Interviews from Leite's Culinaria

	Author's Answers Series: Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table, teamed up with Sally Swift, her producer of many years, to co-author the terrific book The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. Part cookbook, part cheat sheet, part teacher — the book includes recipes from Kasper and Swift, as well as from friends and guests from the show. The interview covers a lot of topics: food politics, trends in food, how we cook today, the acceptance of "American Cuisine," and synesthetes, a unique group of people who, in this case, feel shapes when they eat food. Interesting listening, if you ask us.

	Author's Answers Series: Paula Deen Paula Deen, one of the South's steeliest — and feistiest — magnolias, has a new book that's topping the New York Times' bestseller list: It Ain't All About the Cookin': A Memoir. The book traces Deen's journey from life as a small-town cheerleader in Albany, Georgia, to her Food Network shows. What makes the book a surprise success is the honesty with which she infuses each page. Who would have thought jolly, bawdy Paula Deen suffered for 20 years from panic attacks and agoraphobia so severe she couldn't leave her house? Or that she took to bed for weeks at a time because of depression? For those of a weaker ilk, "it would've done 'em in," as Deen says. But her psychologically imposed house arrest was the beginning of her career as a cook, restaurateur, cookbook author, and TV personality.

	Hungry for the Truth: An Interview With Michael Pollan by Anne E. McBride With The Omnivore's Dilemma, an unflinching look at America's foodways and politics, author Michael Pollan has been propelled to the forefront of the food scene, becoming a spokesperson for better eating across the country. The idea that we need to pay better attention to where our food comes from is not new to Pollan's work — his previous book, The Botany of Desire, about the relationship between humans and plants, was already popular among “serious” food people — but it seems fair to say that his current level of mainstream appeal is at its highest. A survey of articles, Web sites, and blogs reveals that an army of people have changed the way they eat because of this book. We charged writer Anne E. McBride with talking to Pollan to find out a little bit more about the making, and the maker, of such a masterpiece.

	La Bouche Speaks: Paula Wolfert's Passionate Discourse on the Past 45 Years of Food This interview rambles, taking oblique turns of logic and subject, much like Wolfert herself. Attempting to make it linear would have done this celebrated writer and thinker a disservice. In fact, I debated for more than a year about putting the interview into text form. Nonetheless, much had to be edited for length. Still, Wolfert's warmth, eccentricity, and encyclopedic knowledge is extant. As an interviewer, I soon discovered that asking carefully researched questions was futile; the merest comment on my part would unleash a torrent of stories about politics, culture, geography, social history — you name it — and all far more interesting than anything I could have imagined.

	Chatting With Mrs. Latte: An Interview With Amanda Hesser Few contemporary food writers have garnered as many accolades or generated as much controversy as Amanda Hesser, the It Girl of The New York Times. In what food critic and bon vivant Steven Shaw of eGullet.com has described as "surely the most in-depth Amanda Hesser interview ever," I ask Hesser about her latest book, "Cooking for Mr. Latte," Amanda bashing, and her relationship with her husband, Tad Friend, aka Mr. Latte. And for the first time ever, Friend speaks out about what it felt like being the most famous anonymous man in New York City.

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