Hungry? This week, mouth-watering stories of food and the connections it provides. A feast of gravlax, fudge, bolognese, and more. This episode is hosted by Moth Senior Curatorial Producer, Suzanne Rust. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media. Storytellers: Arlene Stewart finds where she belongs as a chef. Di Zhao goes to war over quail eggs. Josephine Ferraro runs a con for spumoni. Michael Imber tries to become his grandmother’s “angel boy.” James Gallicio's nonna takes her bolognese sauce recipe to her grave. Podcast # 913 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
This is the Moth Radio Hour, and I'm your host, Suzanne Rust. I live in a household with an Italian husband where, while we're eating breakfast, we're thinking about lunch. And at lunch, we're planning dinner. It's a family trait that we've passed down to our son and daughter. We definitely live to eat, because a good meal brings such joy. But beyond sustenance, food is a magical vessel.
It transports us back to our childhoods, back to memories of meals shared with friends and family, back to road trips and vacations. And through it, so many stories are born, nurtured, and remembered over the years. Sometimes food is what you do for a living. Our first story comes from Chef Arlene Stewart, who told it at a show in East Hampton, New York, where Guildhall was our venue and partner.
Here's Arlene, live at The Moth.
It's late spring, early summer, 1997, New York City, Hudson River. It's the reopening and rebranding of an acclaimed New York City chef's restaurant. We have to learn his style, his techniques. We have to take his ideas, his palette, and put it on a plate. But for some reason, when the chef met me, he decided to make me his personal punching bag. No matter what I did, I could not please him.
Day after day after day, he would relentlessly abuse me. He would say things like, would you eat that? Would that be something you'd serve your mother? There would be plates piled. You know when you throw a stone and it ripples on the water? He would throw the plate across the path and it would literally ripple across to me.
Day after day, we're getting ready for opening night at the restaurant and he is riding me and riding me. It's opening night. And the runners are running in and out of the kitchen. The wait staff, the kitchen staff is getting their stations ready. And my dish is the first dish on the station to go out. Now, the who's who of New York is coming to this event. So there is an added excitement in this.
It's not friends and family night. It is the night. One of the things that's coming off my station is his tuna gravlax. Now, I know how to make gravlax because my previous restaurant was a Scandinavian restaurant. Now, gravlax is a beautiful fish, usually with salmon. And you take the perfect amount of salt and sugar. And it has to be balanced because if you put too much salt, it will take away
The fact which is so important to give it that smooth, silky, buttery, sexy taste in your mouth. You put a little bit of dill and it just opens up in your palate. But this chef wants to speed up the process. He's using tuna and vodka to make this gravlax. He's not happy with my gravlax. He's on me, on me. So it's about 5.30 in the evening, and guests are about to arrive.
And he is still riding me, riding me. And I decided, you know what? Fuck this. I'm out. And I walk off the line. Now, I'm walking down the West Side Highway on the river. And I am sobbing. I am crying. I have no rights to be walking off a job. You see, I've been couch surfing and my visa's about to run out, so I really need this job.
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