Meeting the Queen of Tarts—and Cookies and Cakes

There she is, my all-time baking and cookbook idol--
Rose Levy Beranbaum, second from left. With Woody Wolston, her collaborator, me and
Alice Lee, a nice woman I met from Toronto.

I went to a party at Food52 in Chelsea to celebrate the launch of The Fearless Baker, a cookbook by Kansas-bred Erin Jeanne McDowell. The ticket was $45 plus handling but included a book personalized on the spot by the author; her live piecrust rolling and crimping demo; a goodie bag; and nips and nibbles, such as cold, crisp Riesling; artfully folded salami on a big wood board; and platters of chocolate palmiers, rose petit fours and other sweets baked from the book. All that in a roomful of stylish foodies, held at home base of a popular cooking and kitchen website—what could be more fun? /Meeting Rose Levy Beranbaum, that’s what! Rose wrote the forward to Erin’s book, so she was there! And I got both ladies to sign my copy./My dear friend Meg bought me Rose’s The Cake Bible one Christmas many moons ago—several pages are splattered with batter, especially the one for blueberry pancakes, which involve melted butter and snowy beaten egg whites. Dan and I made them often for guests./When the beautiful Rose’s Christmas Cookies followed, I bought 3 copies—one for me, one for Sis and one for my friend Jean Rose. Sis made me the fragile Melting Moments. I made many kinds./So sweet to meet an idol! And baker Erin! Good night; soft, pillowy, sugar-dusted dreams.

This book caused a clamor in kitchens across the land; copyright 1988.

I used this so much, sometimes just reading it for the
lovely stories about oookies, that the pages are falling out. Copyright 1998; image from HERE.