We tried to preserve the sense of being there for cooks, not necessarily trying to prescribe, but trying to be a resource for cooks. What of the original did you try to replicate? Irma had a pretty free hand with seasonings for her time, but apparently the highest compliment that Marion could give was to say that something was “delicately flavored.” And Marion would probably be surprised by the level of spice. What Irma considered a “kitchen hack” in the 1930s was opening a can of condensed soup. So Irma would not be surprised by that, but I think the DIY aspects-making your own tofu, curing your own bacon-would surprise her. She wanted it to be the American version of Larousse Gastronomique. Marion was the one who turned the book into a desert-island reference book. Irma probably had an idea of where Marion was going to go with the book. If Irma could see the cookbook now, what would surprise her most about it? Coming at the book as an amateur made it into a learning experience and meant I wasn’t bringing any preconceived notions.

When I decided to follow in my father’s and grandmother’s footsteps, the plan was to actually go to culinary school, but I met Megan and that got disrupted. I ended up going to Boston University as an aerospace engineering student, and it took one semester of calculus to decide that wasn’t for me. Growing up, I was into flying, and then my eyesight went bad, and I knew my first dream of being a pilot was not going to happen. He was very supportive of my early dreams. My father always let me know that writing a cookbook was not expected of me.

Joy of cooking by irma s rombauer