Yesterday I had lunch with Mark. We met at one of my favorite spots...a new restaurant called Oddfellows. Mark was amazed by the space (see photos in the link), "You know what a place like this would cost in New York?!"
Based on his new book, "Food Matters," we ordered a lunch comprised of side dishes. The premise of the book is to eat more vegetables, less meat...it's good for health reasons and it's good for the environment.
My friend owns the place and brought us a selection of 4 different veggie side dishes that Mark and I shared.
I was busy taking notes and trying to form intelligent questions (not exactly easy when 10 people stopped by our table and out of the corner of my eye I could see people pointing and whispering behind him.)
At one point he stopped the conversation, "Are you going to eat?!" I confessed I was trying to focus. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Okay, I'll leave you half."
By the time I met up with Mark, he'd done 3 radio shows (2 local and 1 for NPR). Then he had lunch with me. That afternoon he was off to speak at Amazon.com and that evening, he was scheduled for a lecture/booksigning at the University of Washington...and a late night flight to Portland, OR. (Book tours are brutal...)
Besides being nervous as hell, I have to say, it was tough having a conversation--being frequently interrupted, pretending to eat here and there, and watching Mark check his e-mail 3 times during our interview. I gave in and decided, I just want to get through this not looking like an ass.
We talked about his book (stay tuned for more on that), and discussed some reading I've been doing (Organic, Inc. and some funky congressional reports.) Mark read the jacket of Organic, Inc. and said, "I could have written that!" My first reaction was, "My, don't we have a healthy ego?" But then I learned the staggering amount of research he's done and it's true, he probably could have written that book.
"Food Matters" is a new approach for him and it's interesting. He's quite happy to do interviews and NOT being asked to do cooking demonstrations.
I saw him again later that night at the University of Washington lecture. There were over 500 people in attendance and even though his books have sold millions, he said "People never came out like this for my other books!!"
My impressions? Very smart, an astute observer, straight forward, no B.S. kind of guy. It was staggering hearing him talk about the amount of research that went into his latest book, and yet the text is very approachable.
Interesting? He keeps notes on what he eats every day. Since the chef prepared our food for us, were disecting some of the dishes. He says to me, "You think that's farro, huh? Barley and farro are really hard to tell apart." I'd seen it on the menu and he's like, "Okay, we'll call it farro."
When he checked his google reader, he saw an article where someone wrote that he'd lost 50 pounds. Lamenting, he said, "Who writes this stuff?! *I* never said I lost 50 pounds!"
I offered, "The press kit says you lost 35...and you've lost more since then, right?"
"No. I lost 35 and gained 5 back. That's 30 pounds. 30 is the number."
It was definitely an interesting day...
http://www.examiner.com/x-255-Seattle-Food-Examiner~y2008m12d26-Weather-be-damnedOddfellows-Cafe--Bar-is-open
Based on his new book, "Food Matters," we ordered a lunch comprised of side dishes. The premise of the book is to eat more vegetables, less meat...it's good for health reasons and it's good for the environment.
My friend owns the place and brought us a selection of 4 different veggie side dishes that Mark and I shared.
I was busy taking notes and trying to form intelligent questions (not exactly easy when 10 people stopped by our table and out of the corner of my eye I could see people pointing and whispering behind him.)
At one point he stopped the conversation, "Are you going to eat?!" I confessed I was trying to focus. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Okay, I'll leave you half."
By the time I met up with Mark, he'd done 3 radio shows (2 local and 1 for NPR). Then he had lunch with me. That afternoon he was off to speak at Amazon.com and that evening, he was scheduled for a lecture/booksigning at the University of Washington...and a late night flight to Portland, OR. (Book tours are brutal...)
Besides being nervous as hell, I have to say, it was tough having a conversation--being frequently interrupted, pretending to eat here and there, and watching Mark check his e-mail 3 times during our interview. I gave in and decided, I just want to get through this not looking like an ass.
We talked about his book (stay tuned for more on that), and discussed some reading I've been doing (Organic, Inc. and some funky congressional reports.) Mark read the jacket of Organic, Inc. and said, "I could have written that!" My first reaction was, "My, don't we have a healthy ego?" But then I learned the staggering amount of research he's done and it's true, he probably could have written that book.
"Food Matters" is a new approach for him and it's interesting. He's quite happy to do interviews and NOT being asked to do cooking demonstrations.
I saw him again later that night at the University of Washington lecture. There were over 500 people in attendance and even though his books have sold millions, he said "People never came out like this for my other books!!"
My impressions? Very smart, an astute observer, straight forward, no B.S. kind of guy. It was staggering hearing him talk about the amount of research that went into his latest book, and yet the text is very approachable.
Interesting? He keeps notes on what he eats every day. Since the chef prepared our food for us, were disecting some of the dishes. He says to me, "You think that's farro, huh? Barley and farro are really hard to tell apart." I'd seen it on the menu and he's like, "Okay, we'll call it farro."
When he checked his google reader, he saw an article where someone wrote that he'd lost 50 pounds. Lamenting, he said, "Who writes this stuff?! *I* never said I lost 50 pounds!"
I offered, "The press kit says you lost 35...and you've lost more since then, right?"
"No. I lost 35 and gained 5 back. That's 30 pounds. 30 is the number."
It was definitely an interesting day...
http://www.examiner.com/x-255-Seattle-Food-Examiner~y2008m12d26-Weather-be-damnedOddfellows-Cafe--Bar-is-open