“I grew up with such a limited exposure to food — the most exotic food I had was tacos from the Ortega kit. I think my mom had issues with food; she was rail thin, I rarely saw her eat. It’s not like she was like, ‘Oh, food: it’s delicious!’ She was a very selective, minimal eater. So I wasn’t raised with this example of a woman enjoying the fruits of food. So being a mom — and I have a daughter, and I LOVE to eat — I really want her to be raised in a household where there’s a healthy relationship to food, there’s no restrictions, there’s variety.”
This is something that most people can say, but: I had a complicated childhood. My father was a World War II veteran, and one would have said he had PTSD (had there been “such a thing” in the ‘50s), and my mother was an interesting and in many ways wonderful woman, but a difficult one. I’m not going to get into it, but it wasn’t exactly easy; however, there was a lot of joy, also. There were many gifts, one of which was my parent’s passion for Broadway shows. I grew up in Manhattan, and we’d go to shows on the spur of the moment: I saw My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, and Camelot with Robert Goulet.
I passed my love of Broadway on to my two kids, happily, and that brings us to this week’s episode of Food with Mark Bittman. Our guest today is one of the best-known names on Broadway, and thanks to her endearing role on TV’s Younger, is now well-known outside of Broadway, too. Yes: It’s Sutton Foster, and to bring it full circle, she talked with my daughter, Kate, about complicated childhoods, and Broadway, and her new book, Hooked: How Crafting Saved My Life. We are thrilled to have her.
The recipes featured in the episode are here (Aunt Mary Anne’s Fudgy Bonbons) and here (Coconut Macaroons). Please listen, subscribe, and review!
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