Interview with Molly O'Neill

StarChefs.com: What do you think are the new trends in cooking?

Molly O'Neill: Mediterranean. Its umbrella has moved beyond Italy to include Southern France, Israel, Spain, Lebanon and Middle Eastern. On the horizon, I think its going to be Indochinese.

SC: How are you able to conjure up all those recipes for the New York Times magazine section week after week after week?

MO: I have two chefs that work here (in the test kitchen). They stay way far ahead. They're never panic stricken. I'd be dead meat if it were not for them. We work Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Three long days. I act as an executive chef would in a kitchen. We do 10-12 recipes per week and close six weeks in the summer. We are on summer's issue already.

SC: Where does your inspiration come from?

MO: I travel a lot. Cook a lot. Entertain a lot. I hang out with chefs. It's an evolution. I've never been inspired by a single cook. The best thing that happens is when people get together and just sort of start jamming. I go to the countryside of Italy and share a house with Paula Wolfert, Nancy Jenkins, Suzanne Hamlin
and Faith Willenger. Faith is the Julia Child of Italy-she's an exuberant cook, an indefatigable gatherer of information and tastes.

SC: What are your secrets?

MO: People are looking to me to put out a decent meal. Very little cooking requires a high level
of skill. it requires confidence, taste and organization. I learned this working in restaurants. you don't get
a second chance in restaurants. very quickly you find out that if you're not organized you're dead. Later, when I was an executive chef I learned how to organize other people. One person could throw off an entire kitchen.

SC: So it's about team work?

MO: Yes, the team will always let you know. If someone wasn't carrying their weight....they'd leave. In 10 or 20 years, I never had to fire somebody. They know. If I made mistakes in hiring they'd know, they'd leave.

SC: Everyone has a favorite ingredient. What is yours?

MO: Rosemary.

SC: Who has inspired you most in your career?

MO: Lillian Hellman, I assisted her on her last book in her life. Also a fabulous editor, Don Forest taught me how to be a reporter. And terrific editors at the New York Times teach me every week.

SC: Who are your favorite chefs? Other cookbook authors?
MO: The best cooks I've worked with you'd never know. They don't have PR people or do the charity circuit. I am, however, looking forward to Faith Willinger's new cookbook. It will do to Italian Cooking what Mastering the French Cook did for French cooking.

SC: If you weren't involved with food, what would you have done?

MO: Cooking was a way to support my writing. I'm mostly known for my weekly NY Times magazine column. If I weren't involved in food I would be involved in another aspect of journalism. I would probably write about religion or psychology or folk art.

SC: What has been your most exciting professional moment?
MO: When I got my first front page in the NY Times on (page) A1 of the Sunday paper. I was 35 yrs old.

SC: Is the food industry in danger of becoming as pretentious as the Hollywood industry?

MO: They wish. There is not as much money involved. However, the restaurant industry has always been grandiose. It's about fantasy. If you are willing to work hard and have a little talent, you can control
your own destiny.

SC: What three tools should a kitchen never be without?

MO: A rubber spatula. A wooden spoon. And a cast iron skillet, they give off even heat and you don't need to use a lot of oil. I use it for stove top roasting. You can roast a chicken in them.

SC: What do you think of the cookbook industry today?

MO: An awful lot get published every year. I get hundreds of books every year. Maybe out of all those one dozen are keepers. Many ideas are recycled...same idea but directed towards different audiences.