Hummus Will Bring Us Together ~ with Stephanie Pierce (GUEST CHAT)

What do hummus, gumbo, German bread, Jewish food, autism, Down syndrome, a South Australian lamb roast and one very versatile carrot have in common?

Stephanie Pierce.

Stephanie is a disability specialist, cookbook author and culinary educator whose work focuses on making cooking more accessible, more inclusive and a lot less intimidating. We talk about neurodivergence in the kitchen, confidence, texture, taste, food waste, travel, and why learning a few cooking techniques can change far more than what’s on your dinner plate.

Also featuring: the world’s most enviable spice cupboard, one microwave cake nobody would eat, and the comforting magic of grilled cheese with tomato soup.

All The Stephanie Things 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pickytonguecooking

Buy The Cook Books & More: https://pickytonguecooking.com/

Even More Ways to Get In Touch:

https://linktr.ee/Pickytongue

Content Note ~
This podcast gets into bodies, panic attacks, trauma, sexism, mental health, and the occasional emotional sinkhole. Please look after yourself only listen when you feel safe to engage with potentially triggering material. 
Also, I swear.

Support ~ 
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Credits
Recorded on the lands of the Ramindjeri and Ngarrindjeri peoples.
Sovereignty never ceded.

Recorded & edited at Ridley Farm Studio by Luke Ridley
https://ridleyfarmstudio.com...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello, and welcome to your brand new episode of The C-Word with Catherine Redden. Today I'm interviewing Stephanie Pierce. Stephanie is a disability specialist, content writer, and culinary professional whose work sits at the intersection of food, inclusion, communication, and education. Across roles in Europe, Israel, and the United States, she has designed culinary programs, led community initiatives, created written content, and supported diverse populations through accessible and engaging experiences. With her MA in linguistics and a background in communicative disorders, Stephanie brings a unique perspective to conversations on inclusive cooking, well-being, language, and storytelling. And she's also a published cookbook author, magazine contributor, and speaker on making food and learning more accessible for all. Stephanie, welcome to the pod.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Thank you so much, Catherine. Thank you so much for having me. It's it's a real pleasure and privilege to be with you today.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Oh, thank you. And where do we find you?

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Where are you based? So right now I live in Germany in a small ish city called Darmstadt, next to Frankfurt. Uh, this is in Hessen, so southern-ish Germany, but not so much close to Bavaria that we're doing nothing but drinking beer. It's it's really nice. I like it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I've been to Bavaria and I do have to concur with you that there is a lot of beer drinking.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

There is a lot of beer.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Yeah, we're actually a bit further north. We're about an hour or so north of Bavaria and Hessen, and we do have beer, but the specialties are more like wine and stuff, and it's a bit more diverse. Uh, it's nice, it's cool. Also, regular wine, like made of grapes, is a really popular thing here. It's really cool. I really enjoy it. So, is it a red wine or a white wine that the region's famous for? Uh, we do primarily whites and roses. Uh, red wine here is god awful enough to winemakers. They try and they cry all miserably just caramel.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, probably needs to be. It probably needs to be a bit warmer for a red.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Exactly. That's definitely a factor.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

So you wrote a great book which I've had a look at called Picky Tongue Pic oh, and I've messed it up. Picky Tongue Idiot Proof. Tell me a little bit about the title and the book.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Sure, all right. Um basically, so the book uh Picky Tongue Idiot Proof is my second book. And um, so because I'm not a divergent, I've got dyspraxia, and I've also got a no spicy brain. Thank you, mom, bipolar disorder is mine. Um so I essentially read that book um because I wanted to contribute to my own uh community, and I really felt like it was important to uh to support people who are neurodivergent in the kitchen. Um the book is also useful for people who are beginner cooks, but I really like to promote and support people with disabilities in general and life. It's a big part of my ethos. Um so the idea behind the title is um that like in the same way as people who are from the LGBT plus everything, letters things community, um, have re-embraced the term queer. I'm embracing the term idiot, and which is historically has been used to define a person with like Down syndrome, autism, learning disabilities of all kinds. And I'm really sort of focusing on embracing that whole concept of like, yes, this is who we are. We're a little bit different, we do our thing, and we're fantastic for it.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

And so I am a little bit ignorant about someone with a neurospicy brain and how cooking might be tricky. Can you go into that a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Sure. Well, it's I think we could talk about this exclusively for several hours. Uh, I'll try to summarize for the sake of uh, you know, oh no, talk as long as you want. I got all night. Cheers, you're very sweet. I appreciate that. Um, basically, so the idea for show of no spicy brain and no divergence, they're sort of under the same umbrella of people who sort of function a bit differently, not worse, just need a different set of rules to work properly is a good way. And um so a lot of things that around cooking are um requiring things like following order, using executive function, uh specific techniques, um, a lot of things like physical skills, mental skills, sensory issues. These are all things that are a big factor in cooking, and that a lot of people who are neurodivergent slash neurospicy do struggle with tremendously. Um so as a whole, I think it's very important um to be aware that these are not obstacles to becoming a great cook. We just learn to cook a little bit differently. Like um, you go. Um so yeah, so like when I was teaching cooking uh in London, when I was working with adults who are neurodivergent. At the time there were struck off people with learning disabilities, which yeah, fine, it's a while ago. Um we had a big group and everybody was very different, and everybody had their own needs and techniques, and I had to use different methodologies with each of them to support them to learn to cook, and that was a challenge, but it was also amazing because you really saw, like, okay, this person has a sensory overload on say spices, so they can't handle it so much. So we would do more like European style cooking rather than like a person who uh didn't have that issue could handle that just very well, for example. Just for instance, you know.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

And I I love in your book how you I loved all the pictures, and because that but they but they weren't they're not like they're really instructive, but without being too educational, and I know that sounds a bit, but they just I I loved I loved knowing well this is what it this is what it'll look like when I do this, and this is the next step, but it's not like a kid's cookbook, like it's it's still an adult cookbook.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

Of course, yeah. I worked with a great photographer, her name is Erin Herb Cohen, and we met in Israel. And I wrote that book mostly in Israel. It's a while back now, to be fair, and uh basically she had a really interesting eye. Like I explained her, I want this to be like still like a normal cookbook. It shouldn't look like something that's only for educational purposes, it should also just be for fun, they should be beautiful. Uh, I want like a certain like sort of sultry sort of aesthetic to the final picture, like the final product pictures rather. Um, as far as the the step-by-step photographs, yeah. I wanted them to look nice and she did a beautiful job, and it was very much like sort of taking place in my home kitchen. So it looks like it was happening at home and not like in a studio, you know, and it was really cool. It was a lot of work that photo shoot. Like it was we did it over two days, and it was very difficult, but we did well. She was amazing, we were all amazing, and it was great. So, yeah, it's cool. That's five PC.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

That's a really short time to photograph so much stuff. Two days, you must have been really pushing it.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Yeah, my partner was there, and he had just gotten his second COVID shot, and uh he was just completely done that I needed help because it was terrible, it was absolutely terrible. Bless him, he was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Um it sounds like you've lived and worked in quite a few different cities and countries. Do you want to go through that and how those experiences have influenced the way not just that you think about food and cooking, but your community and community in general?

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Sure, yeah. So basically, um got a kind of unusual story, I think. So basically, after I graduated with uh my bachelor's in communicative disorders, I went backtracking through Europe, as we do in the States, and I didn't come home. I was like, yeah, I'm just gonna stay here. I mean, I have no partner, I have no job, I have nothing really keeping me in California. Um, yeah, so I stayed in London for three years, and then I wanted to go back to school, and so I went to Israel because if you're a Jewish, you can live there for free. Well, you can move there and you're very well supported, and you can study for free, rather. You don't lose a free. Anyway, so I did that. Um, so my mom was living out there, so that was nice. And I met my partner who we're still together after nine years. Um, this is congratulations. Thank you so much, it's very kind. Um, and um then so corona, this and that. I went back to the US for a while, and uh then I was teaching cooking to teenagers from the inner cities, which was interesting. Uh it was actually really nice, like it just took a while for them to warm up to me because these are primarily, you know, teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds who like nobody looked like me. Everybody was either like, you know, African American or la or Latino. So they see me walking in, you know, like middle class white person, like who are you, you know, but it was um and what did you say was that in a prison, did you say? No, no, no, it was uh it was like for like a youth program.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

No, no, no, it wasn't in a prison, it was just it just happened to be inner city kids in California. And these are primarily you know young people who are uh African-American or Latino, like exclusively, really. And uh so you know, walking in and it was a bit unusual um because they didn't really know what to expect, but I felt like after one or two sessions, we were great, you know, we got we got along really well. It was just a question of just not trying to talk down to them or just just being yourself and just supporting them and just doing my thing, and it was great. Like it was really an interesting experience for that.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Um, and then back to Israel. Did they bring some recipes from their family?

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Yeah, they did actually. Like we had the first day of class, uh, one thing, one thing that we organized was like, you know, what are your favorite things to cook? Let's learn and cook them here. And uh that was really cool, it was really enjoyable because like they brought in, you know, like gumbo, which was really fun. Or, you know, what is gumbo?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

We don't I don't think we have gumbo in Australia. What is gumbo?

SPEAKER_03 10:56

Ah, okay, fascinating. So gumbo is from New Orleans originally, it's uh basically like a soup, and it's um how do you put this? Wow, it's it's fun to swim this. So it's like the base is rule, but it's not like French rule where it's just like basically fat and um and flour, but it's cooked down until it's very dark instead of just for like a hot second, basically. And then you season it with all kinds of um beautiful spices, like a lot of onion and garlic. Uh, you can do versions with chicken or uh seafood is really popular, particularly shrimp is a really popular, or crab is quite uh on the vogue right now. So is it quite thick? Yeah, it's soup, but it's thick. It's like in between a soup and a stew for texture. And then it utilizes the Holy Trinity, which is really popular in uh in New Orleans cooking, cajun cooking, creole, and so on and so forth, which is uh onion and green peppers and celery. Um yeah, gumbo is awesome. It's one of my favorite things to make.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

How is it different to a chowder?

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Oh, okay. So they're similar, like the techniques are similar, uh, except for with the chowder, like you're not cooking the roux uh down so far. Also, chowder is with butter and gumbos with oil. Okay. Um, primarily because it's a pretty sort of how do you put this delicately? It's like it's a food for people that comes from a demographic that's historically poor, and as such, butter is expensive, and so oil is king. Oh chowders with butter. Uh and also chowders are usually like uh white bait with cream and such, and um gumbo doesn't require that. I think you just don't need it at all, it's not necessary.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Oh, I wish I I've been to New Orleans. I wish I'd tried some now. I'll have to go back. Ah, you do have to go back. I loved the food in the south. I I actually really enjoyed the food all over the States, but I loved the food in the south, the cornbread, and oh, I loved it.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Sure, sure. Crombo's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Yeah, that's the awesome food. So you wrote this cookbook, and you you said that you wanted to teach confidence and techniques, not just recipes. And where did that inspiration come from? Because I I I've never heard that before. Well, I don't think I have. I and I read a lot of cookbooks. Um and I cook from some cookbooks, but I don't I don't feel very confident to approach them sometimes. So I'm interested in the bit about confidence and and techniques, not just recipes.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Sure. Well, all right, like it's like this like you can learn recipes as much as you want, but if you don't know how to work the basics, you're not gonna get anywhere. Like, you know, if you know how to do basic cooking, you can cook from the whole world. Yeah, it's really just about like when you learn your basics, your basic life skills, your basic sort of cooking methodologies, like you know, brazing and frying and walk cooking and so on and so forth. And you can really cook for like anything that you want. Confidence comes with time, it's sort of like about how when how do you put this? Take your time with it. All you need to do is just keep trying to cook, try keep trying things that you enjoy, even if you don't enjoy it. It's just about like focusing on the mindset and knowing that you can do it and feeling that you can do it. Um, it sounds really corny to say this, but just do it and try and try again. We love corny.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

We love corny. Corny as you like.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Yeah, but it it it does sound corny and I'm sorry to say this, but it really it's it it is it really is just about like trying and doing your best and having that positive mindset of being able to make great food. I went to cook when I was five and like I started to at least. I mean, my first cake what I've put was Nutella and pine nuts and sugar. Terrible, but yeah, you're fine, whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Um anyways, um yeah, I mean I cooked a cake in the microwave once and it was a disaster.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

It's actually a thing. There's actually a recipe for mangrove cake in my book, Idiot Bruce.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Oh, really? I didn't yeah, I I look it was it was the 80s, microwaves were new, there were no recipes for cake. And I remember and I loved to cook when I was a child, and I remember the dog wouldn't even eat it. Like it was just it was like a brick. It was like a brick. Um I I have some people in my family on the spectrum, and I know that they really struggle with different textures of food um and that sort of thing. What what what do you hope that people get out of your cookbook who struggle with particular textures and tastes?

SPEAKER_03 16:09

Okay, sure. Well, all right, like I actually uh a while back I did a gig, I was uh cooking for a child who had basically a food reversion of all kinds, and he had also them as well. Okay, and that was really hard because he had all manner of things he didn't like, and we cooked so many different things just to try to make it work, and he ate a few things, so it was a success, but out of maybe 15 like different dishes I made for him, he maybe ate five of them, which is better than usual, apparently. So I was happy. Um so with different textures, it's like you have to understand that every ingredient has a multitude of potential for texture. For example, carrot. Carrot can be crunchy, it can be soft, it can be silky, it can be like kind of gritty if you're grading it and so on and so forth. So you can work with any ingredient that you want. It's just about making it work for you.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

And that's in the way that you prep it.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

Exactly. It's just about like knowing what you could do with the different ingredients. Like, for example, I mean, I've got a disability too, and I have a thing with like one texture really bothers me, and that's like the texture of liver. I cannot eat liver in any format, and anything has that similar texture, I'm just like, dude, no, just take it away from me.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Uh it's it's it's a thing. I love liver, Stephanie. I love liver. Love for enjoying.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

I won't like to eat it, but I can't do it, it's just not my thing. Um but um what's solid for me the change of texture a bit is like if you make like fogas, because it you just sorry for the politically incorrect food that I'm mentioning here, but it's amazing, fine. Um, but for rat is very much liver, and yeah, in that format, I will eat liver. It's just it's prepared differently and it's a different format of it. So you'd have pate, maybe. It needs to be four gas, even my regular pate.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

It needs to be foie.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

I don't really snap, I'm food's not. I like to eat well, I'm sorry, but no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

I I went to um when I was in the Philippines, that I don't think they do it anymore, but and bear with me because it's not going to sound great, but there was a buffet at the Soffortel, but this is like no other buffet I've had. They had a foie gras station, they had a cheese room, it was absolute yeah, it was just you know, they were they would shell a lobster in front of you. I think it was, I can't remember, I know they don't do it anymore, but I think it was Sunday lunch. I could be wrong about that. My ex-husband has a better memory than me about stuff like that. But yeah, it was just I had Foi guar there for the first time and I felt a little bit guilty, but I really liked it. Really liked it.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

Fagran's awesome. I mean, like I know in California for a long time it was illegal, and they keep going back and forth on that. Um, I remember I was talking to one of my uh good friends who's also a chef out there, and um his restaurant that he was working at featured Fagra. Like the first restaurant in San Francisco that I featured Fagra after it was it became legalized again. And Peter was literally like outside of the restaurant, like with picket signs the entire night, and it was a whole thing. I'm like, you know, it's not a politically correct food at all. I will not say that, but it's good, and every once in a while for a treat, I think it's okay to indulge.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah, it's probably a customer for another podcast. Um if you don't know what Foie Guar is, I've I feel like I've got some listeners. Just DM me and we can go through it together. Tell me, when you wrote Picky Tongue Idiot Proof, were you thinking of one particular person?

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Um not necessarily. Like, I mean, disability's been a big part of my life. Um, I mean, I like one of my best friends has a high-functioning autism, and like he struggles with cooking. So maybe a little bit him, a little bit me, a little bit my family, and so on and so forth. Like, people in my family have a very like neurodivergent, neurospicy background in general. Um, but I wouldn't say one person in particular, no, just like as a whole, the disabled community, neurodivergent folks in particular. Um, people with visual impairments as well. Like, if you look at the book, the font is huge. The pictures are very colorful. Like, that was intentional. It was really just about like, I mean, uh making sure that as many people as possible can manage. Also, like the language is very simple. I'm a well-spoken person. I do write like differently than a very sort of you know linguistically simple uh cookbook, but that was very intentional, really. Getting people who have all sorts of cognitive abilities into the kitchen was very important.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Do you think that more people can cook than we think can cook? And what I mean by that is I interviewed um a woman who has a disability recently, and and I'm probably gonna misquote her, but she said something like, and I'm not sure we've made this bit to air, but like quite often she gets treated like a child. Sure. And just so so do you think more people can cook than we think can cook?

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Of course. Um, no, like for a while uh in undergrad, I had to, well, I was part of my program, but I went to volunteer um with blind people, taking them into commuter name. We did activities and such, and they were saying, Yeah, you know, we cook all the time, we just have to do it a bit differently. You could record people.

unknown 22:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

Um that was really interesting. It was great. Uh, because I did a class on visual impairments, and part of the requirement to grab to finish the class was to do like, you know, 10 hours whatever volunteer work with people from the community. And so they were just saying that they had all kinds of different ways that they cooked. Everything was like hyper-labeled in Braille, and everything was very systematic, and they touched everything. And they used, I mean, because this is the US that this was taking place in, so they used to be more convenienced products, but it's still more impressive than ordering from you know Uber East or whatever. Um, so really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

I'm ashamed to admit, but it had never crossed my mind before that blind people and cooking, like, how does that work? I mean, I cook every day. I I I well not every day, but most days. And I um yeah, like that must be a real bloody barrier to try and get over.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

I'm sure. Um, no, definitely. It's hard, but they do the best they can. Um, some of my favorite people to cook with were people um who have Down syndrome because like they're really underestimated. Like people with Down syndrome have such a great heart. I mean, like, you're not gonna find people that are warmer hearted than people with Down syndrome in general.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Yeah, I've noticed that.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

They're really cute, they're lovely. I love working with people with Down syndrome. Like, I know more about autism because I've worked more with people on the spectrum in general, but Down syndrome is like such a pleasure. Um, so yeah, no, it's quite interesting. Like, um, I had a a student who has Down syndrome and he had a difficult time speaking as well. Um, he had a bit of a stutter and uh articulation issues and so on and so forth. But he just was so happy when he was like in the kitchen and he was just doing his thing and he was a bit you know, a bit slower, but he got everything done really well very thoroughly. Um that was great, it was a really good experience, really enjoyable.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

Because there is something really empowering, I think, for any well, not for anyone, but my ex you know, and I'm an able-bodied person, but my experience of cooking something delicious is incredible. Like that if you can cook it from the ingredients that you buy, and you know, you enjoy the taste, and there is something incre I mean, I'm I'm single and I live on my own, but I still cook most days, and there's something really satisfying about um cooking a meal and and really enjoying it, and so I imagine does that give confidence to other people as well?

SPEAKER_03 24:43

Of course, I mean I think that like being looking for yourself is a big step in independence. Um, like I have a student now who's in the States, and uh so I teach him online and he has autism, and like he's in his 20s, and the idea really is that he wants to learn how to be an adult living by himself, and his mom cooks a lot, and he has all kinds of dietary stuff, and it's really hard to find recipes that we can do together. Um, he's a very intelligent person, he just you know has a lot of stuff going on, and um so the the main idea here really is just getting him in the kitchen, and and like the first say three lessons we did were really challenging because he's also scared of the heat. So you can imagine the kitchen, it was just like, dude, you know, it was a difficult fit, but uh we we got there in the end, and now he's like, Yeah, I want to make races chicken, I want to make chocolate mousse, I want to make like you know, more sophisticated dishes. Um once you get a little bit of confidence.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

And I mean I found it step by step. Yeah, I mean I I found that with cooking too, that once you learn a few basics, um you know, it never it never bothers me if I don't have an ingredient. I just figure it out. I talk about my ex-husband a lot tonight. I don't often talk about him on podcasts. He was a scor he was a Scorpio. And so he if if it said grated uh not grated, if it said ground cinnamon and we didn't have it, he would go to the supermarket and get it. Whereas I would have just figured I would have just made do, you know. True. I mean, unless I was making cinnamon buns, but um, but yeah, so I think yeah, I think a little bit of confidence goes a long way, and there is something really I mean this is gonna sound corny now you've got me saying it, but there's something really wholesome there's something really wholesome about cooking for yourself. I mean, and cooking for people I know cooking for other people, other people like that as well. But for me, I love cooking for myself. Stephanie, tell me what is your favorite thing to cook and what is your favorite thing to eat.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Alright, so I favor thing to eat goes first. I'm a well-on a simple pleasures. You give me a good bread and good cheese, and I'm thrilled. Um, you must love Germany. Well, I lived in France for two years, so I was super happy with the cheeses. Um, that was great. But I must say French bread, well, it's good, but German bread is so much more interesting.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Germany has Germany bread's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Oh, yeah, I think Germany has something like 500 varieties of bread. It's wild. Uh, and then in France there's 370 some other varieties of cheese that you can imagine. You bring them two together and you're doing great, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

They ever had a war. Why did they have a war? One had breeze, bread, one had cheese. You think they'd get on forever?

SPEAKER_03 27:42

Sure, exactly. I mean, I always say, like, because I mean, yes, I lived in Israel, yes, I'm Jewish, I have tons of friends who are Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, whatever, such. And I we always say, you know, hummus will bring people together. Yes. And everyone's eating, everyone loves it. It's a lifestyle, it's the whole thing, and it's the same, it's the same, it's the same idea here, with a bit more uh current events. So I would like to not go into that too deeply, but I just want to say that hummus will bring us together, they really will, ultimately.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

But um thank thank you for saying that.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Oh, sure. Um, so yeah, so in terms of favorite thing to cook, it really depends on the mood. Like my favorite food is grilled cheese with tomato soup, which is ridiculous given that it's such a simple thing. But that's more like comfort food, guilty, pleasure when I'm by myself. Like, I make something very simple because I'm like you, I hate cooking for myself with a passion. Like, I will cook for myself.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

It took me a while. It it took me a while to cook for myself when I was first separated. I really didn't do it at all. Um, but in the last year, my GP, and by the way, this is not a medical podcast, and I'm not a doctor. Um, but my GP told me that there's a bit of research around eating a really wide variety of plant-based foods is good for your mental health. And again, and again, I'm not a doctor, that's not medical advice. I'm just telling you what she she told me. So I've really been trying to eat sort of 30 to 40 different plant-based foods a week. And um so I've been cooking a lot. Wonderful, but small amounts, but yeah, it's um yeah, and I become a bit I can get a bit obsessive, so I'm trying not to be too obsessive about it. But it's I mean, I I yeah, I mean I enjoy a lot of a lot of food, so wonderful. So you've lived in the States and France and Germany and Israel and London, and they're the just the ones I can remember. What different food cultures have you experienced? Well, all right, like um tell me about I'd love to know more about Jewish food and Israeli food because I don't know anything about it, and I want to get invited to is it Friday night dinner somewhere?

SPEAKER_03 30:13

You can go to my house if you want. I mean, I want to really happy to have you when you're in time. Please tell me. I'd love to host you. Um, sure. So Jewish food. Well, first let's start by saying that Jewish people are all over the world, and so there's not one Jewish food, there's a bunch of them, and they all sort of work together with Jewish culture and where the people are from. For example, my family is from North Africa, from Tunisia, and so we eat a lot of couscous and brick and a lot of like agin, like slow cooked braises, stuff like that. A lot of fried food, a lot of olive oil, citrus, and so on and so forth. Um, my partner's family is Ashkenazi, he's from Russia.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

And so they eat different stuff altogether. They're eating like a lot of like potatoes, mayonnaise, um, like they eat a lot of soup, a lot of like fats, because you know, it's really cold in Russia, of course. And so they have to consider that. Um for instance, then you have a juice from Ethiopia, and they're eating more or less the same thing. Um, like as I understand it, like as far as Ethiopian diet, juice from like Iraq, for example. I mean, there's not many left, but when they were out there, um they had like their own way of eating, and then and so on and so forth. There's also Jews in India, they're a small tribe. I think it's about a thousand or so people in Jewish communities in India.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

Um so what you say.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

And they do their thing. So there's not one Jewish food, there's just kosher, there's like a certain there's kosher law. Kosher basically is the idea that like we eat what the Taurus says we eat. So no pork is a big one, no shellfish. We don't mix meat and milk, so you never have like a cheeseburger. I mean, I do I love cheeseburgers, I love worship because I'm a terrible Jew. I'm sorry, but like some things are sacred, but people who are religious and who practice that part of Judaism, they will eat a certain way.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Uh that's fine. Um, so no, it's quite interesting. So it's really about like where you're from is what you eat.

SPEAKER_02 32:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Like it's not as mean, there's things that are more well known, like food that's like Ashkenazi, so Jews from Europe, um their food is more well known because their communities are more well known. But um I'm gonna be a very bad partner to my wonderful man. The food that is most popular among Jews of Europe is not as interesting as what I grew up eating with my North African family. I must say, it's not I love spices, I love flavor, I love like strong, beautiful flavors, and it's not really the same game as what they're doing in Europe.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

So I think you just said something.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

I think he just said something that really hit home with me. He said something like, the food you love is is the food from where you're from. And that really resonates with me. I grew up on a farm in South Australia and we ate a lot of lamb, like probably six or seven nights a week. So for me, yeah. So for me, a lamb roast, I don't cook it myself, but mum will occasionally cook it for us all. And it's like she cooks it in a particular way. And yeah, that's a that's a meal that will always bring me comfort, you know. And I think as a family, when we share it, we we talk about um, you know, stuff that happened when we were kids and our fond memories of growing up on the farm. And I do think it's a way food connects. People are always talking about food and connection, but that that's how when you just said that, that reminded me, you know, lamb roast will always always be very special to me. And and I will be very judgy when other people cook it.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Of course you will. I understand that perfectly. I mean, that it's the way you know best.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Of course you're gonna think highly of it. Um well, we only ate mutton, we ate mutton actually, which which has a lot more taste than lamb, but it's but it's trickier to cook because it's an older animal and so it can be a bit tougher, so you have to cook it a little bit differently. But so long cook for mutton. I love mutton. But when but you know, when now if I go somewhere and it's all lamb and I I do get a bit judgy, Stephanie, but I keep it to myself. I mean my my the secret's out now. Um tell me about making the most of what's already because this is a passion of mine. Because I house sit, often um at the end of a house sit, I'll have not have to, but I'll wanna eat the food that I've bought and stuff. Tell me about making the most of what's already in the fridge and pantry.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Sure. Um well I think it's important to like before you want to make something, first see what you have and see what you can make before you go to the store and buy a whole bunch of other stuff.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

That's one approach. Um now I think if you have that ability, having a well-stocked pantry with a ton of spices, condiments, staple items, different stuff you can start with will save you money over time. Like my pantry is ridiculous. Like I bet it is. It's it's it's it's it's a curse. Like I have a huge kitchen now, which is amazing, and I'm really enjoying it with a lot of storage space. I have an entire one of those like um very tall cabinets uh that's only spices and condoms. Oh wow. It's it's it's actually and I have to organize them by like part of the world, it's ridiculous. Um you'll appreciate this. I have a whore for spices. I have them from all over the place. I love them, they make me so happy, and I can get really excited about them.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Like I was doing uh is there an exotic spice that we might not have heard of that you love to cook with?

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Sure. Um, well, it depends. Like, so I mean again, touching on living in Israel for five years, so I got really into the spicing there. Uh Zatar and sumac are king out there, if you if you're familiar with those. Uh sumac is a berry that's dried, it's purple and a bit tangy and sour. Zatar is a blend and it's um like thyme, a bit of oregano, some sesame, and some sumac. Those are really nice. Uh I was in BDC, Georgia, so the country, not the state, just to clarify for your American listeners. Thank you. Um, they have an amazing spicy net there because they were also part of the Silk Road. And so there's really wonderful things. They cook with a lot of marigold and fenugreek. Oh, cool. There's a blend called the Ajika, which is really cool. Uh, it's my favorite thing in the world right now. It's like a jika. I get really excited about it. It's awesome. What do they clear with the marigold? Uh they dry it and it's it's used in a lot of like meat dishes primarily. It goes a lot with like poultry and pork. Okay. So I know it's great. Now, Georgian food is amazing. It's it's one of my favorites. Like, I learned to cook it a few years ago and then I went there twice. Um, very interesting place. Great food, people are really warm and wonderful. It's really affordable. So it's a great place to travel if you're on a budget for sure. Very cool place.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

And that's in Eastern Europe, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 37:59

It's in Western Asia, but Western Asia.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

So your geography is a lot better than mine. So I appreciate you letting me know. Um Do you think America has so in Australia we have a debate. Oh, I don't know if it's a debate, but there's often a lot of discussion about what Australian food really is. And I think we've kind of landed on the term modern Australian, um, which I think is probably a fusion of a whole lot of stuff. Do you think there's a a food culture in America?

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Well, okay. I grew up in a very special part of the US. Like, because the Bay Area around San Francisco is literally like where um, like where slow food in the United States started. That basically like the idea of slow food is really like farm the table, organic, green stuff, Alice Waters, Chef andice, all that aside where I grew up, like down the road, literally, it is where a restaurant is also. Okay, so I have a different opinion on what constitutes American food. Um, so food in the US in general, people think okay, you're eating hamburgers, maybe some Mexican and Asian food, then we're done, but it's actually a very like culinarily rich place. California in particular is very fertile, and so like California literally feeds half the country.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 39:21

Uh yeah, and the San Joaquin Valley is one of the agricultural primarily, and uh it's amazing. Um, so it's in a similar vein as in Australia, where there's like a new American, New Australian, modern Australian, I believe is the word that you use. New American is more or less what we're using as well, and it's a lot of like it's basically one big fusion of like a bit of Asian, a bit of Latin American, uh, a bit of southern cuisine, and then you bring it all together, and it's a really wonderful. Um, the produce where I'm from is amazing. The produce in like Chicago is not. I'm sorry to say, Chicago has over there a couple years ago, and it was terrible. Um it's just really just about like yeah, I feel very lucky enough to come from the Bay Area where I was exposed to great food from an early age.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Uh really shaped a lot of my palate and my current passion, curiosity, and obsession for food. You know that's quite a shaping experience.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

That's a really good point about California being fertile and producing amazing food. South Australia, actually, all of Australia produces pretty amazing food. South Australia, where I'm from, and where I currently live, we kind of have, and I'm gonna have other people from other states come at me, and that's fine. But we kind of have a reputation for being the foodie capital of Australia because we do have there's a lot of climate in South Australia that's like the Mediterranean, um, in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale and what have you. And so one thing in I've noticed, you know, as I get older that I'm really grateful that the way I was, I mean, we it was my food experience was different to yours because I lived on a farm and we ate probably fairly um it's not bland, it was wholesome, but it wouldn't have had the spices or the herbs, perhaps, of other of other food cultures. But I'm just really grateful we grew our own vegetables and grew our own meat and milked a cow. Um, you know, and it it was just really wholesome food, and I just feel really blessed that I had that experience.

SPEAKER_03 41:39

That was amazing. I would love to at least see what's up with that. Like I got in his role, I watched a cow give birth because my mom's cousin was living out there, and I went to visit uh during one visit a while back. Um, and it's really impressive. Jeez, bless the cow do that.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

Did she give birth on her own or did she have someone help her?

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Um like my like uh my mom's cousin's employee was helping, kind of, but it was pretty wild. I was like, wow, you know, it's really impressive.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

It it is really, it's really impressive. And we had cattle as well, only later on at the farm, and they can be you just have to be so careful with them because they can have a breech birth quite easily, and you need to get the vet, and you know, uh sticking your hand up to your shoulder in a cow's uterus is a really interesting experience. I can imagine I sound wild. Um but yeah, I think I'm just you know, my parents are um well, dad's 80 and mum's in her late 70s, and mum still cooks every day, and and you know, we and I'm not trying to be too nostalgic, I guess just to give a different perspective. We didn't really have takeaway food. Every now and again on the way home from Adelaide, we'd get a roast chook, like I don't know what you call them in America, like a roast chicken, rotisserie chicken um from the Talon Bend chook shop. And that would be such a big treat. We'd get chips and roast, but that and that was like our takeaway. We didn't my parents still my parents have never been through a drive-thru ever.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Oh wow, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Um my niece used to work at the Hungry Jacks drive-thru and I always wanted to um take them through when she was on, but that never happened. Um let's talk about my favorite topic with food budget friendly cooking, because food is can be expensive, and if you cook, I I do notice I have to be really careful not to spend too much on you know, like if I want to make a particular recipe, I really have to think. About what I'm gonna buy. What are your big tips for budget-friendly cooking?

SPEAKER_03 44:05

So, a budget-friendly cooking is something that I'm actually really terrible about, but I have ideas that I do not follow myself. But I have ideas if you'd like to hear them, I'm happy to share. Oh, I love it. I'm really mad at that. Like, cooking is my passion. I spend a lot of money on food and cooking and so on and so forth. But all right, so it knows about friendly cooking. Like, I mean, as I said, having the initial pantry is a game changer, it really is. Um, it depends where. Like, for example, I was in the US, I just came back a couple days ago, and in the US, food is stupid expensive now, like it's terrible. But in Germany, food is cheap, like it's cheaper anyway, significantly cheaper. So I think of it a little bit differently. Like, I still very much respect the ingredients, and I really find that if I buy like a little bit better quality food, then I won't waste it because I'll have spent more on it, so I don't want to waste it, you know? Yeah, that can help a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Um that's actually a really good tip. If you value it more, you'll use it more. Like you'll use the whole links. If the leaks cost you $3.50.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

No, definitely. That's really helpful. Um also what I find helpful is doing like, I don't want to say a meal prep because that's really trendy, but like what my partner and I do is we'll make like a pot of something and eat for two days, three days, same thing, more or less. And so he can take it to work, I can eat it at home, and so on and so forth. And that helps a lot just to plan ahead.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

If you're storage, it's very helpful.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

So that's a great tip because I think I mean I watch we have a very we have a show here called Master Chef, right? But you can get sucked into watching those shows and thinking you need to cook a different meal seven nights a week. But I love being single because I can eat the same pot of lentil soup for three days in a row, and I don't care. I don't I don't care if I eat the same thing, it doesn't bother me.

SPEAKER_03 46:07

True. I mean, I don't like eating the same thing, but we do anyway because we have to consider money, and food is precious. It's uh I mean, like what can be helpful is we have friends over to eat dinner with us pretty regularly, and that's one way of saving money and saving food because you don't because like this way you don't waste food because you have more people eating from that pot or whatever you're making, soup or whatever pasta, it's about you know.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Yeah. Food waste is a whole other topic too. Like it really is I'm I read the stats about food waste in Australia the other day, and I I can't I'm not gonna quote them because I can't remember what they are, but food waste is is you know, it's it's one of those things where I think we go to the supermarket and we buy food because we want to feed our families and ourselves, and then we get home and we're too exhausted to cook.

SPEAKER_03 47:04

Of course. That happens. Um, that's really upsetting. Uh so I find that just buying less food and going to the store more often is is is helpful. Because I mean, we're lucky the grocery store is two blocks from my house, so we can easily go down there and more often. Um that's helpful as well. Just go more often, your friends will thank you for it, your wallet too. It's really helpful.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Do you know what I do? And I I don't know whether you'll approve of this, but sometimes I'll just put the ingredients I have on hand into Chat GPT and say, what can I cook with this? Sure. And I will get I've had some amazing recipes. I've had some amazing some look, I've had a really bad experience with that before, actually. ChatGPT must have misunderstood me. But um yeah, I put anchovies in um like a pea soup, and it was just didn't work. Um it was really weird. Um I should have just eaten the anchovies on their own uh instead of trying to be fancy. But yeah, if I've just got a few ingredients left in the fridge, um, I'll just stick them into Chat GPT and say, What can I eat with this? Or I might say, What's a budget-friendly recipe that I can make with these ingredients, and you know, and I only want to spend X amount of dollars.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Sure. That's absolutely fine. I think in this day and age it's important to use the tools that we have. And ChatGPT is a good tool for cooking. I used it exactly twice to find to develop recipes for me for my student who has a disability who has autism. Because I was in a hurry, I normally do it myself, but I just didn't have time that week. So I put his food list into Chat GPT, and I told Chat GPT, make me a recipe for lemon cake. And it came out beautiful. I was very happy.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

So that was a huge time saver because I normally do it myself. I do research everything, I do my tests and everything, but I just didn't have time to make it. I was very busy, I was like, I'm gonna try this, and it was a game changer. Like I saved like several hours of agonizing over what I was gonna make and how, and and baking for him is difficult because he has all kinds of intolerances. Yeah, but he loves sweets, I mean, of course, like a young person. So he wants to eat everything else, whatever whatever he wants to eat what everybody else eats. I can talk. Um, and uh of course for the bear. I used to have a really bad stutter when I was young. I used to speak like a million times faster than I speak now. Okay, that must have been tough. Yeah, it was a really difficult time because like I'm intelligent-ish, but until I was about, yeah, I'm not sure. Thank you. Um, but like until I was about maybe 32, I'm 37 now, almost 38. And until I was about 32, I had a terrible stutter. It was really hard. Like I could I could add the kind of stutter where you have blocks.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

So words were stuck in my mouth and it was terrible. Um, so like a presentation that was like a five-minute thing in grad school, for example, was just like a whole ordeal to practice so much so that I could feel confident enough in my speech patterns. And I tried all kinds of different things. And finally, um, I worked with a doctor who specializes in like she works, she's a medical doctor, but she uses herbs instead of like medicine to heal you. Okay. And she and I drank tea like several times a day for a year and change, and then my stutter just gradually disappeared, and it was awesome. And now I can teach, I teach cooking all the time. I talk about stuff, I can have a real conversation, I'll be ashamed of how I sound. It's really nice, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

So you drank was it any kind of tea or was it a particular?

SPEAKER_03 50:54

I don't know, it was like uh it was like a specific and different kind of like different herbs combined over time. Um that's a great story. It was pretty wild. Um yeah. Because it has to do with basically with the hormones in my system, like very high cortisol, which is and high testosterone, which together makes for all manner of um disastrous health consequences. But for me, the biggest thing that she's done, and I still see her today for mental health reasons, and the weapon is amazing. Like my partner uh turned me on to her, and it's amazing, it's really cool. She's in Switzerland, so it's kind of a holiday down there, but you know, from here it's okay. She's in Switzerland, did you say? Yeah, you're in Switzerland, so you'll with the drive out there, it's kind of annoying, but okay, whatever you know.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

You go with it. She's the most global citizen I have ever talked to, on or off the pod.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

No, I don't think that's true. A lot of people are way more global than I am.

SPEAKER_00 51:54

No, no, you are your doctors in Switzerland.

unknown 51:58

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

It's one country over, not that far. Yeah, that's true. It's for me, it's probably like the next town, but anyway. Have you been to Australia?

SPEAKER_03 52:09

I have not. I would love to go. Um, I'd be really curious about like the the nadro out there looks amazing. People are lovely.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

I love the beach. I'd love to show you around and we can eat our way through. Sure, I'm so down. Um, every Chinatown in Australia is a lot like America in that all big cities have a Chinatown and most of them have a big food market and stuff like that. And um, you'll have to try the local kangaroo and all that type of stuff. We have a really amazing native food industry that's kind of just starting to get get its um feet on the ground, and that's in a whole other thing. Bush foods are incredible.

SPEAKER_03 52:54

Sounds great. I would love to try that. Like, in the sense Native American cuisine is kind of a thing. It's a thing in Canada too. The First Nations uh food is seen as developing with um chefs from that community. It's a thing, and not really where I'm from, but I know it's a thing in Lacrant, Arizona, and some parts of Canada, it's a thing definitely. I would be I'm very curious about like is it like the Aboriginal food then, more or less? Is that what that is?

SPEAKER_00 53:20

It's it's not really, it's more like um people taking native ingredients like salt bush and bush limes and using them in a new way. Um I agree with you, I would love to eat Aboriginal food, but I've never come across. I mean, sometimes you have kangaroo tail soup, but like I don't want to be culturally inappropriate. Like, I don't know if that's actually Aboriginal food or just something I grew up thinking was. I'm not sure. I I will. I've I feel a bit ashamed that I don't know that actually. Um Aboriginal well, see, even Damper's not really Aboriginal food, but we make a bread called Damper that doesn't have any yeast in it. Um, and then you can make it on in Kohl's, and it's a little bit like a big scone. Um great. Yeah, it is good. It is good. I'm just thinking about it now.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

The criticist bread I tried was in Iceland. I tried the bread that's actually baked inside of like a underground by a geyser. Oh crazy. One cute and Iceland in general with my father uh a couple years ago. Beautiful country, very nice. The food is it makes California look cheap as far as food, which is wild. I mean, beer is like 15 bucks a pint is insane.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Um because they have to import it all, I guess. Do they grow much themselves? They wouldn't grow much themselves.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

No, nothing really grows there. Like there's some stuff in greenhouses now, the last few years ticking off, but in general, everything is imported. So food is so expensive out there. But they do have their own food scene, and it's really interesting. I tried um the shark that's macerated in uh in in pea, which was really, really, really special. I tried a small bite just to see what this thing is about, and I didn't enjoy it, but I'm glad I tried.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:25

Um, it's special. It's really special, but okay, it's gonna try. But the bread it was really interesting because they do a lot of like whole grains. Uh so the bread's really dark and it kind of tastes like it tastes like peppernickel, sort of a little bit kind of. Yeah. And it's cooked underground. Like they put it in a box and it just bakes underground because it's so hot out there, it's like under underground because of the geyser is pretty well.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

So do you know what a hungy is? A hungi that's a New Zealand, like Samari um tradition. They they bake stuff in the ground too.

SPEAKER_03 56:00

Oh no, it's okay. It's pretty popular actually. Uh I've tried uh when I was in Mexico, I tried um what you need what you need that you be when I was still eating pork. And um they take a pig marinator and cook it underground for like an entire day. It's pretty wild.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

I do think when you travel, whether it's for whatever reason you travel for, I find that you I feel like I'm experiencing the culture when I eat local food.

SPEAKER_01 56:30

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 56:30

And I feel more I don't know, like I love to do a street food tour and I'll give anything a go. You know, like I'll probably not anything. I'd probably struggle with dog and guinea pig. I'd struggle with that. But like I'll eat but uh the most foods I'll give a go. We yeah, I love I had duck beak in Thailand.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

That was delicious. Yeah, it was delicious. Delicious, yeah, really crunchy. Really crunchy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

It was just like eating actually, I've never eaten anything else like it, but it was really crunchy and really tasty. Um, but yeah. We we are getting to the end of our talk. We have been here for over an hour. Um is there anything I haven't asked you that you want to talk about? What what what would you like to talk about? Anything, anything at all?

SPEAKER_03 57:26

One thing I'd like to kind of touch on is working in the professional kitchen as somebody who's neurodivergent. Um, like it's a an environment that traditionally is really unsupportive. And if you really want to do it, then Bob means go for it. But it's really very, very stressful. And a lot of bosses are not really a focus on their employees, they're focused on making money because it's a hard place to make money in. Um, so if you find the right kitchen, you're doing amazing as a professional check who's not divergent, but a lot of the time it's about having a lot of mental strength and a lot of backbone.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

Um I would do you think that more kitchens and more restaurants are becoming more inclusive when it comes to neurodivergent people who might want a career in food?

SPEAKER_03 58:18

You know, in theory, yes. And I think it depends very much on the individual restaurant and the in the country, the culture around neurodivergence, wherever the place is. Um in Germany, absolutely not. They do not care at all about neurodivergence. I think it's historical. Um, like they're it's not supportive at all. I've worked in several restaurants out here so far, and it's been really not a good spot to be neurodivergent. Um but when I was in London, when I was in the States, people were a little bit more open to it and they knew about it, and they were like, okay, we can accommodate for this that the other. Versus here they just do not care at all. It's ridiculous. I I get angry thinking about this. I'm not an angry person, but this is not the next topic.

SPEAKER_00 59:09

Yeah, okay. Let me start the next topic.

SPEAKER_03 59:11

Um, it's fine. Uh I I we can leave it in. I'm just saying, I it's it's a difficult topic for sure.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Yeah, no, and it's I think it's worth I will definitely leave it in if you're comfortable with it, because it's it's the I think the restaurant business is a hard game to work in anyway. You know, but but surely change is coming. It may not come to Germany tomorrow, but surely there are people around who understand that diversity is what makes I think diversity is what makes Australia an amazing country. You know, it's not about um I don't want to get too political, but we have a politician here who's recently gone in the press and said that she wants us to have a monoculture.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:05

Yeah, it's just we've never been well, we've never been a monoculture because Aboriginal people have been here for 60,000 years before white people came, you know. So I just think now I'm on my soapbox.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:18

This throws me out. Okay, we got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

But so, but like diversity, and I I would hope that it will come to kitchens, you know, so because surely there's stuff to be gained and learned from employing people who are who might not be the same as you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:35

Of course. I mean, I think there's people who don't have a version of a lot to bring to the to the kitchen and to any restaurant culture, but it's we need extra support sometimes, and it's about whether or not the the kitchen is open to providing that support.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:53

Yeah. And the question I ask is what is bringing you joy right now?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:07

Well, right now I'm having a great time talking to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:10

Um podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:16

Um, no, in in general, in my in my life, I'm really enjoying teaching cooking to my community. Um, that is like I'm doing all these workshops um at my house, getting people to come in, mostly expats, um, from my city in the Frankfurt area in general. And they come over, we cook together. It's a really nice way of making extra money, and it's really enjoyable. It makes me happy. It's easy, it's great, people are awesome. I love people. We're amazing as a species, really.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

We are, we are. I mean, we've done some non-amazing things. We have but we have it. Humans have incredible capacity. I think about this every day, actually. I think about you know the towns and the cities and the structures that we've built and even how we interact with each other. Like, humans have amazing capacity for love and joy. I just think doesn't always happen, but we we do definitely have that capacity. I wanted to say too that I'll put in the show notes the details um of how people can book a session with you to do some cooking with you and um how they can buy your book as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:28

Sure. Fantastic. Yeah, my book is available on Amazon. Um, I have two others besides the idiot proof book. I have one book that's more of like a colonized buyer. That was my first book, and then my second, my rather my third book is a book about slow food called Picky Tongue Locked Down, also available on Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:47

Oh, I okay. Well, uh we will definitely put all of the we'll definitely put all the details in the show notes so people know where they can get them. So I just want to check that the have I asked you everything that you were hoping I'd asked I'd ask you?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:03

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Well, thank you thank you so much for talking to us. I I do you know I think the one thing, not one thing, I'll remember a lot of things, but when you were talking about texture, you can cook a carrot in so many different ways. And I think that's a little bit of a metaphor for life, right? If one part of life's not going super well or whatever, you can kind of it's about slicing and dicing it a different way. Exactly. That's amazing. That's a bit deep for us to end on. But Stephanie, thank you so much for talking to us and um we'll talk to you soon. An absolute pleasure. Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:42

I had a great time.