Meet Julia Reed: Southern author and baker extraordinaire
Julia Reed (Photo by Percy Phinizy)
Meet Julia Reed, Southern author and baker extraordinaire! Julia Reed is a contributing editor at Elle Decor and at Garden & Gun, where she writes a regular column. She is the author of Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties, Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena, and The House on First Street, My New Orleans Story.
Reed will be baking a special dessert for the Youth Orchestra of Greater Columbus – For the Love of Music Dessert Auction and Side by Side Concert with the CSO! on January 31, 2015.
In the following interview, Reed dishes on her current projects, her signature dessert, and three things every great hostess should have on hand. Read on…
Where is your hometown and what is your favorite memory of home?
Julia: I was born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi and even though I haven’t lived there full time since I went off to boardings school at 16, I still feel a phenomenally strong connection to Greenville and to the wider Mississippi Delta. I have too many favorite memories to choose one, but one thing I valued about growing up there was how sophisticated Greenville was for a town its size (the population was close to 50,000 when I was a kid—it’s about 40,000 now). We had a symphony orchestra, a thriving arts council, and a great theater group. I saw my first “Broadway” musical there, a terrific version of “Kiss Me Kate,” in which my best friend’s mother starred!
Who was your inspiration in the kitchen that shaped your career in terms of what you are doing today?
Julia: Well, everyone at home was a great entertainer, my mother especially. We only had a handful of restaurants, so home entertaining was the thing. My mother is a terrific cook and a truly gifted flower arranger, so I just watched her and learned—and loved it. As a kid, I wanted always to be in the thick of things. I would beg to be allowed to take coats or clear drinks at parties. Everything seemed so glamorous to me then, and in retrospect, it was.
What are three things a great hostess should always have on hand?
Julia: Booze, of course, and something to nibble. I keep a bag of cheese dreams (the recipe is in But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria) or cheese olives (that recipe is in Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns and Other Southern Specialites) in the freezer in case unexpected guests drop by. But the main thing is a ready menu. My father was involved in politics when I was growing up and he was forever “surprising” my mother with last minute guests ranging from, say, the attorney general of the United States to famous columnists like William F. Buckley, Jr. She and her best friend Bossy came up with the V.D. Dinner menu—but, thankfully, in this case, V.D. stands for Visiting Dignitary! It’s a great simple but yummy dinner, centered around a giant crusty ribeye roast, suitable for august guests and not hard to prepare on short notice. I still love it so much I’m doing a V.D. Dinner chapter in my upcoming food and entertaining book for Rizzoli.
What is the critical element to hosting a great dinner party?
Julia: The people. Even if you have to include a couple of clunkers on your guest list, make sure you have lively, funny, witty folks whom you genuinely love around your table. I’ve had dinner parties where the guests have gotten into good-natured “fights” about politics and ended up beating each other with French bread. I have pictures of a long ago dinner that ended with the entire table wearing napkin turbans. This is what you want. Life is too short for solemn dinners or breaking bread with people who bore you. Also—and this is key—the hostess has to be the most relaxed of all. The table can be brilliantly set, the food can be off the charts, but if the host or hostess is uptight, it’s all for naught.
What is the day in the life of the Julia Reed like?
Julia: Oh man, I wish I could give you a typical day. But that’s the thing, I don’t have any. Still, no matter what’s happening, if I’m not traveling, I start out by having a huge cup of tea (in winter) or a giant glass of iced coffee (in warm weather) and, if I’m being good, I then make a trip to the gym, where I meet my trainer (otherwise I’d never go). If I’m on deadline, I hit the computer as soon as I roll out of bed and if I’m on an especially grueling deadline, I might not even get out of my nightgown until the end of the day. I walk my beloved dog Henry—a lot. It’s good for clearing the head. I rarely go out for lunch—it breaks up the day and means I have to actually dress and put on makeup. I probably eat out at least two or three nights a week in New Orleans. If it’s just my husband or a friend and me, we’ll pull up to the bar for a casual nosh at Butcher or a slightly more sophisticated bite at Lilette. When friends from out of town come (and they do often), I always take them to Herbsaint or Peche. Sunday night supper is usually Galatoire’s. Last week, I was on assignment for the WSJ magazine and went to New York, Madrid, and Paris between Monday night and Saturday. This week, I’m transcribing notes from the trip, working on a book project, and doing a photo shoot for my entertaining book (as well as throwing a dinner party afterwards—it’s a shame to waste all that food!).
What project are you currently working on?
Julia: Well, the aforementioned book for Rizzoli. It’s really fun—the photographer and I have been shooting it all over the South. We did a spring lunch in my parents’ daffodil-covered front yard, a duck dinner in an antebellum house in the middle of a frozen cotton field, a picnic on a Mississippi River sandbar and on and on. It comes out in spring a year from now. I’m also writing the text for Michael Smith’s next book. He is one of my favorite decorators and an extraordinarily gifted man. Three of the houses in the book are his own and it has been very fun getting to hang out in them with him. And then I have my regular column in Garden & Gun, which also happens to be one of my favorite magazines to read.
Of all the books you have written which was your favorite and why?
Julia: Oh, gosh, I don’t know. Of course, I always see what is wrong with each of them. I like my first book a lot—Queen of the Turtle Derby. I think I really nailed our region in some of the essays. I loved working on One Man’s Folly, mainly because it meant getting to know the ever wonderful Furlow Gatewood. And I’m proud of a lot of the essays in each of my two food books.
Where do you usually find the recipes you feature in your books? How do you decide which ones to publish?
Julia: The great majority of them are my own—recipes I’ve either made up entirely or altered. Some may have a genesis in some long ago Junior League book. My recipe for cheese dreams takes elements from at least half a dozen recipes in both the Memphis and Nashville Junior League cookbooks. Some of them are from my mother (but I always give her credit!) and some from chef friends. The hardest part is making an actual recipe that other people can follow from something I’ve been “throwing together” for years. I have to make things three and four times because I’ll forget how much salt I added, say, or how much brandy I poured in a pot of something or other. I’m a big believer in cooking to “taste.”
What do you consider your signature dessert?
Julia: In the summer, my go-to dessert is a blackberry cobbler. And for more formal affairs, people are always very, very happy when I serve my mother’s Charlotte Russe. I’m also a big fan of pick-up desserts—my mother’s yummy lemon squares (the recipe is in Sangria) or chess squares, my adaptation of them with the filling from chess pies (one of my favorite things ever).
What do you like to do for fun or in your down time?
Julia: I read a lot of fiction, I’m addicted to about a thousand TV shows I stream on my computer (hopefully in bed), and I head to my mother’s house in Seaside, Florida every chance I get.
What inspired you to donate a dessert to the Youth Orchestra of Greater Columbus?
Julia: I had such a good time in Columbus speaking at a benefit lunch for the botanical garden last fall. So I was thrilled to be able to do something to give back to the city, even in this small way. As I said, I loved growing up in a place that cared about the arts and I think the Youth Orchestra is an especially meaningful and worthy cause.
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