I introduced my Guest Foodie column on July 10, 2012, twelve years ago today. Over the next seven years, it provided insight into the points of view of almost 90 of the country’s top foodies — people who made a living in the field.

I’m not sure why, but I stopped writing it.

With this post on my friend and fellow Dame (a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier) Julie Hartigan, I’m resurrecting that fun interview with those in the food universe—food editors, authors, chefs, restaurateurs, cooking school instructors, bloggers, and more.

We met when Julie volunteered to assist at The Next Big Bite, a fund-raiser I did for the New York chapter of Les Dames. I learned that Julie started her career as a “travel-obsessed engineer and tech consultant who secretly pined for a career combining food and fun.”

She took the plunge to attend culinary school while raising her two daughters and then worked at The Food Network and Saveur magazine before moving into her content creation company and culinary travel. Her next trip is to Sicily next spring, and I plan to join her 2025 Galapagos, Ecuador trip.

In 2022, she launched these group tours because she “wanted to help others experience the incredible, off-the-beaten-path, culinary and cultural travels that brought me so much joy while creating shared experiences.” She’s also a Culinary Travel Advisor who designs honeymoons, family reunions, retreats, group trips and other luxury vacations worldwide.

Connect with her on Instagram and Facebook:  @juliehartigan
For travel tips and info about Julie’s upcoming trips, click here!

Which food product, ingredient or gadget would you never give up? Why?  My microplane grater, hands down – the Process Engineer turned Trained Chef in me loves how efficiently and neatly it minces garlic or ginger so you can tap it right into the pot, finely grates lemon and citrus zest for a major flavor boost, and beautifully shreds hard cheeses and chocolate for garnishes.

I’ve used it on endless live TV cooking segments, in my YouTube videos and Cooking for One program, and even to do healthy cooking demos for thousands at a time on the Wellness Cruise programs I created and hosted for WeightWatchers.

What do you like to serve when you entertain?  As a food and fun lover, I’ve hosted endless parties, group celebrations, etc., and always have a theme to pull everything together and give my menus a focus. So whether it’s a fall harvest menu featuring apples, squash and fall flowers, a Loire Valley-specific menu of French dishes and wines inspired by my trip there with industry friends, a Tuscan Supper Party, or showcasing new dishes, cocktails, spirits and ingredient techniques I picked up in my travels to Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Ecuador, Japan. My biggest party-planning tip is to start with a theme.

In a time crunch? You’ll never go wrong with a gorgeous charcuterie board and good wine.

If you had to choose what you ate, describe your “last meal?” My Grandma’s pasta fagioli. She helped raise me, and this childhood comfort food dish feels like a hug from her.

Describe your first childhood cooking memory. As a little girl, I spent a lot of time with both sets of grandparents. I remember helping shred cheese and mixing meatballs while standing on a stool beside my Italian grandma, prepping for every family Sunday Supper.

My other grandma loved to bake. I’d watch and rewrite her recipes to my taste. The first recipe I “developed” was an 8-year-old adaptation of her Rhubarb Crunch! Food culture, food as a celebration, seasonal ingredients, and cooking traditions have always fascinated me. I was the little girl who would try any new dish and ask everyone’s grandma how they made their cultural specialties.

What is your go-to, neighborhood restaurant, and why?  Cafe Michelina in Hoboken, NJ has been my local favorite for over 25 years. We lived right next door when my daughters were born and while they grew up. We’ve celebrated every birthday, christening, and graduation there. Plus enjoyed plenty of Tuesday night takeout!

The owner, Pete Vicari, and his son Sal are like family to me, my ex-husband and our extended family. They create the ultimate, crowd-pleasing, Italian-American comfort food vibe.

What is one food product most people don’t know about but should?
Pimenton or Smoked Paprika from Spain is one of my “always on hand” spices for adding incredibly deep BBQ flavor to meats, seafood marinades, and salads. I fell in love with its versatility in my travels through Spain 20 years ago. In my 14 years of developing recipes, teaching cooking classes, and helping home cooks pick up new tricks, I find most people don’t know how to use spices like Pimenton to add healthy flavor to their cooking.

Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it
Laughing! During one of my YouTube show episodes I was showing a hack how to cook spaghetti squash in a microwave in 10 minutes. I’d pricked it with a fork (but clearly not enough!) because it exploded in the microwave on camera! We kept it in the video as a hilarious “not to do” including me laughing at how even trained chefs and professional recipe developers/TV hosts goof up, too. It’s important to me to have fun in the kitchen and to inspire others.

What food is your secret guilty pleasure? Only on long road trips will I treat myself to a McDonald’s vanilla shake and french fries for a sweet & salty junk food fix!

Who was your most influential mentor? My grandfather. He was an open-hearted, always loving, curious-minded, super smart, supportive man who was way ahead of his time.

He was the only child in his Italian family born in the US at the turn of the century and had to leave school to work full time at age 12. Yet the engineers where he worked consulted him for technical advice, and he unflaggingly supported me as a young woman in the tech industry in the 90s and then again as a career changer in the culinary world, sampling any dish I created.

An old-school gentleman and ever-loving father figure to my entire family, he didn’t bat an eye when my gay cousin came out to him and introduced him to his boyfriend. Instead, embracing him and his biracial family.

My grandfather taught me to be a positive, patient, supportive person with a kind word for everyone I meet. He gifted me my can-do attitude, my perpetual curiosity, my humor to lighten a mood and my love of food culture and celebration.

 

— Bonnie Tandy Leblang