Although much of Sweetbitter focuses on your main character, Tess, learning to become a waitress and growing up during her first year in New York City, you also include some great descriptive scenes where she tries very intense flavors for the first time. What sorts of similar food experiences did you have growing up?
Everyone remembers their first oyster. It is so definitive. That first oyster is totally transformative and so adult. Whether it happens to you at 15 or 22, itās something that you know is sophisticated, something that you know is sensual, and thereās that very familiar experience of not knowing what to do with it, or whether you like it or not, initially. I think there are a lot of first tastes that are like that, especially with alcohol. So much of growing up is defining your literal taste, what tastes good to you and what doesnāt.
When I moved to New York City, when I was 22, I had a lot more restaurant experience than Tess did when she moved there, but I remember my first in-season heirloom tomato. And I grew up in Southern California, I had tomatoes year around. We had tomatoes in the backyard, but I had never tasted anything like that fruit, at the height of its season, and all of these different varieties that had such distinct characteristics. I put a version of that into the novel. It was another transformative moment.
Are there still flavors that connect you to memories when you eat them?
Oh, of course, but oysters have become the mark of the book. Writing this book has been such an incredible excuse because every time my editor and I finished a page weād say, āOh, god, we should get oysters and champagne,ā and it continues, to this day. Iāll fly into New York and my agent, editor, and I will go get oysters immediately.
The book also shows Tess acting like a classic 22-year-old, going out and partying, and then eating classic late-night and hangover foods like egg sandwiches, borscht, pierogi, and turkey clubs. What are your favorite comfort foods?
Late night, Iām usually working. I donāt naturally stay up that late, and when Iām at home itās usually just the cheese. I just want the most gooey, disgusting, decadent piece of cheese thatās around. All the rules go out the window late at night.
Was it a conscious decision for Tess to learn how to eat but not learn how to cook? She spends a lot of her time in the kitchen, and bonds with the restaurantās sous chef, but never really asks any cooking questions.
Yeah. I think that I wanted Tess to stand in for a generation of people that were raised during the 1980s with microwaves and convenience food. This was definitely true of my friends and I, that our appreciation of food and wine came first, and even that came late in life. Cooking is an art form and it requires effort and knowledge and investigation, and that comes later, after you already have the respect for what youāre tasting, which is what Tess is going through. I like to imagine she would get there, but initially sheās just so shocked. She wants to learn the names of everything before she can begin asking, āWhere does it come from? How can I do this myself?ā
The scene for Tessā birthday meal is one of the most descriptive food scenes in the book. What would your perfect low-key birthday dinner menu be?
I always cook for my birthday. I have for years. Itās in the dead of winter, so itās usually something pretty hearty. I think my favorite is an all-day Bolognese. I use a combo recipe from Canal House Cooks Every Day and Marcella Hazanās bolognese. Itās got the veal, the chicken liver, the pork, and it takes seven hours.
Do you make your cake as well?
Iām not a sweets person. Itās always cheese.
Right, right. So, besides your love of cheese, what else did you pick up from working in restaurants?
The two main things that I see people that havenāt worked in restaurants do is they donāt salt enough. They donāt salt at every step, and they also donāt taste. Thereās something about a sprinkle of salt, on your lettuce leaves, before youāve even begun to put the dressing on it. Everything gets a little bit of salt, and it slowly heightens flavor. As long as youāre tasting, nothingās ever too salty.
The other thing that I have taken into my home is that food is mostly context, and when you step into a restaurant the stage is set for you to have a transformative experience. Whether itās music, lights, or the scents, or the kind of plates that youāre using, everything is adding to that experience. The food, at the end of the day, is a big part of it, but itās not all of it.
It sounds like you cook a lot at home.
I used to, very intensely. Iāve been traveling for like a year, and most recently Iāve been on book tour, so I just in February got my kitchen out of a storage unit. So itās been really exciting to unpack my books and pots and pans and put everything back in its place.
About those books. You have over two hundred cookbooks, right?
Yes. Itās been a joy to unpack them and be reacquainted with them, and also like a little psychotic. Sometimes I look at them and I just think about the savings account I could have instead, but then I just eat. What can you do? Itās the way Iāve chosen to live my life. I have cookbooks instead.
What was your diet like during writing the book? A writer's schedule can be grueling...
I do try and make really nice meals for when Iām working, whether itās cheese and cornichons and crackers, or whether itās a poached egg on top of kale. I do remember the grueling long days of writing, in which I was eating cold pop tarts and ordering tons of really cheap Chinese food. I think that cooking is an incredible break from writing because your mind is still active and you can still be doing your work, while youāre at the stove, and also relaxing. But there are periods of time when you actually canāt leave the desk and itās not pretty or glamorous.
And what about your next book? Will it be so filled with food?
I would tell you everything if I had written a word of it. I have a lot of ideas and a lot of notes, but Iām still so wrapped up in Sweetbitter and those characters and those voices, and Iāve been working for the book 24 hours a day for the past year, so I havenāt really had the space to explore a new novel. But Iām working on essays, which I publish every now and then, and we shall see. But there will be food in it. Itās just one of my values. I wouldnāt know how to separate myself from it.
