Non-Cook Of The Month
March, 2012
Interview with Non-Cook of the Month
Lisa Steiner
Lisa Steiner
Lisa Steiner was born in Chicago. She studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and earned an MFA in painting from the University of Oregon. Lisa has been awarded residencies at The Millay Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and Villa de Leyva in Columbia, and was the recipient of a United States Information Agency grant to attend the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland. She has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and South America, spent time living and painting in Columbia, and is now based in Brooklyn, NY, where she lives with her sweet dog Chloe.
Lisa responded to PGN-C questions over email.
Lisa responded to PGN-C questions over email.
Picky Grouchy Non-Cook: Are there any non-cooks in your life you would like to mention? Have you been influenced by any particular non-cook?
Lisa Steiner: Growing up, my mother NEVER cooked anything, with the exception of beany weaney casserole, tuna salad, eggs, fried matzo, and later in my teens, she learned how to make spinach lasagna and lentil soup. Things got really bad when she started dating Buzz, a crazy bird keeper, JDL member who was a health nut. The household snacks went from HoHos to soy nuts. It was a nightmare. She stopped eating meat. We were forced to be vegetarians at home. NO MORE WEANIES! Life sucked! So now as an adult, I feel certain amount of anxiety, growing up with a mother that never taught me how to cook. I'm insecure about my lack of knowledge in the kitchen. PGN-C: What's the worst thing about being a non-cook?
Lisa Steiner: I'm ashamed that I can't cook. PGN-C: Can you say a little more about that? Lisa Steiner: When I was 16 or 17, I was helping in the kitchen of my first boyfriend's house. I was given a bowl, and was told to stir. So I did, but after a couple of minutes, my boyfriend grabbed the spoon from my hand and said, "That's not the way to stir!" I remember the feeling. I was ashamed, and felt like a neglected child whose mother never taught her to cook...not even to stir. PGN-C: Remember the time you and I tried to make scallops and we couldn't think of what to do except put more butter in the pan? How much butter do you think we used? What do you think kept us from looking up a recipe?
Lisa Steiner: You can NEVER have too much butter!!! I think those little guys we're swimming in it. That was a lot of fun, and in the end they were tasty -- right? I don’t eat scallops so I don’t know. I was of no help. It was definitely the blind leading the blind. Why didn't we look at a recipe? I guess we wanted to show that we could intuitively predict the outcome and did not need to consult some stuffy know it all cookbook. PGN-C: I forgot that you don’t eat scallops! Maybe we are so linked to our intuitive natures that we reject cooking because we can’t do it intuitively? Lisa Steiner: I didn't feel anything intuitive with the scallops. I had a lot of fun that night, but I really don't like anything about a scallop. Maybe if it was a steak, I'd feel differently. I kind of think that cooking could be intuitive. If only I knew the basics, maybe I'd be a cook. However, it would be daunting. PGN-C: What do you think about trying to learn to cook? Lisa Steiner: I really would love to learn how to cook. I thought I'd start from the ground up and take a knife course, which I did, at the Brooklyn Kitchen. That was the beginning and the end. Except I now know the proper way to use a knife. But I'm not giving up on myself. The other day I made vegetarian bean soup. It was pretty good. |