Mouthing Off

ABCSA launch at ABC Kitchen, Photos by Laina MacRae

Parker Posey is not a farmer but she does have fond memories of produce. “When my parents were dating they were very poor, so my dad couldn’t take my mom out,” Posey says. “They would go to the grocery store and pick out funny looking vegetables. When I grew up, we’d still go and find the ones with personality.” Unfortunately, having the actress handpick a shipment of oddball vegetables is not one of the services offered by ABC Kitchen’s new CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, ABCSA, for which Posey is the spokeswoman. But starting this Thursday, ABCSA members will be able to collect biweekly shipments of fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese and eggs from Hudson Valley farms along with recipe cards and preparation tips from chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and F&W BNC 2012 Dan Kluger. In between bites of sugar snap peas during the ABCSA kick-off party, Posey chatted with F&W about her agrarian side, cake pop obsession and idea for an interactive, murder mystery foodie movie. READ MORE»

Photograph of Hanson © Jiro Schneider

F&W apologizes in advance for reintroducing the almost unbearably catchy song “MMMBop” back into your psyche. But the 1997 mega-hit from Hanson, the pop band made up of brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson, has to be mentioned because of a new side project that you would probably never have associated with the baby-faced group: beer. In honor of the band’s 21-year existence, Hanson is releasing Mmmhops, a pale ale produced in partnership with Mustang, a craft brewery based in the Hansons’ home state of Oklahoma. Before it hits the shelves across the country, Mmmhops will be sold on the band’s upcoming tour starting in September. Middle brother and lead singer (as well as keyboardist and guitar player) Taylor Hanson chatted with F&W about good beer and yet another talent, cooking.

Alex James Photo © Adam Gasson

After Britpop superstars Blur first split up in the early 2000s, bassist Alex James got married and moved to a farm in the British countryside—and then he started making cheese. Now, James is more involved in fermented milk than he is in music: He writes newspaper columns in the UK about food, and in August he is curating a music and food festival with Jamie Oliver called The Big Feastival, which will be held on James’s 200-acre farm. Unfortunately, his three artisanal cheeses—Little Whallop (goat cheese washed in brandy and wrapped in a vine leaf), Goddess (a rich, semi-soft cows' milk cheese), and Farleigh Whallop (a goat cheese log rolled in thyme)—are unavailable in the US. This spring James is back on tour with Blur for a handful of big festival shows, including Coachella. Just a few hours before going onstage, James sat down with blogger Zach Brooks to talk farming, Sting’s olive oil and cheese. A portion of the interview is below; to download their entire talk, head to foodisthenewrock.com.

What's it like having a farm in the Cotswolds?
Buying a farm is like running a small bankrupt country. It’s not just a house—a farm—it’s a business. It’s not grand. It has to work. We’ve got a couple of hundred acres and the first two years was like: Hedges, what are you supposed to do with hedges? And drains, and ditches, and there’s water going everywhere, and things are breaking and falling over and running away. And suddenly I found I was getting up earlier than I ever had. But I absolutely loved it. And I’ve always loved cheese, and it took two years to figure out that’s what we should be making on the farm.

When did you get the farm?
Ten years ago. I think farms probably are the natural habitat for the aging rock gentleman. It’s hard to think of somebody in a serious band who doesn’t live on a farm. Roger Daltrey lives on a farm. Paul McCartney lives on a farm. Sting lives on a farm. I tell you what: Sting’s olive oil is the benchmark celebrity food product. It’s absolutely knockout.

Can people buy Sting’s olive oil? Or do you trade it: “I’ll trade you a block of my blue cheese for a bottle of your olive oil”?
There’s a really limited amount. I’ve seen it only once. If you’re listening, Sting, I’m well up for some swapsies.

So how did the cheese thing happen?
I suddenly went from having a balcony as my outside space to being suddenly the ruler of this tiny kingdom that had stuff living in it and growing in it. I was just sort of gradually getting to grips with it all when somebody approached me saying, “I’m a cheesemaker,” and he wanted somewhere to make cheese. And I was like, “Really!” Because people used to throw cheese me at me when Blur was playing and would present it to me in hotel lobbies. It was sort of the one-word thing you used to describe me. Cheese is incredibly tasty stuff. Milk is such a mammalian elixir, isn’t it? And cheese is the ultimate distillation of milk. I do absolutely love cheese. In terms of running a business it would much better if I loved wine, beer, or coffee or something where the profit margins are much higher. 


So how important is the quality of the milk vs. the process?
You can make an OK cheese out of OK milk. And you can make an OK cheese out of great milk. But you can’t make a great cheese out of OK milk. If you made a cheese with Guernsey milk instead of Holstein milk you’d get a much denser, creamier cheese. The rarest cheese in the world is reindeer cheese. They’re very hard to catch, and they don’t like being milked.

Do you have a desert island cheese?
A really good, mature, really hard artisan cheddar would probably be my desert island cheese, with pickled onion and a bit of pineapple. But the one I’m really excited at the moment is aged Gouda. But I think it sort of changes all the time. It depends on what time of day it is as well. Blue cheese, not a breakfast thing. But when it gets dark...it’s a good way to end the day, with a really smelly cheese before you go to bed.

Do you have favorite cheeses around the world?
My passion was definitely developed and informed and nurtured by touring with the band because we’d get cheese on the rider. It would just say “cheese,” so in France where cheese is called fromage, fromage doesn’t mean cheddar. Cheese means cheddar in Britain. If you say cheese, people will think cheddar. If you say fromage in France, that means Camembert probably. And formaggio in Italy, that means maybe Parmesan, maybe mozzarella. Queso in Spain means Manchego probably, which is made from sheep milk, hard cheese, really nutty, sweet, amazing. And it goes on and on all around the world.


What do you think of Kraft American cheese slices?
I’m a big fan of a bit of melty cheese on a burger. I’m not snobby about it.


Hear the entire interview with Alex James as a downloadable podcast on foodisthenewrock.com.

Photo © Evan Agostini - Invision - AP

Model Karlie Kloss on Adventurous Eating: “During a trip to Thailand, my friends and I were daring and tried lots of dishes at the open-air market in Phuket. I was brave enough to try various species of deep-fried insects! It was disgusting. But you only live once, right?”

Model Karlie Kloss is the host of MTV’s House of Style. She collaborated with Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi on a line of gluten-free cookies, available at shopmilkbar.com.

Writer Andrew Solomon on His Strangest Meals: “There was a soup of old duck and locusts in Hangzhou, China. The fermented yak milk in Mongolia also carried some shock value. And then there’s igunaq, the rotted walrus meat that is considered a delicacy in Greenland. I can’t say that any of these was my favorite meal.”

Andrew Solomon is the author of the New York Times best seller Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity.

Conductor Alan Gilbert on Being a Good Guest: “I was in Japan conducting at the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, and one of our hosts insisted that we try the local specialty, basashi, which is horse sashimi. I really couldn’t refuse. It looked like uncooked beef shabu-shabu, and we dipped it in soy sauce with ginger. All I can remember about the taste is that it was just... OK.”

Alan Gilbert is the music director of the New York Philharmonic.

Writer Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) on a Food Shock: “I was backstage at a radio show and there was a plate of things that looked like chocolate-covered strawberries. But then someone popped one in their mouth and said, ‘What the hell is this?’ They were chocolate-covered radishes, and no one would own up to bringing them. They tasted just like chocolate-covered radishes, in case you’re curious.”

The new Lemony Snicket book, The Dark, is in stores now.

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Photo © Suzuki K/CPi Syndication.

On the screen, Hugh Jackman has played a mutant (Wolverine), a monster hunter (Van Helsing), and, in January’s big-screen adaptation of Les Miserables, one of literatures great tragic heroes, Jean Valjean. But in real life, the Australian actor lives in New York’s West Village in the same building as one of Food & Wine’s favorite chef’s, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The pair have become actual friends, and so we asked Jackman about what it’s like to hang out with one of the world’s great chefs.

You’re close with chef Vongerichten. What are the best fringe benefits of that?
Getting invited to his country home. I imagine that a lot of chefs are a bit like actors; you know, if you go to an actor’s house, the last they thing they want to do is get up a do a monologue for you. But Jean-Georges is not like that. You go to his house and it’s like living in a Food & Wine photo shoot: There’s lobster, lamb, steak, fish, salad, all done just simply. Lunch at his house was one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life.

Did you pick up any actual cooking tips from him?
“I said, ‘Mate, do you want some help?’ He taught me how to grill chicken. I could never understand why my chicken’s always dry and a little tough, and you know, he taught me all about the brine and soaking in the brine for 24 hours before you grill it. And he taught me how to do lobster—my job was tucking the butter into the lobster while it was on the grill. You’re not going to J.G.V for a low-fat meal—not happening. I look at him and I wonder, ‘How could you possibly cook and eat like that all the time?’ He only eats about two mouthfuls of everything, he’s very disciplined.”

Those are good tips.
Yeah, but now I’m putting the pressure on my son, because Jean-Georges has a daughter. I’m like, ‘Hurry up, come on, this is the marriage! This is what should be happening!’ It’s been arranged.

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Could Taco Bell sink Chipotle? That's the contention of influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who says that the ubiquitous fast food chain's new Cantina Bell menu will draw customers away from its pricier, more ingredient-conscientious rival. F&W's Kate Krader joined Felix Salmon and Anthony de Rosa of Reuters to taste the burritos and bowls side-by-side in this amusing video clip. »

Courtesy of The Buttermilk Drop Bakery & Café

When the indie-film sensation Beasts of the Southern Wild won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, one lead actor, Dwight Henry, was busy handing out buttermilk drops–a sweet biscuit much like a glazed doughnut without the hole–to anyone who might take one. Read more >