Michael Pollan & Food Rules

 Becky Rodriguez   

    Over the weekend I visited the website WNYC.org to listen to Leonard Lopate's interview with Michael Pollan. The interview was about Food Rules, Pollan's newest book, and the way the American food system works. Something really interesting to me was when Pollan said, "We don't need to know about antioxidants, carbohydrates and everything else because it's really about eating and knowing that nutrition is simpler than what we are led to believe."
     Even though I'm not a healthy eater myself, I know Pollan has a point. I eat some vegetables, but when I cook, my kids and my boyfriend don't like to see anything green, so I don't introduce them in my menu. They're picky. My son is satisfied with eating pizza, rice and chicken. My boyfriend, his father, is the same way. They both have Puerto Rican palettes. But my daughter, who is two, will eat anything! She came out just like me on the Dominican side. Vegetables and fruits, especially blueberries, are her thing. She loves them in pancakes. Realistically, I cannot be cooking two plates. I try to make what everybody eats to make them all happy. I know, Pollan, I know. More salad.
     My brain got so into this interview. Monday morning at 5:00am I woke up out of my beauty sleep to rewrite and add more details to my summary because my brain passed the night going and going like an Energizer Bunny, instead of relaxing. I also memorized Pollan's rule of thumb -- eat food, not too much, mostly plants -- faster than I could memorize a boyfriend's name. Yea, Pollan, this is my rule of thumb: eat food, eat more food and mostly fattening food. Oh yeah, and food that your family enjoys. LOL.

Ruth Reichl & Gourmet Magazine

  

Adelia Rivera

    Today we listened to a podcast to begin studying different methods of interviewing. I chose to listen to the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC.org. I tuned in to his January 12, 2010 interview with Ruth Reichl, former Editor-in-Chief of Gourmet magazine.

    As I listened to this interview, two things popped into my head. I was astonished to hear that one of the number one food magazines, which had been around for 68 years, is dead. This magazine, which is older than me, is no longer around for me to read. I used to have a stack of these magazines in my kitchen. Just thinking about them, I remember the amazing recipes I would cook for my family.
   Then, on the other hand, I started to wonder if there could have been anything that Ruth and her staff could have done to save this iconic magazine. I mean 8 test kitchens is a bit much, along with the yearly trips around the world to send staff to culinary schools. I feel that all this was not necessary, especially for the financial difficulty that this country -- and the publishing business -- is facing. They needed to roll with the times and cut down expenses. Truthfully, I can go to the website allrecipes.com, to get new recipes, at no cost.
    Still, I understand that Gourmet -- possibly the king of foodie magazines -- needed to preserve its reputation.Ruth, who was on tour promoting Gourmet's new cookbook came back to find that the magazine was closing. She said to Leonard that she did not she see it coming. She called it a "huge loss." We would never be able to find that kind of "luxury" where there is a team of people devoted to a magazine, Ruth said in her interview.
    I for one, agree with this statement. In my home, we love to take photographs, so naturally, we admired the photography published in Gourmet. They could always manage to make a photograph of one single and simple item look so beautiful just by the lighting.
    In my opinion, I think that we all need to be a little more frugal as far as finances. If nothing else, Wall Street has taught us that none of us knows what will happen tomorrow. Ruth, along with all the other people behind the scenes at Gourmet, lived a luxurious life. Vicariously, so did we.