Fun fact: If you go in to pre-tape at night, there’s no hair and makeup. Good to know for (fingers crossed!) next time.
Sometimes I talk food snobbery
Ariel Knutson of The Kitchen asked food writers and editors, including Francis Lam, Helen Rosner, Twilight Greenaway, Adam Roberts, Peggy Wang, Cathy Erway, Cheryl Sternman Rule and me to weigh in and tell her how they geek out over food without sounding like a snob.
Here’s what I said:
I like people who like things. Full stop. I’m waaaayyyyy more interested in people who are giddy and confident about their passions than I am in people who think that dislike equals discernment. I’m especially put off by people whose first response to someone saying: “I like such-and-such.” is “Ewwww! I hate that!” Why would you rob someone of their joy? Even if it’s not your bag, step outside of yourself for a second and ask them what it is that makes them love this particular ingredient, dish, restaurant, cuisine. You get to learn a little something about it and the person who loves it, and you get a chance to not make the world suck a little more for them.
Bottom line: As I always say, it it tastes good, it is good — even if it’s not to you.
See the rest at The Kitchn: “How to Talk About Food Without Sounding Like a Snob“
Sometimes I talk about pie crust
Edible Brooklyn asked a few folks, including Sam Sifton, Hannah Kirshner, Food52, Butter & Scotch, Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Caroline Lange and me about our pie crust methodology. An excerpt:
Kat Kinsman: In college, I double-majored in painting and sculpture and I get my ya-yas out with pie edges. I appreciate the precisions and aesthetics of the fork crimp, but I like getting my hands in there, so I press in two fingers and pinch up a peak between them. I’ll usually just rotate the plate, but if I’m feeling very fussy, I’ll do the 12 o’clock spot, then the six o’clock, then the three then the nine, and inward from there, just to make sure it all matches up. No one will notice or care, but I like touching dough. I’m just gonna own it.
Read more at Edible Brooklyn’s “The Great Pie Crust Debate“
Sometimes I get a warm welcome
Sometimes I talk with smart people about social media
From my conversation with the marvelous Dianne Jacob:
Q. Do you have a love-hate relationship with Twitter?
A. Mostly love. It’s broken down the barriers with so many people. Now people in the firmament are only 140 characters away.
Q. What is your definition of doing it well?
A. You’re part of the conversation, not just advertising. You’re there to have a dialog with people, something human and genuine. You trust that your audience and readers have something to say back. People can have surprisingly substantive conversations on Twitter.
If you‘re responding to someone, it has to stand on its own as a comment. You retweet in an interesting, smart and controversial way. You have to be able to express yourself in concise thoughts.
Read the rest at “The Scariest Thing about Twitter is to Let Yourself be Seen“
Sometimes I leave CNN and write a note to colleagues
A site called CNN Commentary shared my Facebook message, but I’m swiping a little of it back (oh, and I got the pub date of my book wrong. It’s early 2016):
Kat Kinsman, the managing editor of CNN’s Eatocracy blog, has left the network, she announced on Facebook. She will be joining Tasting Tables in a few weeks as editor-in-chief.
Colleagues, friends, family – I’m winding up my time here and I’m gonna blather for a very long time.
One July afternoon in 2010, I was in a crappy mood. I had no real reason to be – Sarah LeTrent and I had just successfully launched Eatocracy, and I was living my impossible dream of writing about food for the best damn news outlet on the planet.
And that was the problem. I’d somehow crawled through a back door and stumbled into CNN. CNN! Legendarily full of the best journalists in the business: people who risk their lives, dig deep, seek the truth, speak truth to power, grill world leaders and corrupt CEOs. And I was pretty much writing about grills.
But that day, that particular day I came back to my desk, and I saw this Post-It:
Read the rest at CNN Commentary
Sometimes I get a new job
TastingTable.com, the premier online destination for culinary enthusiasts, has named Kat Kinsman as Editor in Chief. In her new role, Kinsman will oversee all editorial content for the multiplatform media company, which delivers discerning dining advice, chefs’ recipes and news from the world of food and drink across email, Web, social media and mobile.
“During the past six years, we’ve established Tasting Table as a must-read for culinary obsessives,” said Geoff Bartakovics, co-founder and CEO. “Kat is not only a highly respected journalist, she’s also a longtime digital and social media maven whose broad interests will help to expand Tasting Table’s focus on the larger lifestyle surrounding the world of food and drink.”
Read the full press release at my soon-to-be new workplace TastingTable.com
Sometimes I let the young ladies know it’s gonna be OK
From “The Double Date“:
Dear Teenager,
You’re the ugly friend. That’s temporary—and actually you’re not ugly at all. You just don’t look the same way as the girls who have figured out how eyeliner, jean sizing, and hot rollers work. Maybe they have a mom or an older sister who’d figured all of this out, or they are allowed to go tanning or read Cosmo or watch General Hospital or something. You don’t and aren’t and while that seems like a tremendous injustice at the moment and you feel like a lone Snickerdoodle on a table full of frosted cupcakes, it’s all gonna work out face, hair, and style-wise for you. I promise.
But periodically, and actually right at this minute, you’re the safety valve on your friend’s hot date. Her mom never would have let her go out alone with a college guy, but if you come along, the she can just tell her that it’s a girls’ night out and that’s totally safe on account of the fact that you don’t get up to shenanigans.
You, however, would very much like to get up to some shenanigans, and it ain’t happening with the boys at school who think you’re smart and funny but would never dream of going out with you because of the whole face/hair/style thing. So you say yes to going out with “Dana” and this guy she met God knows where because the internet hasn’t been invented yet (I KNOW!), and so it wouldn’t just be the three of you, he brought along a friend whose face visibly wilts when you are presented to him as a human girl person.
Read the rest on i believe you | it’s not your fault (a Tumblr where adult ladypeople let the younger women in on what we’ve learned)
Sometimes I convince my colleagues to bare their souls
I’m editing a new series of essays on CNN Living called “First Person” and thus far, I’m gobsmacked by the bravery of the writers and the response from readers. It’s an intense process and I’m grateful for their trust and candor.
Jessica Dunne: “Caught in grief’s riptide”
Lisa France: “A fat girl gets naked”
Cara Reedy: “My life as a little person“
Sometimes I talk to the asexiest people
It’s not just a phase.
They’re not frigid, sick, repressed or broken.
Meeting the so-called “right one” isn’t going to change anything.
But for people like Sandra Mellott, the questions just keep on rolling in from friends, family and loved ones who may mean well but don’t understand what it’s like to identify as asexual.
In a society historically centered around romantic pairings and increasingly bombarded by raunchy imagery, people who don’t experience sexual attraction can often feel isolated, invisible and misunderstood. But now a growing number of asexual people are banding together in solidarity and support, finding like-hearted souls in a culture where “happily (and hornily) ever after” is the end goal.
Read the rest of “An orientation to asexuality” at CNN Living