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From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy
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Mar 18, 2026
On Appetite with Anna Ansari
On Appetite with Anna Ansari
00:00
27:26
Transcript
0:00
Thank you, Anna, so much for being here. Thank you for having me, Alicia. When did Silk Roads come out?
0:06
It came out, let's see, October 14th, um, 2025 in the US, and I believe it was, I don't know, like a week earlier in the UK, maybe October 9th. Yeah. So relatively- How are you feeling? No, I mean, it's, it's funny.
0:19
I've obviously, you know, this is the first book I've ever published. Um, I've come to this kind of new-ish industry late in life, so to speak. Yeah. I'm in my mid-40s at this point.
0:31
Um, and so it's just, it's been really exciting, but just kind of a weird emotional rollercoaster. Like, I was trained as a lawyer. Like, I know how, like, law firms work. I know how you move up the ranks or not.
0:42
Um, and so this has really just been a kind of whirlwind- Yeah... of experiences and emotions. I mean, net positive, for sure. [laughs] I'm really pleased, but I'm like, "Oh, that's how that works.
0:54
Oh, that's how that doesn't work out." Yeah. Um, it's been a really, like, extraordinary learning experience, truly. Yeah.
1:01
No, I love what- So- The novelist, Marlo Granados, I love what she wrote once because it really articulated something that I couldn't articulate, which was that it, creative professions are the only ones where you get better, but you don't...
1:15
Nothing else changes. [laughs] Like, your work gets better, but there's not more money. There's not more anything else.
1:21
[laughs] Like, there, it's just, you just keep getting better, but everything else about your life stays the same, and it can be very, very disorienting, I think. Yeah, there's no corner office, you know? No.
1:30
Like, [laughs] you know? [laughs] So, I mean, it's, it is very disorienting. And I- Yeah... you know, I think that's really freeing as well to sort of be like, no, there is no corner office.
1:40
Like, you're not necessarily, the goal is not set in stone. Yeah.
1:44
It is, in fact, to sort of, you know, wanna write a second book or not if that's something you don't want, or a third or fourth, and to try to make it, yeah, make it better and continue to sort of expand your horizons both mentally, physically, and on the page.
1:59
Yeah. So, yeah. Absolutely. Well, what, what took you from law to a cookbook? Um, love. [laughs] Um, so I live in the UK. I'm married to a British man, a Scotsman, and I basically ended up moving over here.
2:13
And, uh, I'm a customs and trade lawyer. I'm still a New York City or New York State bar admitted attorney.
2:20
Um, but I was working in customs and trade in downtown Manhattan, and I moved to the UK, and it was pre-Brexit when basically recruiters did not know what to do with me. They said, you know, "Well, we're part of the EU.
2:31
We don't have customs regulations- Right... with our trading partners. And because we're part of the EU, all of our trade deals are negotiated, you know, on a EU basis.
2:40
You know, we don't even under-" Like, they actually didn't understand what a trade, customs and trade lawyer was. Right. So I pretty much, you know, gave up that career, not out of, you know, not purposefully.
2:51
It just kind of happened. And, um, yeah, no, I just started cooking a lot and recipe testing for some wonderful food writers over here who really encouraged me to just kind of move further into that sphere.
3:04
And so it just kind of, like, happened rather organically.
3:07
Um, and I think, you know, it might sound cliché, but I, I became a mother over the course of that time as well, and it was really important for me to sort of cook more from home and also share a lot of my, like, both American and Iranian culinary heritage- Yeah...
3:23
with my son. So I was always sort of being like, "Okay, what can I do to sort of expose him to these parts of my culture, parts of our heritage, but, um, through food?" Right.
3:32
And especially Iranian stews for little boy, for little kids. They're so soft, and they're comforting, and they're flavorful without being kind of, like, uh, overwhelming on the palate to a three-year-old. Yeah.
3:43
Um, so yeah, it just kind of, like, snowballed. [laughs] Yeah. Um, yeah. Well, this is kind of an off-topic question, but I'm just curious, why customs and trade? Um- Honestly, because I...
3:56
So my background is in China studies. Um- Mm... I started going to China in 1997. I was there for a long time in '98 every summer during university. I moved to Shanghai after college.
4:06
I was, have a master's degree in Chinese. It was all, like, China studies, basically. I worked at the China Institute in New York- Right... for a while. Um, and I went into law,
4:15
frankly, Alicia, to, like, try to make some money- Yeah, yeah, yeah... 'cause, like, the nonprofit world in New York City in 2006 was, like, painful.
4:21
Um, it was really, really satisfying work-wise, but I, I mean, I could, like, couldn't pay rent, um- Yeah... frankly. And so I went to law school, and I was like, "All right.
4:29
I'm gonna make some money, and I wanna do something, like, international," and customs and trade was just kind of fun to me. It's, I, like, it was not...
4:37
And especially when you're dealing with China, it wasn't kind of a, it's not a country in which you necessarily wanted to get involved in 2011 in contract law or property law.
4:48
You know, these are sort of relatively and, you know, kind of remain relatively unsettled things in Chinese and Western, like, law interaction. So customs seems like an easy way.
4:58
Like, China was always gonna pay its duties, and the US were gonna im- po- impose tariffs. Right. And, like, the, China had entered the WTO.
5:05
It was just, it was a straightforward way to get into international law that, like, I found rather appealing, and it was quite fun. Um- Yeah...
5:14
it was just like, it's, I mean, it's these things that we never realize, I think, or I hadn't really realized.
5:18
And I mean, now tariffs are obviously in the news, you know, more than they ever were, like, when- Yeah, yeah... I was having a life.
5:24
But we don't really realize that what goes on in terms of, like, the economics and legals, um, in terms of just the transnational transportation of goods, of food, of people, of all of, everything.
5:36
Like, I was working on, like, sunscreen products- Wow... and then, like, handbags to be sold in the Middle East, and certain ones that couldn't have pork products in the...
5:47
It was just all of these little things that were kind of like putting a puzzle together. Um, so yeah, it just kind of- Yeah... it happened, and then it's no more.
5:57
[laughs] Well, does that experience inform how you write about food? I think so. I mean, I, I, like, I think that, you know, it wasn't even-I hadn't really... It, it was all, all down to my agent, I have to say.
6:09
In the book proposal stage, she was like, "Lean into your background as a trade lawyer."
6:13
You know, you're talking about in, in this proposal, which was, you know, the kernel that became Silk Roads, um, was, you know, all about the travel and the trade of- Yeah...
6:22
goods, and the movement of people, and food, and flavors, and dishes. And she was like, "Lean on that." You know? Yeah. "This is what you actually did."
6:31
And so there was a whole section sort of in my book proposal that was like, you know, I used to write about whether, you know, you could import snake skin from Africa and get around sanctions, and that was how I'd sort of always thought of international trade.
6:44
But you can really look back, you know, hundreds if not thousands and thousands of years to the way that we have al- always sort of traded internationally, and, and, and how food has been a part of that from the very, very beginning.
6:57
So I actually hadn't really, to be honest, had not thought of it. [laughs] So I was like kind of, I think I had this mental block, like, all right, I'm not a lawyer anymore.
7:05
I'm not gonna really think about, you know, this kind of not failed career, but stalled career- Yeah, yeah... um, and like just jump into this food writing and food history-ish writing.
7:16
Um, but yeah, no, my agent was like, "No, lean on that. Um, don't forget, don't forget that."
7:21
And I have, you know, in, in some of the head notes, I think it's like two or three of them in the book, I actually like talk about customs law, and sort of how to classify things, and why I've actually put a recipe in one chapter versus a different one.
7:32
And I just say like, "Hey, I'm using kind of like customs and trade classification rules, because this is my book and I can do it." [laughs] And just sort of playing on that kind of trade, um, trade law sort of basis.
7:46
Yeah.
7:47
Well, can you talk about how, you mention it in the book, and I know you've discussed it elsewhere too, but how Silk Road became plural and, and the, you know, when we were growing up and we're going to school we're hearing about the Silk Road.
7:59
Yeah. And here it's Silk Roads. So how did that change come about? Why is it important? And why, why was it important to be the title, too? So honestly, [laughs] the Brits call it Silk Roads.
8:09
I don't know when they decided over here, and I hate using that sort of like large term of they, but when I was in the process of writing the proposal, it w- my proposal was Silk Road.
8:19
Because like this is what I'm familiar with. As Americans- Yeah... this is the terminology that we have grown up with, and that still goes on.
8:26
I mean, b- besides my book basic- I mean, I think Pet- maybe Peter Frankopan's book, Silk Roads, in the US is called Silk Roads as well.
8:33
But that had already sort of come out over here, and people just were sort of very, very familiar in the UK with using that terminology. And so I, to begin with, I just kind of ran with it.
8:45
I was like, okay, and maybe we'll change it for the US edition.
8:48
But over the course of writing the book, it actually, I was so happy that we went with Silk Roads because I realized the plurality actually is so central to not only the, the network of trade, um, roads, quote, unquote roads themselves- Yeah...
9:03
as they existed, but also to a larger story that I was wanting to share and tell in the book as well, in terms of the multiplicity of networks and movements of people, and goods, and flavors, and food, and dishes across the world.
9:16
And the importance of sort of kind of looking at things from that w- view, that, that, that lens of, of multiplicity, right? Like, you don't, there is no one road.
9:25
There's no one way, you know, whether that's like, you know, a c- person's career path or how an apple got from Kazakhstan to, you know, Massachusetts. Like, there is no one direct path ever, right?
9:38
And so these to, to sort of, to take the notion of a, of a trade route that it was never an actual route. It was many routes.
9:48
It, I mean, people talk about the maritime Silk Roads, like whether, you know, this, you can h- talk about this on the sea as well as over land.
9:56
But I really wanted to sort of just stress the fact that there are these networks.
10:02
And I like, in my brain, I think of it as a, as looking top down on a topographical map of a river and a riverbed, and sort of how you get the little like fingers sort of extending out from a river that kind of just flow, and maybe they'll stop, or maybe they'll run into a different, you know, body of water.
10:18
And it's just this extensive web almost. Um, and to sort of show there's not, you know, it's, it wasn't just a question of things being sort of traded from China to Rome, you know?
10:30
The British Library, not library, the British Museum last year had an exhibit of the Silk Roads, um, at the, at the, at the British Museum that basically had its start in Korea and end in England.
10:41
They said, you know, we're gonna talk about the way these things even made it their way to England, and how we can date sort of this gem found at Sutton Hoo to India.
10:50
So they did all this like research to find out that this, you know, this like, who knows how this stuff got to Sutton Hoo.
10:55
That in fact, one of the rubies in there, they can sort of carbon date or whatever you do with gems, and prove and show that it actually originated in India.
11:04
So that that can kind of like connect so many different cultures and people together. Um, and I think the Silk Roads can be kind of like a metaphor for that sort of continual, constant
11:18
interaction between people, countries, cultures, and I think that's important to just note. Like, it's not just one way.
11:24
There's a lot of, especially in this day and age, like let's not pretend that there's never been immigration and movement, you know? Yeah. Um.
11:31
No, it's so interesting because I've been reading your book w- along with the book club selection of this month, which is now Nightshade. Mm-hmm.
11:39
A cul- An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato by Annie Gaul, and she sort of begins with that premise as well, which is that the, the, the way we might imagine in a Eurocentric perspective that the tomato got to Egypt is not necessarily how it did that.
11:56
It may have come through the East, and it may have come- Mm-hmm... through the Indian Ocean.
11:59
And I just love the idea of, you know, accepting what we don't know and examining the plurality of possibilities so that-You know, because we don't, you know, I think it, it just makes such a, it's a more generous perspective, but it's also a more truthful, truthful perspective, you know?
12:16
And so, um, digging into those, those multiplicities of perspectives and those, those pluralities of possibility when it comes to how food's moved around, I think is just so much more rich and interesting.
12:28
And it was so funny, not funny haha, but funny to read- [laughs]... these books in tandem- Mm... last week and to be like, oh wow, there's so much of this, of similar thinking happening here.
12:39
And it's, it's really good and it's really generative and it's exciting. Well, I mean, I think the thoughts, I mean, at least for me, like that's the kind of thing I want to read. That's what I want to learn about. Yeah.
12:48
And so f- I wanted to be able to write about that as well. Like, I think it is sort of, you know, I think I say, like it's definitely my proposal. It's definitely in the intro.
12:56
I say, you know, we talk about like where food comes from, right? Yeah. Like let's get over to our farmer's market and, you know, like make sure everything's locally grown, but like where did that tomato come from?
13:06
How did it get there to begin with? Exactly, yeah.
13:08
There is so much history in there, and it's so interesting, and it can, I think, enrich our minds and our plates and just the way we like look at what we consume or what we don't- Yeah...
13:19
or what we choose to not consume as well. Um- Yeah... it's just I'm, like I'm a dork. I love this stuff.
13:24
[laughs] Like, I get very excited about this, this, uh, I'm gonna take that book on the plane with me to, to New York on Saturday and hopefully- I love it... I'll get read enough to join that- [laughs]...
13:33
in the discussion next week. Amazing. But, uh- Well, can you tell me about where you grew up and what you ate? Yeah. So I grew up in suburban Detroit. Um, my dad's from Iran. My mom is from suburban Detroit.
13:46
Um, and her family came over to the US on both like the Mayflower and via, you know, Ellis Island into Brooklyn in the late 1800s. So I'm like very weirdly American and, you know, an immigrant, child of an immigrant.
14:01
So we ate a lot of, uh, sloppy joes. [laughs] We had a lot of hot dogs. We ate a lot of burgers, and we ate a lot of Iranian food.
14:09
We liked a lot of beautiful like rice dishes with the crispy ghormeh, which most people know it as tahdig, but I know it as ghormeh. Kebabs, stews, um, just, I mean like a lot of corn and peach. Yeah.
14:24
I mean, Mi- Midwest also is really, I think, does, gets a bad rap in America for food culture- Yeah...
14:30
especially when it comes to, like people don't realize how good, you know, we know in the East Coast like, yeah, New Jersey corn is spectacular, right? Michigan corn is better.
14:39
[laughs] Michigan corn in the summer, so there's like just beautiful apples and corn and, you know, cherries and just gorgeous fruit, um, and vegetables.
14:48
So my, my family's always kind of been a real raw fruit and vegetable, uh, people. My mom and my sister have been vegetarian for kind of as long as I- Oh, cool...
15:00
can, I mean, I think my younger sister, she's a couple years older than me, she's been vegetarian since like age six. My mom was basically always vegetarian.
15:06
So frankly, the meat that we were eating was never really cooked that well. [laughs] Love my mother, but I was like, oh, I finally eventually had some chicken. I was like, "Oh, that's what roast chicken's supposed to..."
15:17
'Cause she didn't know, you know. Yeah, yeah. She was making stuff that she herself doesn't cook, um, and doesn't eat.
15:22
But so, and you know, we, I grew up in a household, no s- no shellfish, no pork, but not because of real religion, just because of just habit. You know- Yeah...
15:30
my father had grown up not eating any pork, so we didn't eat pork. And ef- especially with a mother who's a vegetarian, we were not gonna eat, you know, pepperoni on our pizza. Yeah.
15:39
So there was, it was just a lot of fruit and vegetables and a lot of rice, and then I really just, I j- I'm kind of looking, I have to revisit a sloppy joe. My son is seven. [laughs] I, like he might need to eat one.
15:50
Um- He's the right age, yeah. The right age. Um- Yeah... yeah. So I mean, it was really just this kind of mishmash of Iranian food and American kind of classics. Yeah. Yeah.
16:01
Well, I can recommend, there's a, there's a dish called the Sloppy Dave in the Superiority Burger cookbook- Ooh... which is a vegetarian- Ooh... spin on it. Um, so- Nice...
16:10
just in case you, if you're interested in that one, in the Sloppy Dave. [laughs] I, I am. I mean, ob- obviously I know you are a, you know, dedicated- Yeah... vegetarian. Yeah, yeah.
16:21
But I mean, um, we just don't eat like a ton of meat in our household. No. I, I'm always looking to sort of [laughs] figure out how to maneuver around that- [laughs]... with a Scottish husband especially.
16:32
They're like, "Wait, what? We don't have sausage today?" I'm like, "No, we don't." Yeah. [laughs] I've had a vegetarian Scotch egg, which was really interesting. Mm. Um, I'm sure you have. Yeah, they, I found- Yeah...
16:44
there was one here that was at our local pub when my son was like under a year old that had cannellini beans as the quote unquote- Ooh...
16:51
sausage around the egg, and it was so lovely, and it was really nice to like feed a little infant as well. Yeah. You know, just be like, "Here, have some soft egg."
16:58
And then also this, I mean, I actually liked it, but I'm not a, yeah. [laughs] 'Cause I grew up in this household, and we didn't eat a lot of these things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:05
We like, it, it was, it's, it's still I have a hard time kind of embracing certain dishes and ingredients that are sort of beloved by, you know, so many just 'cause I'm like, "Oh, really?" [laughs] I'm, I'm good.
17:19
I don't need to have that. Um, yeah. Yeah. No, actually thinking about this now, the, the one that I had was so good because it was a combination of a Puerto Rican alcapurria and a falafel. Ooh.
17:31
So it was like grated plantain, but well, and then chick- there's chickpeas involved in it and the spice. Anyway, so now I'm like, you know what, I have to do that. [laughs] Yum, yum. I haven't thought about it in ages.
17:42
[laughs] Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. I love a plantain. Well, who has had the biggest influence on how you eat and how, and, and in, in what way? I mean, I, I guess my father. Yeah.
17:55
I think that in terms of it both because I do love, you know, Iranian food so much. I mean, I made, I made Iranian food last night for dinner. I was like, I need some. I just, especially with Iran in the news- Yeah...
18:07
these days especially, I'm like, I want, I want this food. But I'm, you know, it-Those are the sort of, like, ingredient, the flavor profiles.
18:14
Um, but just, you know, that hi- his heritage, um, my heritage has influenced me. Um, but just the, like, love of fruit and vegetables and the raw sort of ingredients of, you know, the land. Like- Yeah...
18:29
you know, just enjoying the fact that, like, a, there's nothing better on a summer's day than, like, a freshly shucked, you know, ear of corn that you barely need to cook because it's so- Yeah... sweet and perfect as is.
18:42
Um, and just in... Yeah. But really, and, like, nuts. I mean, [laughs] we used to go- [laughs]...
18:48
go to my dad's house in Michigan and be like, and walk into the refrigerator, or in the, the pantry, and, like, look in the refrigerator, and all there would be is just, like, bags of frozen, uh, bags of, like,
18:59
walnuts and pistachios and, like, berries. And we were like, "What are you, Dad, are you, like, a squirrel?" [laughs] What is with these, like, nuts and berries?
19:07
But this kind of very, very simple but very natural kind of choices that you make to sort of get your nutrients not from, like, overcooked broccoli, but from, you know, that raw cucumber with every meal and- Yeah...
19:21
a tomato and herbs. Um, so I'd say my dad, but then I think, you know, my mother as well.
19:26
Like I said, I think growing up in a household where half of us were vegetarian, I think just kind of not necessarily assuming that every meal has to have meat on the plate as well is something that is, I, I carry forward.
19:41
Um, and certainly even in writing Silk Roads, I wanted to make sure that there were a number of not just sort of salad dishes, but, you know, main courses that could suit a vegetarian diet, because, like- Yeah...
19:52
this is, like, I... My sister, I remember, it was, like, 10 years ago, she was like, "If I have to see another pasta with butternut squash and sage," you know? Yeah.
20:00
[laughs] It was that time in New York where, like, that was, like, anything. That was the only dish you could get. [laughs] And she's like, "There's not even protein in this." Yeah.
20:08
Um, so, you know, just recognizing the importance of sort of satisfying those needs, um, culinarily has definitely also been on my mind always. Yeah. Yeah.
20:18
No, that makes, it makes a lot of sense to, to learn about the vegetarians in your, in your family. [laughs] Yeah. I think in terms of your approach, for sure. Well, how would you describe your appetite? My appetite?
20:31
Yeah. Never-ending. [laughs] I feel like, no, I mean, I think that's, it's such a, it's such a loaded word. I mean- Yeah... obviously I, you know, I'm, I'm constantly curious.
20:42
I always am wanting to, like, to learn more, see more, eat more, taste more, go more places.
20:48
Like, so that, like, larger notion of appetite, I feel like I just, I can't imagine just sitting around and being like, "Here we are. I'm retired now, and I'm done with, like, exploring," you know? Yeah.
20:59
So from that, you know, that perspective, but, like, real appetite, I just want something real tasty. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] Like, on the plate, I wanna be satisfied. I don't want, I don't want anything to be bland.
21:11
I'm, like, I'm interested in, in the excitement and the discovery, um, whether that be in a day-to-day life or on the table. Um, and just continuing just to learn. I'm just, like- Uh... a little dorky about- Yeah...
21:26
you know? Yeah. [laughs] Which, like, I embrace it. I'm 44 years old. I'm like, you know what? Yeah. I'm not gonna pretend to be someone that I'm not. Like, I enjoy- Yeah...
21:34
discovering things, and I do- I just, I feel like, I don't know. I'm very excited for your book. I love the title.
21:40
I love the notion of, of appetite, um, and just something, especially from a female perspective, you know, really, like, explores ideas of, of the body and sexual- Yeah, yeah... notions on one.
21:51
So, you know, there's a, there's a lot. So yes, never, never-ending. [laughs] It has so many connotations. I know. It's true. It's great. And, and I think it's a very loaded word. Yeah.
22:00
And the interesting thing about it to me is I remember when Anthony Bourdain put out his cookbook, and it was called Appetite, and I was just so jealous.
22:09
And I think that's why the subtitle [laughs] of this book is featuring it so prom- prominently, because I was like, "Ooh," like, "how do I get some of that?"
22:19
And I was, and, you know, obviously, like, Anthony Bourdain is, like, a huge influence on so many- Yeah...
22:23
of us, but also just the role he was able to play in the culture and the fact that, like, he was really able to speak to so many people is so influential.
22:32
And so when he had that, like, used that word for his cookbook, I was like, "I wanna be allowed to use that word too." [laughs] Well, you know, I mean, I think, I think- I'm really glad that I got to, yeah...
22:41
I think it's wonderful, and I think it's important as well- [laughs]... that especially as a female food writer- Yeah... to be able to sort of have that and claim that.
22:48
I mean, we talk a, we talk a lot about, like, M.F.K. Fisher and her discussions of, like, appetite and, and sort of, and that, like, that body that's tied up in there, but that was a long time ago. Who's right? Yeah.
22:59
Like, you know? Like, let's get that, [laughs] let's get that in your subtitle. [laughs] Let's get that out there and claim it for, you know- Yeah... the feminist perspective I think that it has as well.
23:09
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Well, which is your favorite meal of the day? Hmm. Probably dinner. Um, I like a big spread. Um- Yeah... I like, I love a dinner party. I just, I'm...
23:27
I, I work from home, so I'm not really, like, a lunch person necessarily. Yeah. I mean, my lunch is sort of random, whenever it is. I think I had something at, like, 2:00 earlier today. I don't even know what I had.
23:37
Um, I do love breakfast. I love eating breakfast out. Um- Ooh, that was gonna be my next question, is your favorite meal to eat out. Yeah.
23:43
I love breakfast out, so, like, I don't really, like, I don't do breakfast at home that much. My son eats, uh, Weetabix 'cause he's British. [laughs] I'm like, "Okay."
23:53
And I just sort of, like, watch them with my cup of coffee. I'm like, "Oh." [laughs] Um, but I love eating breakfast out.
23:59
I, I just, I, that's just something in my family we've kind of always done, um, gone to the diner or sort of the deli and just had, you know, fried eggs and hash browns and toast. No bacon.
24:12
Um-But I even, I've embraced the English breakfast. I love the baked bean situation over here. Yeah. [laughs] It's very fun and delicious.
24:20
Dishoom does m- masala baked beans, which are, have the like, lovely Indian spice to them. But in terms of the actual meal, like, I think because I have to say rice is my favorite food, like period, end of story.
24:31
And yes, you can have a lovely rice lunch, you can have a lovely rice for breakfast as well, and I have on many, many occasions. Um, but I wanna like, I want some Iranian rice.
24:42
I want like some, I want a salad with some, probably some meat and some sauce, and just like platters across the table.
24:52
I like a bountiful, uh, sort of thing, and I don't think that you really necessarily get that unless you're in some like, grandmother's house in France. Exactly. [laughs] You know, having like a big, a big lunch. Yeah.
25:01
You're not really getting that for the m- lunchtime. No. But, um, yeah. Dinner. Yeah. Dinner. All right. [laughs] Well, for you, is cooking a political act? I mean, I guess so. I mean, I think- Yeah...
25:13
cooking is a political act for all of us. I don't think I necessarily... It's not the first thing I think about when I think about cooking, but I think that it's,
25:21
I think it's kind of impossible to, to take, to take them apart if you start to really- Yeah...
25:25
think about food and think about where your food comes from, think about what kind of cuisines you're representing on the plate and why you're doing that and what you wanna share or not share, um, where your ingredients come from, what you are choosing not to include, again, or to include.
25:42
Um, those are all tied up in politics. Um, but I don't necessarily think that we, and I don't always, you know, think about it when I'm- Yeah... in the process of cooking.
25:50
I think it just is inherent, and I think that we are, maybe more of us are realizing that as sort of, you know, these discussions become more mainstream, that, yeah, all of these choices do have political repercussions, and they have not just repercuss- rep- repercussions, excuse me, we're making these choices because of politics and political decisions that have been made without our, you know, input or whatnot.
26:13
Yeah. Like, the reason we're eating this or we're cooking that is because somebody somewhere has decided it's gonna be cheaper to sort of import, you know, s- chicken from a- U- the US to England. You know?
26:25
Like, that is not a choice we're making. But we are making it when we cook it. Um, so I think cooking is always political. Um- Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
26:37
like I said, I don't eat, I, we really, I've, I've specifically, I buy my, my meat from a very specific place, um, that is not cheap but is a purposeful choice.
26:47
I will not buy from the grocery store and sort of contribute to sort of this mass agricultural meat industry.
26:55
Um, so tho- that's the one I will say in my house, like, that's a very specific choice that we make, um, that I guess is political and economic and, you know, environmental as well. Yeah.
27:07
Well, thank you so much for taking the time today. Thank you. This was so fun. [laughs] Um, it's so nice to meet you. Um- Yeah, so nice meeting you... you're fabulous.
27:16
I feel like I've seen your face a gazillion times, and on the screen, but not like in an interact [laughs] way. Yes. [laughs] Like this. Um, no- Thank you... thank you, Lisa. Thank you.
From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy
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