Cookbooks & Building Confidence in the Kitchen Feat. Slice & Torte - a podcast by Brionna Jimerson

Let’s talk cookbooks, featuring “Slice and Torte” podcast hosts Danielle and Sherrod--the cookbooks the ones that changed our lives, the ones that challenged our pallets, and the ones that never should’ve been printed.

Slice & Torte on Instagram, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and on their site! 

“Slice & Torte” podcast is a conversation about food as if it were pop culture. Two cooks from different perspectives, Danielle and Sherrod, love to “make food that’s simple and delicious, and warms the soul.”

 

0:30 - Danielle and Sherrod introduction: “By day,” Danielle is a Senior Analyst for a healthcare company and Sherrod is a UX Designer for a medical device company. “By night,” they cook too much, buy too many plates, and create “Slice and Torte”.

 

5:00 - How Sherrod and Danielle decided to share their passion for food through podcasting.

 

6:00 - How design, art and science merge to create the “Slice and Torte” podcast and platform.

 

7:55 - “When did you turn on the stove for the first time?” and early memories of cooking (including Danielle’s incredible story of cooking for her family...at age four.)

 

9:40 - How Sherrod’s great aunt set him on his path of loving food and community.

 

11:35 - The Four Cookbook #BriBooks

-Chrissy Teigen's “Cravings”

-”How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman

-“Rodale’s Garden Fresh Cooking”

-“Vintage Pies” by Ann Haney Collins

 

12:20 - Cookbooks for building confidence: “The Martha Stewart Cooking School,” “Cook with Jamie” by Jamie Oliver.

 

16:24 - What cooking has taught both Sherrod and Danielle about themselves.

 

17:30 - “Cooking is the highest form of magic. it’s the only way I know to stop time, to cure disease, to completely change a good day from a bad day. Understanding that at ones core is so fulfilling, because when you can do that, you can do things like change your outlook!” - Sherrod Faulk, “Slice & Torte” podcast

 

19:05 - “What I’ve learned is that there's only suggestions, there’s no rules. The kitchen is the one place where literally what I want goes. No one can tell me what to do. I can try whatever I want to try. For me, that’s very freeing and relaxing. And I’ve learned, there’s nothing I can’t make. Even if it doesn’t exist yet, I can make it and invent it. I’ve also learned, it’s OK to fail. But, that sense of failure is so freeing, and I don’t know many other places where you can feel good about failing other than the kitchen.” - Danielle Jones, “Slice & Torte” podcast

 

BREAK

 

21:00: #BriBooks Cookbook #1: “Rodale’s Garden Fresh Cooking” and eating with the seasons/ seasonality.

“Rodale’s Garden Fresh Cooking” my go-to for ingredient-based cooking. Each chapter focuses on a specific crop. Listen to “Bri Books all about “Rodale’s Garden Fresh Cooking,” featuring the incredible @ABeautifulNest.

 

24:10 - Seasonality 101 and eating with the seasons, and shoutout to farmers markets! @GrowNYC Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket warrior!

 

26:15 #Bribooks Cookbook #2: “Vintage Pies:Classic American Pies for Today's Home Baker” by Anne Collins. These aren’t your aunty’s sweet potato and pumpkin pies. Danielle gives her take on a few bizarre pies from America’s history, including Amber Pie, Boiled Cider Pie, Grape Pie...and Jefferson Davis Pie.

 

29:30 #Bribooks Cookbook #3: “Cravings” by Chrissy Teigen. One of the strengths of the book is that it felt like a quick trip to the grocery store could pull off all recipes--no specialty store required.

 

30:40: “No food is exclusionary in this world. everyone eats. these ingredients are available to everyone. It’s well worth it for people to get out of their comfort zones, go to grocery stores in neighborhoods you’ve never explored, talk to people you wouldn’t normally talk to. Get out and explore.” - Sherrod

 

31:45 - Sherrod and Danielle on “Cravings” by Chrissy Teigen and how it’s a highly-social cookbook, great for people who entertain.

 

34:05 - #Bribooks Cookbook #4: “How to Cook Everything” by Mark Bittman

 

35:00 - Why we don’t understand cookbooks that don’t have photos?!

 

BREAK

 

37:45 - GAME TIME! Let’s play “Read It, Reading It, Wrote It,” inspired by “Slice & Torte’s “Love It, Hate It, Ate It segments!

“Read It” =  a book you feel like you read and it taught you something about uncovering passions, etc

“Reading It” = A book you’re reading or want to read next

“Wrote It” = The book that resonated with you so deeply, you feel you could’ve written it!

 

38:30 - Sherrod’s “Read It”: Martha Stewart’s book “Entertaining” cookbook taught him that cooking isn’t *just* cooking. “Cooking is a way to have fun, to have a party, to change people's’ lives, to get outside your own culture,  a way to take a trip around the world.”

 

39:50 - Danielle’s “Reading It”: “Birdbox” by Josh Malerman,  and “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wilde” by Junot Diaz.

 

40:30 - Sherrod’s “Reading It”: “Mastering the Art of Japanese Homecooking” by Masaharu Morimoto

 

42:00 - Danielle’s “Wrote It”: “The Cooking Gene” by Michael Twitty and “Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee” by Bee Wilson

 

43:20 - Brionna’s #bribooks: “Everyday is Saturday: Recipes and Strategies for Easy Cooking Every Day of the Week” by Sarah Copeland

 

44:10 - Danielle’s “Read It”: “Between Harlem & Heaven” by Alexander Smalls all about Afro-Asian-American cooking and history

45:00 - Sherrod’s “Wrote It”: “Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry” by Cathy Barrow, and “It’s All Easy: Super Delicious Recipes for a Home Cook”

Further episodes of Bri Books

Further podcasts by Brionna Jimerson

Website of Brionna Jimerson