When Caroline and I started working on this project, one of the first stories I thought of was “Like Mom Never Made.” Lisa McNamara is an amateur baker and an avocational writer who, I knew, had a moving and important story tell. She was exactly the kind of writer we wanted to represent in our collection: someone who might not cook or write about food for a living, but who had a profound story to tell about what food had meant in her life. Also, I had sampled a range of Lisa’s pies and baked goods. I knew she knew her stuff.More
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Contributor Spotlight: Melissa Clark
Our Melissa Clark is not a food writer. Our Melissa Clark is a fiction writer and professor, and the author of the novels Swimming Upstream,Slowly and Imperfect. For a long time she wrote for television, penning nearly 2 dozen episodes of Rolie Polie Olie, before going on to create and write the award winning television series, Braceface. She’s known among her friends as Connections Clark, and she blogs regularly about things you should know about. For instance: she’s the reason I met my husband. She’s the reason Max Brooks gave us a story (it’s a happy coincidence that these two childhood friends have their stories nestled together in the book).More
Contributor Spotlight: Max Brooks
One afternoon, I was chatting on the phone with one of my oldest friends, Melissa Clark, the novelist, not the food writer. As we were about to hang up she said, “I’m going over to Max & Michelle’s to go shopping this afternoon.”
“Huh?” She hadn’t said, I need to borrow a cup of sugar or two eggs. I imagined a storehouse stocked with tins of protein powder, a walk-in pantry full of cartons of ramen…Melissa laughed. “In their garden. They have an amazing garden.” I knew that Max and Melissa had been friends from childhood, but I’d never heard anything about a garden. Then I remembered his books.
“Is that a zombie apocalypse thing?”More
Contributor Spotlight: Phyllis Grant
Meet, Phyllis Grant, the former pastry chef and photographer behind the riveting and beautiful blog, Dash and Bella. More
Contributor Spotlight: Keith Blanchard
Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking when I approached Keith Blanchard about a piece for Cassoulet. I knew Keith in college, so, yes, I knew he was a funny guy. (Just take a look at some of his past pieces for HuffingtonPost, like this one, or check out his twitter feed.) I also knew he was smart. And I knew he’d written a novel. So I knew three things; funny, smart, writer. That was a start.More