The Sunday Digest 047
It's Book Club Week.
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.
New Episode › Celebrity Memoir Book Club's Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton
A few months ago, I started to get a bunch of DMs to the Sunday Scaries account. This is somewhat rare — usually it’s people complaining about *slams laptop* not being posted early enough or someone wanting to know what filter I use.
But this time, it was people notifying me that Celebrity Memoir Book Club was coming to Austin, Texas and I needed to have them on. Upon seeing these, I immediately began to listen. And reach out. And then listen more.
What I found was one of the most entertaining podcasts I had experienced in what feels like forever. And that they had the cult following to follow it up. When I invited them to come into the studio, Ashley immediately responded positively.
This week, we dove into being snarky haters, episode blowback, personal anxieties, nightmare celebrity blunt rotations, reality television, goals for the podcast, how they spend their Sundays, and so much more. If you’re a card-carrying member of the CMBC, you know we probably went in a lot of different directions over the course of the afternoon.
Listen to today’s episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube (see above), and anywhere else podcasts are found.
Sunday Read: One Day—and One Night—in the Kitchen at Les Halles
by Anthony Bourdain for The New Yorker (2000)
I have a theory that Anthony Bourdain would’ve hated me had our paths ever crossed. And that’s not really something I take offense to. He was brash and blunt; I’m more reserved and observational. He could handle life in a kitchen; I get stressed cooking a meal for one. He cures his hangovers with Advil, cold Coca-Cola, smoke a joint, and eat spicy Sichuan food; and I—well, actually maybe he would’ve liked me on Sundays.
Much like so many other people who get CNN, Anthony Bourdain has always felt to me like a person everyone could collectively embrace and say, “Yes, we all like him.” When my first exposure to him was Kitchen Confidential (the book), I think it was the first time I had read someone write in such a casual and free-flowing nature. He was an immediate inspiration.
This week, we go back. To 2000, when Kitchen Confidential came out and this piece was originally run by The New Yorker. Enjoy this excerpt.
Finally, the orders start slowing down, and I can see by the thinning crowd at the bar that the last seating is under way. I go to the cellar, where I check the stocks cooling in iced plastic buckets outside the walk-in, the gauze-wrapped pigs’ feet, which will have to be painstakingly deboned tomorrow, the soaking tarbais beans, which will have to be blanched, the salt-rubbed duck legs, which will have to be conserved in duck fat. I make a final check of the drygoods room and note that I’ll soon be needing more peanut oil, more peppercorns, more sherry-wine vinegar. I look at a list for tomorrow: I’ve already called for the striped bass, but I mustn’t forget about the baby octopus. José loves black mission figs—he saw some at the market this afternoon—so I’ll tell Janine to start thinking about figs for a dessert special. Tomorrow is Saturday, which means that I’ll have to do the weekly inventory: weigh every scrap of meat and fish and cheese that’s in storage; tally up every can, bottle, case, and box. I peel off my whites and struggle into my jeans. I’m on my way out the door when I’m stopped by Isidoro: he wants a raise. I tell him, “Mañana.” Outside, the fresh air is a jolt. I look at my watch—12:25 a.m.—and wave for a taxi.
Read in full here.
The Sunday Haiku: Snug in Bed by Noon
Never check a bag,
Always take the early flight,
And thou shall prosper.
Things I Saved This Week
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Loved the Bourdain mention in this newsletter. I randomly found Kitchen Confidential in a neighborhood little free library this week. It’s something I always intended to read. I have been enjoying the book 23 years later.