814: How Pierce Abernathy Went from Instagram to Your Bookshelf

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:30)
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**Pierce Abernathy** (0:39)
I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it wasn't.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:47)
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**Pierce Abernathy** (1:08)
When you talk to farmers, when you're going to the farmers market a lot, when you're buying these ingredients, you kind of realize how precious they are and that they're alive and living. And I think I've found a lot of joy in the creative exploration of trying to make the most of my food.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (1:26)
This is TASTE. I'm your host, Aliza Abarbanel.
Pierce Abernathy is a recipe developer and content creator based in Brooklyn. You may know him from his popular online videos showcasing his seasonal approach to plant-forward cooking. And now he's releasing a debut cookbook, Every Leaf, Every Stem, Craveable, Creative Vegetables All Year Round. Today on the show, we go deep on Pierce's inspiration and bookmaking process, including getting the book's introduction written by the one and only Alice Waters and his upcoming book tour. Pierce Abernathy, This Is TASTE. Thank you for coming on the podcast.

**Pierce Abernathy** (2:07)
Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's nice to see you.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (2:09)
I know. It's so nice to see you. It's nice to have you back in the show. Last time you caught up with Matt and a couple of years later, you're back to talk about your debut cookbook, which is so exciting and kind of surreal, I imagine.

**Pierce Abernathy** (2:22)
Yeah. I feel like I chatted with Matt very early on into this whole, I guess, career, we'll call it now.
It was funny. It was my first ever podcast. It was really cool to chat with him, but pretty wild to be back in the same building that's publishing my cookbook.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (2:42)
I know. It's such a beautiful full circle moment. I'm really excited to go deep on the bookmaking process with you today. But before that, I often ask my guests to share an early food memory with me from growing up, and I'm wondering if you have one to share.

**Pierce Abernathy** (2:54)
Two come to mind, but one specifically is, I think it must have been fifth grade. My mom started to grow a garden probably when I was in third grade or so, and she got really into heirloom tomatoes and started growing heirloom tomatoes. Maybe when I was in fourth or fifth grade, and as a project, I brought in these heirloom tomato seeds and talked all about them. I don't think I really liked raw tomatoes at that time.
But tasting this heirloom tomato was a very different experience. One that I really remember the first time seeing this full circle of life, of this seed makes this tomato, that my mom grew in our backyard. I was so proud to bring it to class and tell everyone about it.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (3:51)
My heart is bursting. It's so sweet and such a, I see that kid sitting in front of me today, within you, right? Your love of talking about produce and how things grow. Were you a kid who liked to eat your vegetables?

**Pierce Abernathy** (4:06)
The first line in this cookbook in the introduction is like, I never expected to write a cookbook. I was a very picky eater. Maybe not even a, I think I went through phases. I think there was quite a span of my years, maybe up until like, I don't know, sixth, seventh grade that I wasn't too picky.
But I was vegetarian for probably four years from my sophomore year of high school until my freshman year of college. And the three years before I went to college, my diet consisted of like grilled cheeses, tomato soup, Taco Bell, like food just wasn't really that much of a priority to me.

**Aliza Abarbanel** (4:53)
Was there something that kind of galvanized you, radicalized you into becoming a vegetarian?

**Pierce Abernathy** (4:59)