Amy Sedaris' kitchen is furnished by Prozac, and completely stocked for a new show: Top Nut Job. Want to be like Amy? Add googly eyes, Ritz crackers, pantyhose, and bouillon cubes to your shopping list. I've been enjoying Amy's book, I like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, since it was published a few years ago. The material is endless. Have a rich uncle visiting? Check out page 55 and find recipes for Silver Bullet Smoky Martinis and Pork Medallions. Need to hang some plants? Amy can show you how using taupe pantyhose. It's probably unfair to call I like You a fake cookbook. As Amy says herself, "I don't like joke cookbooks because I can't take them seriously." What ever it is, I like You is marvelously bizarre; its pages are 25 percent useful (I've made those cheeseballs p.43), 75 percent absurd (gift ideas for lumber jacks p.74), and 100 percent entertaining (When you get to play nurse p.158).
Entertaining. For me, this is what cooking is all about. And I like Amy's philosophy: "Whether you live in a basement with the income of a ten-year old girl or on a saffron farm in the south of Spain, the spirit of hospitality is the same. It's the giving of yourself, a present of you to them from me for us." Exactly.
This is why I can't wait to pop open, "Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People." Tonight Amy is speaking at Sixth and I Street Synagogue. The new book comes "free" with the event ticket. Hope to see you there.
