This week, Angie’s joined by pastry chef and writer Natasha Pickowicz for a conversation on why there’s so much more to cake than meets the eye. Her long-anticipated debut book of recipes, More Than Cake: 100 Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community, is out now from Artisan Publishers.

They discuss Natasha’s experiences crafting glorious pastries for places like Flora Bar at the Met Breuer museum and Café Altro Paradiso, the relationship between community organizing and baking, embracing imperfection in the kitchen, collaborating with her mom (a successful contemporary artist for decades!) on artwork for the book, and a preview of her upcoming book tour, featuring plenty of baked goods along the way. Natasha also shares a memorable lesson she learned while attempting to incorporate the natural flora of Wyoming into a mutual friend’s wedding cake…!

All the details on Natasha’s book and tour are available at her website, pickowicz.com/">https://www.natasha-pickowicz.com/

Natasha Pickowicz recommends:

• Kitchen Arts and Letters, 1435 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10128
• Brooks Headley's Fancy Desserts
• Ten Vineyard Lunches by Richard Olney
• Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu

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This week, we welcome French-English culture & travel journalist, bestselling author, and host of The New Paris podcast, Lindsey Tramuta. 

Lindsey talks about what she’s observed over her 16 years in Paris, the illuminating ideas behind her books The New Parisienne (Abrams, pub. 2020) and The New Paris (Abrams, pub. 2017), her ongoing work to challenge Parisian stereotypes and archetypes, and the storied history behind the ‘American in Paris’ in literature. She also shares some of her favorite French books, including Muriel Barbery’s 2006 novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Order your copies of Lindsey’s books via Bookshop or your favorite local indie bookshop.

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This week, Angela welcomes back Lit Up’s first-ever (!) guest, author Catherine Lacey, and delve into the making and imagining of her brilliantly textured new book, Biography of X: a multilayered portrait of an inscrutable art and literary star as reported by her widow.

Catherine shares the entry points into her chosen fictional biography form, reimagining American history through the writing process, centering queer people on the page without explanation, the mysterious forces that draw people into each other’s orbits, and the pleasure of reading in bed with coffee first thing in the morning. 

Pick up your copy of Biography of X at Bookshop or your favorite local indie bookstore. 

Plus, check out Catherine’s friend John Wray’s forthcoming book Gone to the Wolves.

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From La Rousse to Le Coucou, Michael Cecchi-Azzolina—Maitre d’ extraordinaire—has a birds eye view on some of New York City’s most historic, glamorous restaurants. After more than 35 years in the restaurant world, he’s sharing his behind the scenes tales in his delicious new memoir YOUR TABLE IS READY (Dec. 2022, pub: St. Martin's Press). This week, Michael tells Angie all about his early memories of the restaurant business, living through the AIDS epidemic, the singular magic of gathering around a dinner table, and his next exciting chapter: opening an NYC spot of his own. Plus, he shares his go-to comfort dish to cook at home.

YOUR TABLE IS READY is available via Bookshop.org

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This week on Lit Up, Angela chats with author Reid Mitenbuler, whose new book, Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, an Epic Journey, a Lost Age (Mariner at HarperCollins) charts the true story of adventurer Peter Freuchen and his larger-than-life escapades. They talk about the origins of Freuchen’s adventurous spirit, the unexpected quirks you uncover when delving into someone’s life story, the importance of historical context, and Mitenbuler’s go-to narrative nonfiction writers.

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This week on the podcast, we're re-releasing one of our favorite episodes from 2022, when we talked to Elizabeth Day about her book Magpie. Next month, Elizabeth is releasing a new book called Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict, and seeing as she and Angie talked about friendship, we couldn't think of a better time to revisit this warm and fun conversation. Enjoy!

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This week, Angela chats with Kate Baer, the Pennsylvania-based poet and New York Times-bestselling author of the collections WHAT KIND OF WOMAN, I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL, & AND YET. They talk about Kate's path to sharing poems about motherhood, in all its complexity, with strangers on the internet; pushing back against misogynistic takes on her work; the poets whose words she keeps returning to; and the wisdom that accompanies getting older and embracing who you are.

Plus, lucky us: Kate reads several of her poems throughout the episode.

We recommend baer-what-kind-of-woman-poetry-feminism-motherhood.html">Jessica Bennett's profile on Kate.

What Kind of Woman

I Hope This Finds You Well

And Yet

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This week on Lit Up, Angela speaks with Tarajia Morrell, writer, born-and-raised New Yorker, and creator of the food and travel blog, The Lovage. They discuss Tarajia’s impactful collaboration with the late boundary-breaking chef Fatima Ali on her 2022 posthumous memoir Savor: A Chef's Hunger for More (Ballantine Books), which features writing from Fatima during her last months and contributions by her mother, Farezeh. They also discuss Tarajia’s path into food writing as a way to talk about memorable characters, favorite cookbooks, and their preferred techniques for roasting a chicken.

Savor: A Chef's Hunger for More

Tarajia’s blog, The Lovage

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For Lit Up’s final episode of 2022, Angie and Ruby (a brilliant colleague who works on the Sugar23 Books imprint, and spent a past life as a bookseller at New York City’s iconic Three Lives & Company), catch up about their year in great books, titles they’ve loved, what’s topping their list for winter break marathon reading sessions, and recommended book gifts for all the avid readers in your lives this holiday season.

Books we talk about on this ep include:

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

The Midcoast by Adam White

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Acne: A Memoir by Laura Chinn

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly

Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee

Fly Girl: A Memoir by Ann Hood

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

The World of Natural Wine: What It Is, Who Makes It, and Why It Matters by Aaron Ayscough

Catch up on any episodes you missed this year at https://www.lituppodcast.com/ (or wherever you like to listen!).

More to come in the shiny new year.

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This week, Angela chats with Jen Ortiz, Deputy Editor of New York Magazine’s The Cut. They talk about Jen’s trajectory through the media world, working with writers, life and abortion abortion-access-map.html#_ga=2.30729335.972723595.1665507610-1344647475.1665507610)">resources after magazine-can-help-you-get-an-abortion.html">Roe, newsletters and books she’s loving of late, and of course, this August’s Meghan Markle markle-profile-interview.html">cover story.

Jen's recs include:

• Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
• Bre Graham’s newsletter Just to Delight and book, Table for Two: Recipes for the Ones You Love
• The Old Place by Bobby Finger
• Vegan chef and cookbook author Gaz Oakley’s (aka “the Avant-Garde Vegan”) YouTube channel

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