844: Adrianna Adarme Was Supposed to Make Movie Trailers. Instead, She Made the Meatballs.

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Adrianna Adarme (1:33)

And I just was like, I don't think I want any of their jobs. And I think that's really important. When you're at a place and you're young, you know, you should be looking around going, I want that job, I want that job. And so you have something to aspire to. And I was like, I don't want any of these people's jobs. And I think that's a problem.

Matt Rodbard (1:48)

This is TASTE. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.

Adrianna Adarme has been cooking out loud since 2011, when A Cozy Kitchen was just a bored at work blog. This fall she's releasing A Cozy Kitchen Cookbook, a terrific book built not around seasons or courses, but moods. On this episode, I speak with Adrianna about her unique cooking style and growing her highly personal brand online and off. And at the top of the show, it's the return of Three Things, where Aliza and I talk about what is exciting us in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. Aliza, we are back with Three Things. How are you?

Aliza Abarbanel (2:41)

I'm doing well, Matt. How are you?

Matt Rodbard (2:43)

Good. Do you want to start?

Aliza Abarbanel (2:44)

No, you start this time.

Matt Rodbard (2:45)

Okay, I'll start. All right, I have this great book that I've previewed, and I got a lot to say about it. It's called The Big Book of Dinner by Melissa Clark.

Aliza Abarbanel (2:56)

Ever heard of her?

Matt Rodbard (2:57)

Ever heard of her? She's written 42 cookbooks. 42? Isn't that insane? Yeah, she's prolific. I love it. But Melissa comes back on the show every couple years, and Ainda Melissa's been a restaurant critic, has written a column for The Times since 2012, and really just one of my favorite people in food. She's such a wonderful energy and just so smart.

And this book, The Big Book of Dinner, is a follow-up to her book Dinner, which came out a few years back that I loved. I think it was maybe seven, eight years ago. I still cook many things from it. But this book has 175 any-night recipes plus 150 tested variations. So if you do the math, that's a hell of a lot of recipes in this book. It's a very big book. She's been working on it for a while. There's some great recipes like classic Italian, American meatballs, and then kind of twisted into a kibbeh version of it with kibbeh spices, cooked on a sheet pan. There's a sweet and spicy chicken with cumin and honey, pivots to ginger marmalade or honey mustard lemon. So it's like riffing on some of these mains that we love in the Melissa Clark way, which is always just like word economy and just tightly written recipes and of course well tested. And I also want to announce on the show that Melissa and I will be appearing at Rizzoli Bookstore on Sunday, November 15th. Tickets are not on sale yet, but I'll definitely link to those in our Friday newsletter.

And I will be in conversation with Melissa about this book, and that's at Rizzoli Bookstore.

Aliza Abarbanel (4:38)

Sounds fun.

Matt Rodbard (4:38)

Yeah, what's your first thing?

Aliza Abarbanel (4:39)

My first thing is I went to Umas in Rockaway Beach recently for dinner. This is a Uzbek mainstay that's been open there since I believe 2013 And I don't know about you, but I think like after a day at the beach, eating some hearty Uzbek food is kind of the perfect pair there. Sadly, they were out of the plov when I was there. Oh, really? Which is the national dish of Uzbekistan. So it has that kind of tender fatty lamb over rice, carrots, onions, and that's because this is an incredibly popular restaurant.