20 Questions with a Slashfoodie: Kat Kinsman

When new bloggers join the Slashfood team, we like to make sure they get a proper introduction to our readers. However, sometimes we miss the boat and a blogger flies under the radar, writing for many months without an introduction. Kat Kinsman, the senior editor of AOL Food has been blogging for us some time and we're finally getting around to giving her a proper introduction. Please give her a nice welcome! -- Marisa McClellan

Do you have a personal blog?

Yes, I do, and it resulted in my being investigated by the Secret Service -- who originally didn't realize that it was a political satire and believed that I really, truly did yearn to spend my days and nights in a vat full of pudding with Karl Rove. I hear he is an amazing chef, though. I also maintain a Twitter.

What is your day job, or rather, what do you do when you're not food blogging?

I'm the senior editor of AOL Food, and I loooove taking my work home with me.

How long have you been blogging with Slashfood and what is your favorite post?

I had been blogging at AOLfoodblog.com for rather a while when we merged with Slashfood, so if we count that, it's a bit over a year. My favorite post was one where I talked about how my husband Douglas and I surprised our parents by getting some of our most favorite recipes from each side of our new family and having our caterers/friends serve them at our wedding reception. I posted my Dad's Hungarian goulash and Douglas' Mom & Grandmother's chicken and dumplings recipes along with the story. There was just such a warm, wonderful response in the comments, and it was a treat to share this with our families.

What I didn't anticipate, though, was a commenter who took the time out to tell me how very tacky it was of us to serve such common food, and that we should have used the occasion to serve "special" "fancy" food to our guests. I wrote back to her to say that it actually was incredibly special food to us, and that we loved sharing these parts of our lives with our guests, but she just got even nastier in her response. Ah well. That's the internet for ya.

Do you have any non-food-related, non-blogging hobbies?
Douglas, our two dogs (the three rabbits and fish stay at home) and I drive up to New York's Scoharie County most weekends and garden, cook, host and frolic in a lovingly restored, deconsecrated Gothic stone Episcopal church from 1854, in a Victorian spa town populated by some of the weirdest, warmest, most wonderful people in all the world. I also am an avid gardener of weird heirloom vegetables, and I pop up on Maxim Radio's The Devore & Diana Show talking about relationships.

Not every foodie does, so we have to ask. Do you cook?
I sure do. I'm a pretty serious grill chef (and a KCBS Certified BBQ Judge), and at home, I tend to delve deeply into regional American cuisine (I adore comb-bound community cookbooks like Charleston Receipts) and slow-cooked hunks of meat. I'm also a pretty adventurous amateur mixologist.

What is your most prized utensil/gadget in the kitchen?
My red Kitchen-aid stand mixer with ice cream attachment. Outside, it's my trusty barrel smoker.

List three things in your refrigerator right now.
Diet Coke, 5-year aged gouda & Duke's mayonnaise that I hauled back from North Carolina.

You have to impress a date with a meal. What are you going to make?
My Mai-Tais, pulled pork shoulder and Lane cake speak volumes. I'm pretty sure Douglas married me just to get regular access to 'em.

What is the last thing you ate?
A handful of corn shoots from the Union Square Greenmarket, chased by a Margarita-flavored potato chip that just arrived in the mail. I love my job.

Confession time – what do you eat that will get you banned from Slashfood?
I don't believe in food snobbery. My unofficial motto for AOL Food is "If it tastes good, it IS good."

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Egg & cheese on a roll from any corner deli in the five boroughs.

Your Mom makes the best _____.
Dinner reservations. Cooking's just not her thing. My Dad, however, is a darned good home chef and taught me to care about cardamom and sambuca. He's also written on Slashfood a few times!

Which chef would you most like to have come into your kitchen and cook you dinner?
My friends Alex Webster & Ika Fognell have a restaurant called Alex & Ika in Cooperstown, NY, and Alex, the chef, has made me weep on numerous occasions. His food is soulful, thoughtful and generous with equal measures of rustic charm and haute elegance. Think gorgeously braised game with Wylie Dufresne's whiz-bang flourishes, plus whatever he foraged from his land that morning. He knows what I love to eat from the menu, so I'd really love to see what it would be like to have him cater the whole meal to my tastes.

With whom would you most like to eat dinner?
Karl Rove. Or perhaps A.J. Liebling and M.F.K. Fisher, though that would require a time machine and/or séance.

Your drink of choice?
Perfect rye Manhattan. Please don't be stingy with the bitters.

Where was your best restaurant dining experience?
The kitchen pass at Hearth in Manhattan's East Village is to me the equivalent of scoring 50-yard-line seats for the Superbowl. Diners get to perch at a table along the kitchen's edge watching what's got to be one of the most highly skilled, functional and balletic teams of chefs in NYC work through the evening's dinner service. Though they worked as a squeak-free machine through 12-tops ordering tasting menus, party add-ons, menu alterations to accommodate vegetarians, etc., the night I was there, I found myself rooting for individual players suddenly tasked with, say, searing a dozen skate orders or plating an entire lake's worth of snapper crudo. There's something immensely attractive about watching people work passionately and precisely at something they love, and can do that in unison with other people who share their vision. It was not unlike watching one of my favorite bands play live – and the food was brilliant to boot. I actually applauded them as I got up to leave.

Recently, also, I had the tremendous luck to get to jaunt to San Francisco, and had my best meal of '08 thus far at Dennis Leary's Canteen, and a couple of other standouts at Anchor & Hope and Salt House.

The worst?
There was a restaurant called La Gould Finch (long since shuttered) also in New York's East Village in the late 90s/early 00s. I posted on Chowhound.com: "The barbecued shrimp appetizer was mealy and nastily thawed with a truly vominous vinagrette dressing on the side. The unmemorable cornbread was served with a gloppy zucchini spread that was only vaguely more appealing than green paper maché. The gumbo (shrimp and sausage) was passable, but only a step more zesty than a Campbell's soup. My dining companion and I walked for blocks afterwards in a half-hearted attempt to stave off the impending quease, but the damage was done." That was nearly 8 years ago, and I can still remember exactly how nauseated I felt after.

Do you want fries with that?
Are they well done fries from In-N-Out burger? Then yes, please.

What foods do you think should be banished from existence?
Lunchables couldn't be more evil. They're targeted toward kids, and they're chock full of icky, processed, fat & salt-laden crap. Adults can eat whatever they decide is delicious, but kids don't have much of a choice in the matter. I know they're convenient and kids love 'em, but for less than half the price, there are healthier options available.

What do you see as the biggest "thing" in food for the coming year?
This isn't so much a prediction as a hope I have, but I'd love it if folks would grab a camera or voice recorder, find their oldest family member, and sit down to talk about food with 'em. It's an amazing bonding experience, and it keeps both family and culinary history alive for the next generations. The Southern Foodways Alliance maintains the Oral History Initiative, and they provide a perfect template for a project like that.