New Voices: Amelia Morris of 'Bon Appetempt'
Bon Appétempt: A Coming-of-Age Story (with Recipes!)
By Amelia Morris
Grand Central, 320 pp.
The book:
What it's about: A debut memoir by the amateur cook behind the Bon Appétempt food blog, which began with her disastrous attempts to re-create picture-perfect recipes from Bon Appétit and Gourmet in her home kitchen.
Why it's notable: Time magazine named the blog (bonappetempt.com) — which also features Morris' cooking videos — one of the year's best in 2012. ("Fun, funny," Time said.)
A taste: "I want to show what life is like for the rest of us: messy, poorly lit, and falling well short of our aspirations."
The author:
Quick bio: Morris, 33, grew up in Pennsylvania, the child of doctors, who divorced when she was young. She attended Johns Hopkins and has an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She now lives in L.A. with her husband, Matt Bookman, who does the photography and video shoots for the blog, and their son, Teddy, 1.
Why her book is part family memoir/part cookbook: "I didn't fall in love with food until I was 28. I feel like to tell my story properly we had to start at the beginning and see how food became a way to nurture my family and myself. It became a healing thing for me. And to do that I had to start at age 5."
Her homey videos: "I was super-inspired to make a cooking show where the baking sheets are not brand new, where I don't have makeup on. Those shows are always so staged. I don't understand why Ina Garten needs brand-new baking sheets every time, or why Giada De Laurentiis needs full hair and makeup."
From disaster to pretty darn good: "If what I made didn't look like the magazines with their perfect lighting and professional photography, it still tasted great and looked OK. Two years in, I realized I actually liked cooking. I couldn't be as cynical, 'Oh those stupid food magazines.' I realized I was inspired by their photographs."
Improved video production: "We try to not pull any punches, even if the technique is a little sleeker now. I still don't wear any makeup, especially now that I have a kid."
Tiny Teddy's cute video cameos: "We don't show the shots of him melting down, but I'm sure eventually that will show up, too."
Her string of odd jobs: "I temped at so many places. One was Creative Artists Agency. That was an experience, being the low man on the totem pole in this place dripping with money and seeing celebrities all the time."
What's next: Morris wrote a novel for her master's thesis. "It's living in my computer. In some ways I'd love to see it published, but if that's not going to happen that's fine, too. I really just want to keep writing."