Florence Fabricant: On Being Salty, Making Pigs-In-Blankets Famous, and Why Influencers Drive Her Nuts

Mark Bittman (0:03)

I'm Mark Bittman, co-host of this podcast, along with my daughter, Kate.

Kate Bittman (0:07)

I'm Kate Bittman, and our podcast is about food, but really it's about everything else you can think of too, because that's the way our conversations go.

Mark Bittman (0:16)

If you like what you hear here, you should also check us out online. We've got a great newsletter that touches on many of the things we talk about here, plus we've got lots of recipes. Find us at the Bittman Project on Substack or bittmanproject.com.

Kate Bittman (0:50)

Dad, what d'you like this week?

Mark Bittman (0:53)

I really like recording in the studio.

So, we're in the studio at our platform, Acast, but there's a bunch of us in the room, people floating in and out. We're actually, it feels like it's so much more lively and social.

Kate Bittman (1:09)

Yeah.

Mark Bittman (1:10)

It's really fun.

Kate Bittman (1:11)

It is.

Mark Bittman (1:12)

And we had, I'm allowed to say, David Byrne, which was really awesome, which you're going to get to hear in due time. What d'you like this week?

Kate Bittman (1:24)

I went to a, oh, you know, Lin, one of my dearest friends, Lin, turned 50

Mark Bittman (1:29)

She turned, I don't know, did she?

Kate Bittman (1:31)

She looks 30

Mark Bittman (1:32)

Still a great runner.

Kate Bittman (1:34)

She's still a great runner.

I took her to dinner for her birthday. We went to San Sabino. I know you're not, you're going to say you don't know what it is, which is totally fine.

Mark Bittman (1:43)

I don't.

Kate Bittman (1:44)

But, so first of all, it's in the space that was Benny's Burritos, which was the space across the street from my old apartment on Jane Street. And now it's San Sabino, and they have like a couple of Oats to Benny's on the menu, which was nice. But they have, and I don't give a shit about cocktail programs in general. I think it's bullshit. If I go to a restaurant, I want a martini, just a regular beef eater, Hendrick's martini.

But the cocktails on this list look really good. Because none of them seemed sweet. They all seemed like interesting, good combinations. So I got one.

Mark Bittman (2:22)

I mean, the term cocktail program makes me want to just like pick up my gun.

Kate Bittman (2:28)

That was not the words that they used. That's the word that I hear people use. Yes, it makes me want to die, too.

How far we've come. We have cocktail programs. But so I ordered off the cocktail program list, and it was so good, and Lynn's cocktail was so good, and they brought us these tiny little cocktails from the menu that we hadn't ordered, and I just thought that is the way to sell.

It was such a nice touch, and they were like, we just wanted to give you these because you might like them. They had these little tiny cocktails, and so we got to sample these. If I had had another cocktail, which I don't, because I am a very healthy person. I would have had the one they gave me. So, I liked that. It was a nice touch.

When I think about the amount of press pitches Florence Fabricant gets in her inbox on a single day, well, I can't even really imagine. For more than 50 years, Florence Fabricant has been a revered New York Times food writer. She has had a hand in shaping food culture, and has had a front row seat to the ever evolving world of restaurants in New York and beyond. Florence has been asked for years to write a memoir, and until now she's resisted. This week marks the release of Salty, Not Sweet, A Life in the Food World, a book that covers pretty much all of it. The rise of farm to table, the cult of the celebrity chef, the role of the critic, influencers, and dinner reservations. It's also the story of a woman who became a categorical success at a time when that was an exception. Florence also, of course, was a longtime colleague of my dad's at the Times. For all these reasons and more, having Florence on the show was a no-brainer. We hope you enjoy this.

Mark Bittman (4:37)

Greetings, congrats. Thank you for joining us.

Florence Fabricant (4:40)

Well, thank you for having me.

Kate Bittman (4:42)

It's a wonderful book, Florence. Seriously, congratulations. It's really, it's fun to see you write in long form like that.

Mark Bittman (4:50)

Did you feel like as you were writing, stuff was coming back to you? Because sometimes people have said and I sort of feel like memory is kind of a muscle you can exercise.