Barbara Kafka is an award-winning food writer and cookbook author. Her book Microwave Gourmet was a New York Times best-seller, and her most recent book, Vegetable Love, was a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection. A member of the Cookthinktank, Barbara has also started a weekly updated Dessert Anthology, which is available online at Cookthink.com. Read more about Barbara on her blog.

Sweet or salty?

Salty.

Which ingredient(s) do you use most?

Olive oil, salad greens and wild mushrooms — picked by me — in Vermont.

What’s the cooking sound you most love?

The sizzle when I add liquid to a risotto that’s cooking.

What’s your favorite cooking smell?

A ripe tomato.

What are the qualities you most admire in a dish?

A balance of flavors.

What is your most treasured possession in the kitchen?

Me.

What is a dirty word in your kitchen?

Ersatz.

What are afraid to do in the kitchen?

Nothing.

What won’t you eat?

It’s not a question of won’t, it’s a question of can’t. I’m allergic to crab and I have recently returned to the celiac disease of my childhood — no wheat, no dairy.

Have you ever lost your appetite for a food you once loved?

Mother’s milk.

Have you ever had a change of heart about a food you once disliked?

Tapioca — after I made it in the microwave.

If you could choose one historical or living cook to make you a meal right now, who and what would it be?

La Varenne — but I’d rather talk to him than have him cook for me. He was a brilliant cook and writer early on in the history of French cooking. I’d like to talk to him about how that was evolving, how we see it today as compared to what it felt like at the time.

Which living cook do you most admire/despise?

I admire: Michael Psilakis at Anthos in New York. He’s a brilliant, brilliant cook. I think he may be a real genius. And Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin, because he’s one of the nicest human beings as a chef that I know. In Paris, Hélène Darroze: aside form the fact that she has made her way as a woman, she has a firm grasp of traditional technique, of how to run a business and make it succeed, creativity — and she has a great shepherd dog. Also: Chris Styler who worked for me and with me and is a constant pleasure.

Which food website/blog could you not live without?

My own.

What is your favorite cookbook?

The Encyclopedia of Practical Gastronomy by Ali-Bab is hands down my favorite cookbook. It’s one of the best cookbooks ever written.

What is your favorite food-related word?

Pleasure.

What is your favorite food-related scene from literature or the movies?

From movies it’s the oyster-eating scene in Tom Jones. In a novel, I suppose I would have to say it’s the madeleine in Proust.

What’s your favorite food-shopping errand or journey?

My favorite food-shopping experience is the telephone. Living on 92nd Street in New York City, I can order virtually anything in the world and have it delivered to the door.

To which country would you move for the food?

I wouldn’t leave home. New York has perfectly wonderful food today.

If you wanted to seduce someone, what would you cook?

I’d just serve Champagne and caviar.

You wish to die with what in your stomach?

I don’t wish to die!

If heaven exists, what do you hope they have on the menu?

A wide variety of food.

If you died and came back as a fruit or a vegetable, which one would it be?

A poisonous one so no one would eat me.

What’s your poison?

I don’t think of them as poisons. Drink is not poisonous. My pleasures are aged mezcal, red Burgundy of a great year, wheat-free vodka (potato or other kinds) and Tablas Creek wines from California, which I must confess I own a small part of.

What are you craving right now?

Love.

Can you eat love?

Absolutely — and get fat on it.

(Image created at Wordle.)

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