just amazing women who you have in this. We can't talk about all 66, but I'm looking at the list right now and I see so many of the women. I truly love Sophia Roe.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah, Sophia, that was such a great conversation and it was probably our first, I've seen Sophia at Cherry Bombe events, and so we've chatted here and there, but we had a really juicy conversation and it was really nice that it was kind of our first full conversation, and I love talking with her and learning about her beginning and how she navigates where she is now and what she's doing. It was really great.
Kerry Diamond:
She's a unique person and I feel like she's a very special person in this industry that we're in.
Klancy Miller:
Totally.
Kerry Diamond:
Suzanne and Michelle Rousseau, I adore them.
Klancy Miller:
Oh my gosh. I went to one of their restaurants in Jamaica, a couple of years ago.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm so jealous.
Klancy Miller:
It was amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
I've never been to Jamaica.
Klancy Miller:
Summerhouse, it was so, so great. Unfortunately they were out of town, but the restaurant was so great and I had already interviewed them, so it just felt like things coming together-
Kerry Diamond:
When I said I was so jealous, I meant so jealous that you went to their restaurant and jealous that you vantage makeup, but more jealous that you got to go to one of their places. They must have been so thrilled though that you took the time to go even if they weren't there.
Klancy Miller:
Oh my gosh, I think they were. And I got to go with Lisa Binns, who is also in the book. Yeah, it was just great. It was great talking with them. I have met them and spoken with them before, but I didn't. And even though I'm a big fan of their most recent cookbook, I wasn't fully aware of all of their story and their path is such a cool path in terms of some television, having restaurants and kind of creating their own path, which is really cool. And I love that they're sisters and they are doing this together.
Kerry Diamond:
Those two are very special also, and they have their own cookbooks, but they do have two recipes in here for Passion Martini.
Klancy Miller:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Is that a passion fruit martini?
Klancy Miller:
Passion fruit martini, delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
And Island greens with avocado mint and mango. That sounds great.
Klancy Miller:
So beautiful. And when we were photographing that salad, we were like, this is a very smart salad. We were like, this is a smart, sophisticated, beautiful salad. I was really happy with those two recipes.
Kerry Diamond:
Karis Jagger and Fabienne Toback, love them. They're the producers of “High On the Hog.” We have them to thank for bringing that book to life.
Klancy Miller:
Exactly. That's the number one reason why I wanted to include them, because I feel like High on the Hog, the book and the television series have made such a huge impact. I think it's important to say both because the show comes from the book by Dr. Jessica B. Harris. I was thrilled to see it come to Netflix. I was so thrilled to see that gorgeous story unfold, and they did such a beautiful job, and I have an interest in filmmaking, and the inner filmmaker in me wanted to know, what's the story? How did you begin? Because I feel like also I want people who come to food from different angles to be able to appreciate all of these various stories and to appreciate that there are so many ways to participate in food and bringing stories to film is one of those ways. In “High on the Hog,” they did such a gorgeous job.
Kerry Diamond:
They really did.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
They really did. Is there a second one in the works, a second season?
Klancy Miller:
I think so. Yeah. I believe there is. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
You might not know, I go way back with Julia Coney.
Klancy Miller:
Holy smokes, love.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Previous life, back when we were both in the travel industry.
Klancy Miller:
Wow.
Kerry Diamond:
I loved her quote in your book, "Wine is the best pal." I forget the exact quote, but like, "Wine is the best passport."
Klancy Miller:
Absolutely.
Kerry Diamond:
And I was like, that's a good quote.
Klancy Miller:
Yes, for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us what Ms. Julia's doing in your book.
Klancy Miller:
So I wanted to have wine people as well, and... I am trying to remember where I met Julia. I met her right before the pandemic. We vibed on champagne because we're both champagne lovers. I just really enjoyed talking with her, so I wanted to interview her, and I was really interested in her food pairing suggestions, because that's always something I like to keep in my back pocket when I go out. Like, oh, so my wine friend said I should get this to go with that, and I loved what she said about champagne. I asked her about some of her snacks, her favorite snacks, and she was like, I love potato chips with champagne, which I really loved. And she also talked about barbecue and her time in Texas and marrying barbecue with wine, which is not necessarily something that people initially think about. So I like where she's coming from with wine and talking about policy stuff and just, if she has such a depth of knowledge, that's really fun to listen to.
Kerry Diamond:
She really does. If you love wine and travel, Julia also just launched a newsletter, so you should all check that out.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I could keep reading these names. I just love your table of contents. I could just keep reading their names all day because there are so many special people on this.
Klancy Miller:
They're all amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
Dr. Jessica B. Harris is of course in your book.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah. Dr. Jessica B. Harris is extremely important and she's somebody I look up to and so many people look up to, and she's had such an amazing career, and so I, of course had to include her because she's done so much. She has literally done so much for the culture. “High on the Hog,” everything she has done is rich and vitally important, so it was fun to talk with her.
Kerry Diamond:
Zoe Adjonyoh, who we both, again love, but calling her out because I'm looking at this recipe, jollof risotto with prawns.
Klancy Miller:
So yummy. So yummy.
Kerry Diamond:
Sounds great.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah. That is one of the recipes that we photographed. So it was fun to get to eat that. I love her recipes, and it was so fun talking to her as well because she's also got an entrepreneurial side to her work, big entrepreneur. I just felt like it's important to have chefs who are being chefs in so many different kinds of ways, and also business people and creating cool foods and expanding our pallettes.
Kerry Diamond:
Zoe's got such a great story too, about how she started with her peanut butter stew, cooking out of her flat in London, and she's done so many things and she has a great cookbook too. Okay, I'll read out one more name and then we'll move on. Our mutual friend, Adrienne Cheatham, fantastic chef. She was the number two at Le Bernardin, cooked so many places. She's got red cabbage and beet salad.
Klancy Miller:
Yum.
Kerry Diamond:
And because she talked about how much you loves champagne, she has mango champagne, gazpacho. Tell us about that. I never thought about putting champagne in gazpacho.
Klancy Miller:
It's really delicious. It's a really simple gazpacho, but extra refreshing with kind of a little bit of a zip because of the champagne. I love it. I highly recommend making it. It's very pretty. I believe it's got more of a golden color than your typical red gazpacho, but delicious. You can probably, if you're not a champagne person, you could probably make it without champagne, but if you like champagne, add it.
Kerry Diamond:
So the book spun off from your magazine.
Klancy Miller:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
And you know me, I'm a magazine girl. Are you going to do the magazine ever again?
Klancy Miller:
Yes. So it's kind of as a one band or a one woman show. One person band. I had to pivot from the magazine. Well, it happened in a funny way. So this book came about not in a traditional way in that George Floyd had been murdered. My publisher reached out to me and said they wanted to do a book. They had an idea of a book they wanted me to do. I had just done the Crowdfunder for “For the Culture,” the magazine. So I was thinking, okay, if I do a book now, I want it to be very much in line with for the culture, and I would like for it to include interviews and not necessarily be the magazine, but be a little piece of it in a different format.
So I wrote that up as a one page outline and they said yes. I realized though that having just completed the crowdfunding for the magazine, I needed to get out the first issue and do what I said I was going to do. So I did that and I told them, hold on. I just have to finish this magazine and get it out, and then I can work on the book. And it was such a large project that I kind of needed to focus on that to complete it and get it out into the world. So yes, I want to do more for the Culture Magazine issues. It's going to require a little bit of fundraising, so that's another thing I'm just like, oh, how am I going to do that?
Kerry Diamond:
Let's take a quick break and we will be right back. The brand new issue of Cherry Bombe's Print magazine has just launched. The theme is The Future of Food. And video star and cookbook author and brand new mom, Sohla El-Waylly is on the cover and there is lots to discover inside the magazine from our Future of Food 50 list of rising stars, to a feature on restaurant robots. Yes, the robots are coming faster than you might think, actually.
You can pick up a copy of Cherry Bombe at your favorite bookstore, culinary shop or magazine stand like Wedge in Warren, Rhode Island, Bold Fork Books in Washington DC and Vivienne Kitchen & Pantry in Portland, Oregon. If you swing by any of those places, tell them Cherry Bombe sent you. Cherry Bombe's Print Magazine is lush and gorgeous and packed with features, photos, and recipes, of course. The team and I work so hard on this issue. We can't wait for you to see it, read it and spend some time with it.
Let's talk about the beautiful cover because knowing you, I know there's a story behind it, and it's not just a random illustration. I would imagine everything I'm looking at here from the colors to the different flowers and food that you chose to focus has meaning.
Klancy Miller:
Yes. I have to credit George McCalman, the art director and Sarah Madden, the illustrator and designer of the cover. George and Sarah worked together to design the cover. And it definitely changed because initially it was going to have a photograph and include food in the photograph and possibly my hand or my hand and arm. We had a cover we loved and we thought the publisher also loved it, but it turned out they didn't love it as much as we thought they did, and so it kind of became a chapter in the making of this book. It became a large conversation, but George and Sarah perfectly captured the spirit of the book, kind of the communal aspect, the hands, the food. It's subtle, but you get some of the story that's being told there, and it's really beautiful, and I love that it's illustrated. I love that it's nuanced.
Kerry Diamond:
And there's a timelessness to it, I think because of the illustration, and the hands are so beautiful.
Klancy Miller:
They're gorgeous hands, and we wanted to, of course evoke the fact that this is a book celebrating Black women, so we have, they're all the hands of a Black person. Yeah, I think it's really beautiful. It made me very, very happy to see.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, well, congratulations. You have been so prescient with your projects, especially cooking solo. I know you had no idea the second life that that book would have. What is your vision for this book?
Klancy Miller:
Ooh, you know what? I'll put it out there. I would love to turn this into a documentary. I would love for it to have a life on film in some way. So there's one thing.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that, and people might not know this about you, but you're a trained pastry chef.
Klancy Miller:
I am a trained pastry chef or a trained pastry cook. I went all the way to France.
Kerry Diamond:
And the world's pastry mad now.
Klancy Miller:
Yes. Oh my gosh. I don't want to go back to working in a restaurant kitchen, but I would like to go back a little bit to some of my more intensive pastry making days. Just make more pastry.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have much time to do that these days?
Klancy Miller:
No. At this moment, everything is like book tour, book stuff. When this winds down, it'll be getting into the colder months. I feel like that will be a nice time to get back to some classical French pastry making.
Kerry Diamond:
Absolutely.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
You've been traveling.
Klancy Miller:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
You love travel, so that's not a surprise for you. Did you go on another one of those trips with Maille, the mustard company?
Klancy Miller:
Oh my gosh, in May. Yeah. That was the most magical trip.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you go to Dijon? Where did they take you?
Klancy Miller:
We went to Dijon. Okay. It was incredible. First of all, shout out to Rebekah Peppler for inviting me. Amazing. We started off with a day in Paris. We got to run around, do our own thing. Then we had this wonderful meal at Bistrot Paul Bert.
Kerry Diamond:
And I should say you went to culinary school in Paris and worked there.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah, I've lived there for four years.
Kerry Diamond:
You are a Francophile.
Klancy Miller:
I am. I like to pretend that I'm still a Parisian. Yeah. We had an amazing time dinner at Paul Bert, then we went to Dijon the next day, got off the train, had an amazing lunch. Then we went to the Dijon headquarters, their beautiful shop in the center of Dijon.
Kerry Diamond:
And Maille's a great, it is a really good mustard.
Klancy Miller:
It's the only mustard I buy, and it was so wild when Rebekah invited me to come because I was like, I actually love Maille, truly, it's my favorite mustard.
Kerry Diamond:
Was there really a mustard shortage? Did you talk about that while you were there?
Klancy Miller:
Somebody said that, I actually told one of my French friends that I was coming, and he's like, "There's a shortage of mustard." I was like, really? I don't believe you. It was amazing. Then after Dijon, we went to Beaune and we went to-
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I'm so jealous.
Klancy Miller:
The most perfect experience in a kitchen. It was so beautiful. It was like walking into a Nancy Meyers film.
Kerry Diamond:
Mother-daughter culinary school, and they have a beautiful cookbook.
Klancy Miller:
They do. They're so wonderful, so kind, so patient, just wonderful, wonderful people. It was truly fun. I felt like I was back in culinary school. My joy switch was turned on. It was so incredible. It was beautiful.
Kerry Diamond:
I have not seen Marjorie and Kendall in a long time, I think since they were here in New York promoting their book.
Klancy Miller:
Nice. They're so wonderful. That place is just beautiful. They also have this great shop on the first floor with wonderful cooking utensils, everything you want to buy to make your kitchen as beautiful as theirs and incredible wines, and it's a whole family affair. It's just beautiful. I want to go back all the time.
Kerry Diamond:
And they're both Americans, right?
Klancy Miller:
They're Americans, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
They just packed up and left and did this thing over there. It was very adventurous, if I remember correctly.
Klancy Miller:
Super adventurous. It's such a great place. Wonderful.
Kerry Diamond:
I could see you doing something like that one day.
Klancy Miller:
I would love that. I would love that. The next day we went back to Beaune. We were staying in Dijon, and we went to the marché and we bought all this stuff for a picnic, and then we went to this magical park and Rebekah styled this gorgeous picnic moment, and we brought all of our things that we purchased at the marché like a rotisserie chicken, all the strawberries you can imagine, just all these vegetables, cheeses, everything, and just we sat and had the most beautiful picnic.
Kerry Diamond:
Roast chicken and Dijon mustard. Such a good combo. And french fries. I know you didn't have french fries at your picnic, but isn't that a great combo?
Klancy Miller:
It is. You know how in France when they're doing the rotisserie chicken, they have the potatoes on the bottom getting all the schmaltz, all the deliciousness, so we got those potatoes and the chickens. We had those with the Maille mustard. Oh, so good. It was so good.
Kerry Diamond:
And Rebekah Peppler, she's such a talent. She has that wonderful book, “A Table.”
Klancy Miller:
She's amazing. Yes. I love her. I love everything she does. She's amazing. Yeah. Can you tell, I want to go back to France.
Kerry Diamond:
I can tell. I can tell, I know if you could time travel and just exist there and here. I know you'd very happily do that. And I know this year has also been tough because you lost your mom, Rose.
Klancy Miller:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
I never got to meet her, but I always noticed that she was on your Instagram and you just referred to her lovingly and saw your parents a lot, and I just wanted to say how sorry I am.
Klancy Miller:
Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
How are you and your dad doing?
Klancy Miller:
We're doing okay. I was actually just in Philly, hanging out with my dad. We went to a concert that was really fun. It's been hard. My mom was very much... I've heard the saying, an architect of happiness, and she was very much our architect of happiness in our family, and just a really inspiring person with her career and just who she was as a person and the reason why I'm into food. She was an amazing cook. She loved going to restaurants. She loved traveling. She took me on my first trip to Paris. This book actually has some of her DNA in it for sure. But yeah, that's been the hard part of this year for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
And did I see you dedicated the book to your parents?
Klancy Miller:
Absolutely. Because they did teach me what hospitality is. Yeah. I mean, through how I grew up and how they have welcomed people always, that's something that I absorbed.
Kerry Diamond:
What do you think would've been your mom's favorite recipe in the book?
Klancy Miller:
Well, she would've liked something by me, so she would've liked, like I have these chestnut cakes that she actually has had before because I used to make them a lot when she was alive. So as a matter of fact, I think I made a big batch of them last year, and she had some of them, and she had a sweet tooth like me. I inherited a sweet tooth from both of my parents, and yeah, so she would've loved the chestnut cakes, the Parisian chestnut cakes that I learned at Taillevent when I staged there. And I think, well, she's a big vegetable eater, so she would've loved that salad by the Rousseau sisters. She absolutely would've loved. She would've loved probably everything in the book.
Kerry Diamond:
And you end the book, you are the final chapter.
Klancy Miller:
I am, I am. Yeah. I thought I shouldn't be self-effacing, and I should include myself because I feel like some of the questions that I ask, I feel like all of these perspectives are important, both in terms of learning about somebody's story, but also learning about, oh, how does this person deal with mental health? So I wanted to share my answers too.
Kerry Diamond:
That's great. I'm glad you included yourself in there.
Klancy Miller:
Thanks.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's do a speed round. Beverage you start the day with?
Klancy Miller:
Hot water with lemon.
Kerry Diamond:
Song that makes you smile?
Klancy Miller:
Recently it's been, I Love Days Like This this by Shaun Escoffery.
Kerry Diamond:
Treasured cookbook or book on food?
Klancy Miller:
Oh, “High on the Hog.”
Kerry Diamond:
Favorite food movie?
Klancy Miller:
Oh gosh. I'm going to go with the Julia Child movie with Meryl Streep. What's that called?
Kerry Diamond:
“Julie & Julia.”
Klancy Miller:
“Julie & Julia.” Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Snack food of choice?
Klancy Miller:
Cookies.
Kerry Diamond:
What kind?
Klancy Miller:
Chocolate chip or ginger molasses.
Kerry Diamond:
Favorite kitchen implement?
Klancy Miller:
Knives. My Knife.
Kerry Diamond:
Motto or mantra that you live by?
Klancy Miller:
Oh, let it go.
Kerry Diamond:
Let it go. Okay.
Klancy Miller:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Good advice.
Klancy Miller:
I have a dance teacher who when we're doing the cool down, he's like, let it go. And so I walk out saying let it go. Even if I haven't been to that class in ages, I'm like, let it go. So yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
If you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Klancy Miller:
Oh my gosh. Can it be a fake food celebrity? Like the chef from “The Bear?” Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Carmy?
Klancy Miller:
Carmy.
Kerry Diamond:
But you would want it to be Carmy, not Jeremy Allen White.
Klancy Miller:
No. I'd want it to be Jeremy Allen White pretending to be Carmy. Enough said.
Kerry Diamond:
Great place to end.
Klancy Miller:
Yay.
Kerry Diamond:
Klancy, always a pleasure to see you. I'm so proud of you, and congrats on this gorgeous book.
Klancy Miller:
Thanks. Thank you so much.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Want to stay on top of all things Cherry Bombe, sign up for our free newsletter at cherrybombe.com. Learn about the week's podcast, guests, upcoming events, and fun news from the world of restaurants, cookbooks, cake artistry, and more. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Joseph Hazen is the studio engineer for Newsstand Studios. Our producer is Catherine Baker. Our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our editorial assistant is Londyn Crenshaw. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.