I Am All In with Scott PattersonA surprise holiday treat with chefs Elena P. Craig and Kristen Mulrooney from Gilmore Girls: The Official Cookbook.
I am all in.
Oh it's you. I am all in with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Hoa, Susanna, Merry Christmas, you guys Christmas. So it's Christmas morning. It actually is early right now.
I'm not gonna I'm wearing my pajamas.
I'm not.
I had to set an alarm for seven forty five today. Yeah, so Scott is you know, Scott's been working around the clock. He's like literally just finishing. He's getting back to his family. So we did give him Christmas off. But the girls and I got together for kind of a fun Christmas Day Gilmore Girls celebration. It's sort of perfect for Christmas Day and Kristen are going to join us. Who wrote the Gilmore Girls the official cookbook, so they're going to tell us all about the recipes. What's perfect to make today on Christmas? Hopefully an easy one. So Tara and Susanne, are you guys good cooks?
I'm not bad. I can cook. I definitely always need a recipe. I can't go off the cuss, but I can make. I can make good food.
Really yeah, like what really? I'm actually so I.
Actually for a long time I did when I was living alone because I didn't know how to cook. I did Hello Fresh, which is a sponsor by the way.
And you used it before I was even a sponsor. So yeah, genuinely endorsing Hello Fresh.
Yeah.
This was like four years ago when I was living alone. I didn't know how to cook, and I was like, well, it gives you the items and the recipe, so why not. And so I actually need to order the Kilmore Girls Official Cookbook because now I want to make it.
I did. It's good. Wait, Susanna, can you cook?
I I am not really a cook. I don't enjoy it, and so I never really like learned how to do it. I can I can, you know, brown some ground beef and you know, basic things like that, But I'm not really a cook. My husband likes to cook, so he does the cook Oh he does it.
Oh that's good.
Yeah. Yeah.
I had a phase there where I was like, I'm going to learn to cook, and then I like six months into it, was like, I don't I hate this.
The worst part is cleaning the dishes. That's the worst part. Like the process is great, but like.
That's not the worst part for me. The worst part for me is doing the whole thing and realizing it tastes gross. I'm like, oh my god, I literally just did all this and I don't like it.
Oh, it's a bummer.
I just to me, I always am focused on how much time I'm spending, like you spend for me. It takes I don't know, an hour two hours to cook something basic for ten then you eat it in ten minutes, yeah, and then it's gone.
So that's I think we all weren't meant to cook. Like I think we're all not meant to you know, b Taylor Swift. Some of us have skills, some of us don't. And I don't have that skill. But for those of you that do, the Gilmore Girls cookbook is legit, like it's this is the official cookbook, and Elena and Kristin wrote it and we'll explain how they did it together.
But yeah, the burger on the front cover looks amazing.
This makes me want to try cooking again because the pictures.
It kind of agree and the whole Gilmore Girls of it, and like, definitely we can pull off what Rory and Laura cook. Yeah, for sure. So we've talked to one of you before, right, who did we talk to before me Kristin. So Elena and Kristin are here and they wrote a book that many of you have Gilmore Girls, the Official Cookbook. So we were so happy to have you. Guys. We have so much to talk about. One is that you both will be at our I Am All In Live event at the iHeartRadio Theater January seventeenth for a really cool segment with Scott So First, Hi, guys, tell everybody a little bit about what each of you do and how you came together for the official cookbook for the Gilmore Girls.
Well, I am a recipe developer and so I have written a few cookbooks and this is one of my favorites because it's a family affair. And I was approached by Inside Editions to write this cookbook and luckily partnered with Kristin, who did the amazing flavor text and I'll let her speak to that awesome part. But I developed the recipes for this book.
And I'm Kristin. I am a humor writer. The book was already a plan a little bit before I jumped on, but I heard from the editor that they were looking for a writer to join in. I think it was described as a pop culture cookbook and I was like, Okay, I'm interested, and then she told me it was Gilmore Girls and I was like, I am super interested, and she asked me to write I think it was a sample for the Santa Berger. She asked me to write, oh, we're going to talk about to and then they brought me on and that was really really exciting.
Yeah, and had so many fun ideas, like there's the whole relationship chart in the book, which is one of my favorite things. I love it. Yeah, I loved that edition. It's so cute. And it was really important to me to organize the book by the places that we know in stars Hollow and around it, rather than traditional appetizers, entrees, drinks. Right, that was really fun.
So meaning the diner, the Dragonfly, do you have recipes from El's Pancake World in there?
We do?
We do. So we have Luke's Diner, we have the Dragonfly in we have sort of outside of Stars Hollow, which encompasses the Gilmour mansion and things that maybe happened at college. And then of course we have you know, Lorelei and Roy's house which has oh my gosh, we recipes in it.
We were literally just talking about the pizza with the tater tots, so she got the frozen pizzas and then just dumps the tater tots, which seems gross but yet time efficient like it would work.
Well, yeah, I had to tweak that a little bit. You really need to pre cook your tater tot's a skosh to get that christiness. But I love that line in that episode where Worri's like, well you're the one who wanted to cook.
Oh, we love that when she says do you want the apple or the raspberry turnover? Yes? Yes, So we're both of you, Kristen. You first, we're both of you fans of the show before you found out you had this job and came together to write the cookbook.
Yes, I was so it originally aired. I think I was in college when it originally aired, so I was watching it week to week back then, and then the Year in Life came out. It must have been after one of my babies was born, because I binged the entire series again before I watched that, So it must have been. I was up at night and just binge watched the whole series before I watched the four Year in a Life episodes. So yeah, I was a big fan before.
Yeah, so I was also a huge fan and watched it when it was actually airing, and then as my kiddo sort of came of age, I watched it all the way through with them, so so many hours on the sofa, just you know, laughing and also just so much emotional with the crying as they're sort of turning twelve, thirteen, fourteen. And then watched it all the way through again with them when I got contracted to do this book, because then I'm watching it with my notepad, you know, watching for every single food reference that could possibly be.
Right right right right, Yes, this book was a great excuse to be able to watch some TV.
Exactly I'm working, It's really I'm working. Yeah, And for this book, it was so hard to narrow it down. I mean I was going to say, write three Gilmore Girls cookbooks?
Really, well, you should do another one to follow. So what what a cool thing to have happened in that It wasn't like the two of you created this concept, which would have been cool in and of itself, but someone actually came to you and said, can you do this for Gilmore Girls? Which I almost think would be such a like a treat of a job offer to get like, oh, are you kidding me?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it's a treat. It's a treat. I have written several books for inside editions, and I only take on franchises that I love, right because otherwise I'm going to be doing a disservice to the fans if I don't love it, if I don't know it inside and out, if it doesn't you know, if it hasn't held a place in my life, I'm not going to be able to find all those nuggets and all those Easter eggs and kind of make all those things come to life. So to get off this one was amazing, and it was and the perfect time where I had just recently rewatched it and then you know, got to watch it all over again. So yeah, it was great.
And what about you, Kristen, And obviously what you do is sort of different than what Elena did for the book, and that you have to figure out how to turn the food into little stories and anecdotes, and you know it, it was a bit says.
The show's so well written anyways, so it was easy to kind of take the scenarios and just kind of turn into something more about the food. And it's funny because when the book was announced, I know you shouldn't read the comments, but I always read the comments. You do, but so many people are like, what do you mean a Gilmore Girl's cookbook, Like they don't even know how to cook. And I thought that was really funny because when you watch the show, so much of it is about food totally, and one of the characters is a gourmet chef, and we have Luke Steiner, and there's just so many of the episodes are about food. So it was kind of surprised to hear that, but it was. It was really fun and I personally, I loved writing about the recipes that you know, you mentioned the pizza with the tater tots. I loved about the recipes that are about a food that they say on the show is disgusting because I loved how Alena twisted those recipes and wow, really good.
Yeah, what are a couple that stand outs with? My kids?
Love the mash banana on toast.
Oh, really so good.
Yeah, it's really simple, it's easy for me and it's just really tasty. Lena added some vanilla and I think some cinnamon in there and some lime.
I don't do the lime, to be.
Honest, it was the worst pieced.
For me.
It was missus Kim's recipe.
Oh my gosh, they're so difficult, and.
Because my editor was like, I don't know what you're gonna do, Like how are you going to do this? We have to have them in there, but like extra chunky soy pudding, like what is that? Like what are we doing?
Are they all vegan at the Kims? Is that your takeaway that? Or yes, she's definitely vegan.
She's definitely vegan.
Yeah, and so all the ahead of time.
Yeah, she was totally ahead of her gune. All of those recipes are vegan. One of my absolute favorites and a huge cellar like everybody that I've ever given it to to try is the eggless egg salad.
Oh gosh, rights.
And it just came together and it's got like an auditu. What I did was I toasted some chickpeas in some warming spices and actually some tumeric so that they got kind of yellow and then a very firm tofu and a lot of celery and green im like gosh, and actually doesn't decide are out a little bit of color and then the Aquaa ranch is kind of the binder instead of mayonnaise. Oh my god, that is in there for a crunch?
Oh wow?
Is that from the dance? Is that the sandwiches she passed out in the dance exactly?
And the aqua faa ranch is like part of the salad and a bag recipe, so you get to kind of use it.
I was gonna say. Also, there's such an iconic episode when they have to go to the like five thanksgivings. Do you address that in the book? Figuring out all those different turkeys and remember there was a fry. This might be for book two.
Yeah, I think we only gonna have to do remember Jackson the holiday edition.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
That's actually a really good idea.
And then we could do all of the all of the foods from like the Winter Festival edition.
The thing that's really amazing about Gilmergold not only is there a lot of food, right, but it's the way the food is presented in the show, especially with Suki and at the Inn, both incarnations of the Inn. It's so beautifully displayed on camera, you know. And you talked about the Winter Festival or the carnivals or the sort of events of the town. The food is always just massive quantities and looks like some food stylist has spent one thousand hours preparing it because it's always just flawlessly done.
The wedding cakes, I mean, the wedding cakes alone just so gorgeous. And I actually taught myself a new skill to do Suki's wedding cake. Yeah, I was trying to figure out how to make it an approachable recipe but also still make it really beautiful. Yeah, So I kind of taught myself that this palette knife technique with buttercream, which is very popular all over social media right now, and it's basically like using a palette knife like you would with oil paint, but to create textured flowers, often in buttercream. So I enjoyed doing.
Oh my gosh, it sounds at what's the easy for somebody like me and maybe Susannahatara as well, what's the easiest recipe, maybe other than the mashed bananas on TOAs, what's the easiest recipe that like a person who cannot cook can make. Maybe Santa Burger.
The Santa Burger is a great one. I actually think that you would be surprised how much you would enjoy and love making the risotto with Skellos. It's actually it seems intimidating, but risotto is one of those dishes that, just with a little patience, you look so fancy at the end of the evening. And the reason it's one of my favorite things to cook is because you have to stand at the stove and drink your glass of wine.
You can't be doing.
Other things, so you know you've got to set somebody else to set the table and make the salad and fuss around. It's like I got to stay here with the result.
I wanted to ask you, Elena, is also how many hours and how much time you know, as the expert was put into the way the food looked on the show, Like, obviously that's someone's entire job, but that.
Must have been several people's entire job. Wow, yeah, like many people's entire job.
So, and you did the recipes for this, and I'm assuming they photographed your preparations.
So I am a strange jumping between two hats, right, So I am a recipe developer, but I'm also a food stylist. I was actually a food stylist before I really started developing recipes professionally. So I work with a photographer who I've known for thirty plus years, and when it's one of my cookbooks, but also I do other styling for Insight as well and other clients. Yes, so I prepared all the food that is actually photographed in the book. And that's usually at least the second, if not the third time or the fourth time you made that dish, right, because I've tested it.
And so how long for both of you was the process of writing this book? I would think that would take forever to make all those recipes.
For me, for recipe development, they usually give me six weeks is comfortable? Sometimes weeks oh yeah, Sometimes they want to cram it a little tighter than that, but six weeks usually.
And how many recipes are in the book?
I think fifty?
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
And then Kristen so like a you know, lyricist in their songwriter. So did Elena create all the recipes and the and then you came in and wrote sort of your stories and antidotes anecdotes about them or were you doing that simultaneously a little bit of both. Actually, I sort of got.
Started because I had kind of the same time frame as her, So I got started before I had some of the recipes, because I knew I could sort of come up with a story in this way to introduce it without knowing the ingredients. But I think, I think, I remember, Lenny, you were sort of passing them along as you made them, so you would send them in bunches, so i'd get like an email with ten recipes in it, and then I could go through and see what I had already and then incorporate whatever ingredients I needed to mention in there.
Some of them start with.
An outline that has sort of the title of the recipe and a brief description of what it's going to be, so at least Kristin will know it's a Sanna Burger. She might not know yet that I've decided to make the hat out of Rent.
Leak.
She's got like a start. And I always feel so bad for the flavor text authors because I am I am always way behind them, right, you know, And so they're just like this fabulous recipe which will be flavored with blank and blank and blank, and then they just have to wait and fill that in because I'm never gonna be I'm never going to be as fast as them. They're cheating, they're at their kids' soccer games with the laptop. I mean, you know, start're in the kitchen.
Veway I have.
We will end with my most important question, but first I would love to talk about the Sanna Burger. I always thought the Santa Berger was amazing. It just looked a little mayonnaisy, and I love mayonnaise, but it was very because of Santa's beard. Obviously, it just looked so mayonnaisy. How did you sort of navigate that?
So I believe in the show he actually says that it's all catchup and cream cheese. I believe that is an exact route. So I wanted to elevate it a little bit because you know, come on, if the character Luke had had the time with his health consciousness to really prepare Santa Berger, he wouldn't have done it on the fly. He would have done it more amazing. So the hat is roasted red bell pepper, and the beard and the pomp palm and all that is actually a combination of like a cream cheese and a shredded cheese to sort of like make it the cheese on your burger.
Okay, sure, knit up a little bit.
But it's still quite an investment to eat.
Yeah. I asked you a question about the Santa Burger. Yes, because I was looking through before we started. I was looking through all the pictures because I think they're so pretty. Your Santa Burger is beard is very fluffy. Did you use that technique from the wedding cake to fluff up his beard?
Oh, Kristen, we did kind of like you did almost the palette knife technique. Yeah, I just kind of really, you know, swoop it on there. But it's because it has that shredded cheese in it that gives it a lot of fun like beard texture. Yeah.
Some of the I'm not gonna lie, guys, let's let's all huddle up. Some of these foods they eat will give you diarrhea, like.
You know, maybe some of them need to be sheer, right, like.
Right, maybe a bite, maybe to be a bite like.
Maybe if you have friends, have a Sanna Burger.
Suki her recipes, no problem, Yeah, those are gonna go.
Well.
Some of the things the Gilmore girls.
Eat, yeah, will give you just one combination, not a platter, and don't make the whole recipe of edible raw cookie.
Dough fine though.
Yeah, the restaurant I don't want to visit in Starsollow is Al's Pancakes.
Oh see, I'm so fascinated.
Well, so what we did was wet because you know, you got to be careful with that one, right, because you're making something but that's supposed to be gross. But then we want people to make it so right, I see shrimp there because we we decided that what was making people not feel particularly well was the heat level. Oh that was the twist. Not bad shrimp, just a little for some people. Oh interesting, because I mean how else can I spin it?
Yeah?
I feel like Westerns is ross. I feel like Weston's seems low risk. Like everything from Weston's seems already. He's just a croissant and like, yeah, like a cake, a cupcake, just yeah pretty. And I do think Suki's cooking is amazing.
Yeah.
I do also like when Luke and Suki kind of go at it with each other.
And I like when Luke and Suki finally get in a rhythm because there's been the fire and they're working in the gus together and that is beautiful. Yes, And I also love how they brought Caesar up, you know, yeah, started to really develop. One of the critiques that I got online talking about reading things you shouldn't be reading online. If somebody online was like did this person even watch the show? Who the heck is Rosa? I was like, excuse me, did you even watch the show? Because that's Strudle is amazing. Let me just say and lamp, Oh my god.
Yes the lamb.
Do you have a Do you have a favorite recipe from Emily and Richard's Friday Night dinner?
Oh? Good one.
Well, I do love the Parker rolls because I'm a sucker for carbs, and I really love the the caramel apple Christmas tarts. I really felt that Emily would not be serving like a whole anything large, you know, it would all be pasted. So it's a miniature chart that's very caramelizing and it kind of looks like a rose, and it just felt really fussy. Yeah, things to go great together, beautiful.
This is for everybody on this.
Show.
If you were going to go to one place and stars hollow, really Elena and Kristen, both of you. You can go to the Dragonfly, you can go to the Gilmore for dinner. You can go to the Dinery and go to Al's Pancakeering, but only one where would both of you go or your.
First hands down, I would go to the diner because not only is it just like so much of the heart of the show, but it's it's the central. You could just sit there and watch the entire town happen.
Yeah, and Kristen, what about you?
I like the vibe of the dragon Fly in agree. I agree with you got to go to Luke's, but I want to see the dragon Fly in and see what they have.
Scott. It's lucky Scott isn't here right now, because I think he would be very offended by me saying this. But I think the Suki's food at the Dragonfly. I think that's one of those places where you go and you're like, that was a ten out of ten meal. Yeah, like that was delicious.
Yeah.
The diners, you know, you can it's good. You good, more regular, you know, you're hitting that every day or every other day.
But I feel like the Diner is more lunch and the Dragonfly is more dinner.
There you Yeah, I think I just want to sit in the diner and just look out the window all day. Yeah, that's what I heard.
Now if you we're going so as we end this for the holidays, because people are listening and they've got the book, and if you don't have the book, we actually feel and we need to talk about the live show. This book, we said is the perfect holiday gift, and what we thought people should do is get the book, put the tickets to the live show in the book, wrap it up under the tree, Hanukah, New Year's presence, whatever you're celebrating, amazing gift.
That would be amazing. That would be an awesome gift.
And here's why it's even better. So, Kristin and Elena will be joining Scott at I Am all In Live for a live cooking segment. So Elena, we're going to turn to you for the cooking. I think Scott can hold his own. And then Kristen, we're going to need a really really cool behind the scenes stories and thoughts and vibe on whatever that recipe will be. That is all I have to offer. Dury.
We totally get you up to speed. Kristin, You're going to be cooking. It's gonna be a making.
We won't reveal it now, but Elena and I are working hard behind the scenes. To figure out what we're going to uh be demo demonstrating for everybody at the theater. Okay, so my question for you guys, if you were going to grab the book right now and make something for the holidays, what is the go to? What? And we won't well eliminate the Sanderberger since we've kind of talked about it and that's a lot of cream cheese. Maybe for chriss, what would you guys both want to make.
For the holidays? I would go all the Gilmore Mansion appetizers?
Oh wow? Cool?
Do you have a favorite? Possibly the roast Ooh, I like it?
Do you have a favorite appetizer? Sorry to put it.
I love the rope fruit puffs.
Ooh that sounds good.
I mean puff pastry and roape fruit cheese. How can you go?
Christin?
What about you?
What would you make for the I think it fun side that might surprise but delight people would be the jalapeno macaroni cheese.
Oh can you remember when that? When they When was that? What about?
It was when Lorlai and Suki started their catering business.
Oh?
Yesuki couldn't really bring it down to a kid's birthday party level.
That's the Lord of the Rings party. Yeah. Yesally just came back to me. Remember she was like louralizes like where's the pizza she was serving?
And cheese?
It's great fancy stuff making the fancy stuff for those kids. Oh my gosh, you guys were so excited to see you in person. And I do have the book and it is a It really is, even if I'm not a cook, but I love having the book as a Gilmore Girls fan, like just all the memories that come up when you're when you're reading through the book. I need some professional like Elena helped me. Okay, it's a challenge.
I challenge all of you before I see you in January. I just make besides the banana toast and make one thing from the book, surprise yourself. And if I didn't make it easy enough, that's what I need to know.
Well, No, And as a chef, do you think like you should do it where? So you know how on television I'm sure you know, like it's all measured out right and they're just making it so easy. Do you recommend doing that?
Like there's actually that's actually an official thing.
What's it called.
It's called Meissan plas. It's a French missan plas for everything in its place, okay, where everything is pre measured and precut. And yes, if you take that step, it makes cooking so much easier. Even just reading through the entire recipe when you're not in your kitchen, like sit on yourself and we're at your desk, read through the entire recipe first without touching anything, and then start. Even that makes a massive, massive difference.
Okay, Kristen, can you cook? Can you cook? Just can I cook? Yeah? Like, are you at a little bit?
I mean I can feed my family. I have made several of the recipes in the book, so I can cook a little bit. I'm better thing because I'm good at like following the rules.
Okay, Plus how do we say it?
Yes, it's so helpful, right, I mean think about like whenever you just get ready for a normal day, if you have to go to the gym or remember something that you need to bring back to the office or give to your friend or whatever, you set that all out.
Yeah, yeah, true, right.
To get organized for the day, or you preload your car whatever.
So lay your outfit out, lay your outfit out the night.
Before exactly it's laying your cooking outfit out.
I really can.
It makes sense.
Yeah, we will try it. So get your tickets for January seventeenth. We haven't. It's an amazing lineup. It's gonna be such a fun party. I'm gonna try cooking.
It's gonna be awesome.
I'm gonna try it.
I'll try it. The fire Marshall will be there, so everything's gonna be okay, everything's.
Gonna be fine. We will I'm gonna knock on wood.
We will not.
We will just feed the fire Marshall. We will require his.
Merry Christmas, you guys, Happy holidays. Get Gilmore Girls the official cookbook. It is a. It is a it's not been out that long. When did it come out?
Oh my gosh. Now that's a trick question, very weird.
So it's hard to say because time is very weird.
Right now, it's a couple.
Of years, right, it's been out for a couple of years, yeah, I think yeah.
So, which is a testament in that book about a show that was made twenty years earlier came out. But that's what's paying our bills too. So the power of.
That's the power of stars.
Hollow it's the magic that's exactly right. Merry Christmas, you guys, Happy holidays, Happy
Hey everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at i Am all In Podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com
