Q+A with Gabrielle Hamilton

Gabrielle Hamilton, the author behind Blood, Bones, and Butter, recently visited the KQED studios to record an episode of The Writers’ Block, which will be released next week (listen to Gabrielle’s episode). Until then, get to know her a little better with this Q+A, in which she talks about her favorite places to eat in San Francisco and what her last meal would be.

Being the force behind the uber successful New York restaurant Prune, what inspired you to switch gears and write a memoir?

Gabrielle Hamilton: After I signed the contract and got the advance, I had to go through with it! I never got a chance to “switch gears,” though. I just added extra work into my already chockablock schedule and muscled my way through the thing.

What’s your earliest food memory?

GH: Sitting on my mom’s lap after dinner every night and listening to her chew and swallow and smelling her exhale of wine and vinaigrette and tangerines.

What’s your favorite place to eat in the Bay Area?

GH: I like so many places there I couldn’t narrow it down to one favorite. I will say that I did just have an excellent mean at Camino in Oakland and that I never visit SF without a stop at Swan Oyster Depot.

Imagine that you’ve somehow ended up on death row and tomorrow’s your execution. What meal do you request as your last?

GH: Soft scrambled eggs, warm buttered toast and Billecart-Salmon Champagne.

What’s a recipe that you find yourself going back to over and over?

GH: Dorie Greenspan’s Gougeres.

If your life was adapted to film, who would play you?

GH: Robert Downey Jr!

You’re on stage at a karaoke bar. What are you singing?

GH: The Hallelujah chorus form Handel’s Messiah.

If you could live inside one movie, which would it be and why?

GH: To Kill a Mockingbird. So that I could have Atticus Finch as a father.

Look for Gabrielle Hamilton’s episode of The Writers’ Block next Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at kqed.org/writersblock. And be sure not to miss each episode as it becomes available by subscribing to The Writers’ Block podcast!