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This week on Food Blogger Spotlight, I’m featuring a local San Francisco hero. Samantha Tackeff from The Second Lunch is here to give us a little insight into her foodie life (and I’ll give a cookie to whoever knows where her blog name comes from).
Hailing from the eastern shores of New Hampshire, Sam has been blogging in some form since she was in middle school, which makes her an old pro at this game. Her simple cooking style and down-to-earth nutritional information make her site not only a joy to read, but also a valuable resource for anyone who’s looking to improve their diet and not suffer a lack of taste in doing so. At The Second Lunch you will find tempting photos, sage advice and all around great food.
When I introduce people to Sam, I often say that she has “the best job ever.” What does she do that turns me green with envy? She’s the lone, lucky employee of Omnivore Books, a San Francisco cooking-centric bookstore. This little shop is a culinary Mecca! I recommend you get down there if you’re local or passing through the Bay Area. Seriously.
Please give Sam a warm welcome!
We all have staples that we couldn’t live without. What three ingredients do you *always* have in your kitchen and why? I’m not talking snacks like chips and hummus, but rather ingredients you use all the time in your cooking.
Good olive oil! And, my Turkish grandmother’s super spice mix made on site at the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul – it has a little bit of everything and is heavy on cumin and ground chile. Actually cumin, in general, is something that finds itself in almost every dish that I make. And you could say that I’m a bit of a condiment addict in general. My kitchen is lined with various bottles of things – oils, vinegars, fish sauce, hot sauce, you name it. I also have a shelf rack of spices, a spice door and extra spices magnetized to my fridge. Oo! And real Turkish bay leaves! My stash is from ones I dried personally off the tree in Istanbul and smuggled in through customs.
Imagine you moved to the smallest apartment possible – a shoebox, really – and you only had room for a single cookbook. Of all your cookbooks, which one would you keep? Why do you love it so?
I already live in an apartment that doesn’t fit my ever growing cookbook collection, so this isn’t far from reality. Honestly, I have so many of the classics, but some of my favorites are the first Jamie Oliver cookbooks. I cooked every recipe in his first few books, which I’d say 98 percent of which turned out delicious. (I was obsessed – I should have written a book about it.) And it doesn’t hurt that he’s really good looking, and has done really amazing things for both the food world, public health, and school lunches. And he just won the TED prize!
When you’re looking for new recipes (or creating one of your own), what is your number one priority? What makes you pick one recipe over another?
I do a lot of reading about food. I read a dozen or so food magazines and spend hours every day reading food blogs. On my days in the bookstore I spend most of the day reading cookbooks from cover to cover. Rather than picking out specific recipes, my number one priority is just building up a basis of knowledge. That way, when I have ingredients in my CSA box, I draw from all the things I’ve been reading. I’m more of a recipe synthesizer than a follower! I love being creative!
Blogs have the potential to be so many things, from personal journals to outrageous adventure reports. What is the most important thing you put into your blog, and what is the most important thing you get out of it?
I’ve had a blog since I was in middle school – a handful of people read it, but mostly it was a personal diary, and it didn’t occur to me that I could just write about food. Things changed when I got to college, and they had a internet forum called Foodies, a place where all the food lovers gathered to discuss anything from ingredients, restaurants, recipes, and cultural food ideas. It was such a great community. Think Yelp, Chowhound, and food blogs combined – and best of all, you could actually meet with all the people you were talking with in real life and eat together! After graduation, alumnae are cruelly severed from the forums, and I started food blogging as an attempt to fill the void. It’s really all about the community!
Thanks for stopping in, Sam!
Click here for more Food Bloggers Spotlight interviews.
Here are a few of my favorite posts from The Second Lunch:
- Tasty Things to do with Beans
- Meringues Chantilly
- Broccoli, Served Simply, a Few Ways
- Smoked Salmon for Breakfast
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Sounds like an amazing job. Cookbook crack fix every day.
Check out Melanie McMinn´s last blog post: Too-too Felted Fleece Tote
I know, right?
The Second Lunch– was that a line in Lord of the Rings? I can’t remember if the little guy wanted to eat second breakfast or second lunch, but it was a second something or other.
Check out Alisa Bowman´s last blog post: Try Not to Miss Me Too Much
You got it!! The cookie is all yours, Alisa.
Wonderful interview and I too am green with envy.
I would love to get my hands on the spice mixture: is there a recipe??
Check out Almost Slowfood´s last blog post: Tasty Sides: Southern Skillet Corn Bread
She just commented on your questions below – apparently her grandma just tosses it together on the fly. Oh well!
I love the idea of being a recipe synthesizer!
I was thinking of Lord of the Rings too. I’m curious what recipes Sam uses with those smuggled bay leaves. I love trying new flavors–I better check out her site!
Jamie Oliver – yum! I’m quite envious of her job and I’d love to check out the store sometime. I wonder if other cities have a cookbook-centric store? I certainly haven’t heard of anything like that here in Boston.
Check out Susan Johnston´s last blog post: What [title of show] Taught Me About Creativity
From Sam (below): the two closest to you are Rabelais Books in Portland Maine (worth the trip… and you can stop at Duckfat for fries while you are there!), and in Boston you can check out Barbara Lynch’s new Stir Boston (stirboston.com) which has some great hard to find stuff, but is kind of tiny, and then in New York, Kitchen Arts and Letters.
Oo, and while I’m at it, if you are in Boston, I highly recommend that you head to Toro for some tapas. I like the chickpeas and chorizo the best…
Alisa, it is actually second breakfast in the hobbit (one of my favorite childhood books), but I loosely adapted it to my own eating philosophy of a second lunch..
Alas, Almost Slowfood, the spice recipe is proprietary… and by that I mean, my grandmother goes to the bazaar, points at fifteen spices, mixes them together, tastes, adds a little of this, a little of that, and bam!
As for the bay leaves, I put them in almost every soup or stew, my chicken cacciatore (on the site), when I make beans, you name it.
And Susan, there are only a couple of similar cookbook stores across the country (but none with our mixed vintage bent and regular author talks) – but the two closest to you are Rabelais Books in Portland Maine (worth the trip… and you can stop at Duckfat for fries while you are there!), and in Boston you can check out Barbara Lynch’s new Stir Boston (stirboston.com) which has some great hard to find stuff, but is kind of tiny, and then in New York, Kitchen Arts and Letters.
Oo, and while I’m at it, if you are in Boston, I highly recommend that you head to Toro for some tapas. I like the chickpeas and chorizo the best…
Thanks, Sam!
Oh, so happy to see Sam here, we just stumbled across each other recently in the virtual realm.
Love her blog — and what a perfect fit paid gig she has. Plus, she looks and sounds like fun and I look forward to meeting her in the real world as well.
Check out sarah henry´s last blog post: Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco
Next time I’m in San Fran I will be going to that bookstore! I never heard of it until reading this.
Check out Jennifer Margulis´s last blog post: Don’t Say Yes Too Quickly
It’s SUCH a fabulous shop. I can’t recommend it enough.
I lurk a lot, but don’t comment enough, so I just wanted to say that I LOVE this series. It’s so interesting hearing what’s most important to each blogger and whatnot …
And that is such an amazing job to have! If I ever make it to Cali, I am so going there … I HEART vintage cookbooks!
Check out Sarah Caron´s last blog post: 5 Healthy Things For Your Family To Do This Weekend
Thank you SO much Sarah. That means a lot. Thanks for commenting, and know that I really appreciate your reading.
The sheer number of cookbooks in my extended family is a running joke. I will have to tell my mom about this place – her version of heaven, surely.
Check out Kris Bordessa´s last blog post: Coconut Bay Resort & Spa