You Are What You Read
Gabrielle Hamilton, chef, author, and badass
Tell me about these books. Would you say they define you? What’s missing?
That’s funny, I didn’t put a few in this pile because I was afraid of my own “I’m like everyone else.” I have read To Kill A Mockingbird aloud to many, many boyfriends and girlfriends. It’s so good. Probably it has something to do with me being bossy. You know how when you really like a book and you want people to read it right away? I decided I am going to force them to listen to it, right away.
Do you read aloud?
Not anymore, but I did when I wasn’t a chef-owner of a restaurant and I had a more time — when I could be more like me and I could live more like I am meant to live.
Do you read to your kids?
I used to.
This OED is just beautiful!
My mother gave it to me and I lugged it with me to college. My mother has been the book-buyer in my life and also the person that gave me my first lock-and-key journal. You know the one where you write your deep thoughts down when you are nine years old?
She has been the most encouraging with my writing. Every birthday or graduation, I got to go to the used bookstore and buy whatever I wanted — like two hundred dollars worth of books. That’s how I assembled my whole first library.
The type is so small in the Oxford English Dictionary that is comes with it’s own magnifying glass.
Do you buy many books now?
I get a shit-ton of books now, mostly food memoirs that I have to read, so I get lapped into collegiate reading. I hardly blurb any but I read them all and make sure I do a good job. That really cuts into my reading time.
Do you read magazines? Newspapers? Anything regularly?
No. I read, but not religiously. I have no routines. I don’t eat the same thing everyday or go to yoga every Wednesday. There is not a single thing I do routinely. However, I’m going to read this summer. I have downloaded a ton of books on my Kindle.
Do you lend books?
I give them away.
I totally disapprove of writing in books.
Ohh, I tear them up. I dog-ear; I underline. I had the best teacher in high school who told me, “Use the book. It’s there for you.”
I feel guilty if I don’t finish a book.
Not me. If they are bad I jettison them; I have no time. The reason Michael Cunningham is in here is I had never read contemporary fiction. I had no need for it. Why am I going to read Lorrie Moore when I can read Lawrence Durrell? I had no need for contemporary literature but then I changed my mind. I picked up Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which was an incredible book.
Have you ever read self-help books?
No, that’s why I have made my way through life stupidly. People will say,“You know there is a book about that.” No, I just fumble my way through and make a thousand mistakes.
Do you use cookbooks?
In pastry I have to use cookbooks all the time because I don’t know how to make pastry. I like Emily Luchetti’s books.
Prose versus poetry?
That’s why I put Galway Kinnell’s Mortal Acts, Mortal Words in there— because I had an aversion to poetry until I read him. I read him in my senior year of high school. I didn’t know that poetry could be so good. Poetry can go in a really bad direction really fast. It can get a really bad name but then you read some really good poetry and think, “Wow this is really good.”
When you read other people’s memoirs do you find yourself comparing?
The new ones? Yeah! I think, Why aren’t I teaching memoir writing at Princeton? I have a lot to say about writing memoirs and cookbooks. Especially now as those books are getting a little kooky the way they combine a memoir with recipes.
What would you call the class, Professor Hamilton? “How to do it fucking right?”
[Gabrielle laughs and laughs.]
Do your kids read?
My boys are avid readers; they are crazy about reading. It was the greatest part of their development, when they learned to read. Suddenly there are two hours of silence, and you think, “Uh oh, whats going on,” and turn to see them sitting and reading — it’s beautiful.
Do books matter?
I am in love with language, the words and the information. I love the resources, I love my books, I really love to read the dictionary — that’s really one of my favorite books of all time.Then there are the books that catch you, you are alone in a room and suddenly you are connected to a whole human race. That’s what books do and they matter so,so much.
What the future of books?
I can’t stand how these days everyone writes a book. Everyone is a writer or a blogger. No one gives a shit about grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. They are putting a fifty dollar word in a two dollar essay where it doesn’t belong. Food writing? I could go on and on but I won’t. I’ll spare you.
