I have always been a bit in awe of Alicia Kennedy.
Do you usually eat breakfast?
When I do eat breakfast, I eat oatmeal with peanut butter and whatever jam were using.
Right now Im using a lot ofJAM According to Daniel, which is from Virginia.
Peanut butter is usually Costco natural peanut butter because its affordable and comes in a very big jar.
I eat peanut butter every day.
Sometimes that is on sourdough toast instead of oatmeal, if we have sourdough thats fresh.
How do you take your coffee?
I drink a ton of coffee.
But today I also had a cup of cold brew from a local cold brew maker calledChubidubi.
Ive had a lot of coffee today.
Youre vegan, right?
I am vegetarian for myriad reasons.
But right now, it would be very difficult for me not to be vegetarian.
And the bagel is vegetarian, but it had salmon on it.
Being vegan here [in San Jaun] is basically being vegetarian.
Do you like any of the alternative milks?
Thats always been my preferred baking milk, but Ill also use cashew if thats around.
Ive never really gotten into oat milk at all because I dont drink milk.
Ive been lactose-intolerant basically my entire life, and I find all milk disgusting.
I dont really have any around except for cooking with.
I just buy a Costco box of almond milk.
I dont know if thats the most sustainable choice.
It probably is not.
Its almond milk in my cakes and cookies, and coconut milk in curries and that sort of thing.
I make cashew cream to do anything that a heavy cream might do.
It has the right fat content.
Do you usually eat lunch?
I always eat lunch.
Sometimes Ill have a salad later in the afternoon.
Usually its not a big heavy lunch.
I used to eat heavy lunches when I lived in New York because it helped break up my day.
Can you describe both your avocado toast and your tomato toast?
It depends on what I have around.
We were in an Airbnb this weekend in Culebra and there was an actual toaster there.
Ill put those on.
If I have cilantro, Ill put that.
Always Maldon salt and smoked paprika if Im in the mood, sometimes zaatar.
What do you usually do for dinner?
Weve been ordering out a little bit more lately, which has been fun.
Sometimes the energy is not there for that.
Thats the favorite takeout for us.
We dont have to be drunk to eat this.
I dont know why I was ever measuring vinegar and shit to do pickled red onions.
Its like, what is the point of this?
But usually Im either making tacos with black beans and potatoes, or black beans and eggplant.
Sometimes Ill make a cashew cilantro cream, and I pretty much always have pickled red onions.
I dont know why I was ever measuring vinegar and shit to do pickled red onions.
Its like, what is the point of this?
The lime works so much better.
And that was really fun, but its very time-consuming.
So lately its been more tacos.
I always make tomato sauce from Cento tomatoes in a can.
We buy them by the pallet because I love them.
Weve also been doing thetomato kofta currythat Tejal Roa published in The New York Times, because its amazing.
Her recipe is vegetarian, but I make it vegan with arrowroot instead of egg.
Its a lot of tacos, curries, pastavery basic food.
But I try and zhuzh it up a bit with with good spices and good ingredients.
Can we see inside your fridge?
Eek, its a mess!
Does your partner cook, too?
He never cooked until the pandemic, and now he does bread stuff.
Hes the bread guy now.
Focaccia or pita or flatbreads or naanthats his job.
Its a complementary relationship.
Can you tell me a bit more about your spice collection?
Its allBurlap & Barrel.
I have the giant service industry-size Burlap & Barrel royal cinnamon, smoky pimenton and wild zaatar.
Those are my go-tos.
And I also use a lot of Maldon and a lot of Diamond Kosher salt.
I use so much Costco Spanish extra virgin olive oil.
They recently had this amazing unfiltered olive oil for very cheap.
And of course, nutritional yeast is a go-to for me as a semi-vegan.
I really dont eat cheese, so it adds that savoriness that sometimes is necessary.
I have to buy more of their wild mountain cumin; I put cumin in all of my beans.
And on fruiton mango and pineappleI always put the Burlap & Barrel red jalapeno flakes.
Red pepper flakes I use constantly, but I just use the cheap kind.
I feel like people always expect me to use the best of everything available.
I dont have that much money.
The crushed red pepper from Costco is perfect.
I put that on everything too.
If youre eating pizza, you need them.
If youre eating pasta, you need them.
I do prefer things on the spicy side.
I love how many Costco shout-outs have been in this interview so far.
Costco is the absolute best.
I just became an executive member because it was necessary.
We get the dog food there, so of course we also get human food there.
I also cook with a lot of Native Forest canned jackfruit.
People ask me Oh, where do you get that local Puerto Rican jackfruit?
And Im like There is none.
Its a Southeast Asian product.
But the Native Forest canned jackfruit is really good.
I cant wait to find out that its harvested by enslaved monkeys or something.
Im sure will happen at some point.
Thats one of the hard things about fooddealing with the ever-changing ethics of consuming it.
I was talking about this today with my friend today.
Shes an anthropology professor at Harvard who she started theFine Cacoa and Chocolate Institute.
I was like How do you decide what chocolate to buy?
For a lot of people its very difficult.
And she said Well, first of all, its not their fault.
They have all the labels right on the cans.
But you neverreallyknow unless you go to the source of the food.
The United States government does not protect anyone from eating food that is going to be bad for them.
It puts too much responsibility on the human being at the end of the chain.
Im going to watch this British documentary called Dirty Secrets of American Food.
The United States government does not protect anyone from eating food that is going to be bad for them.
It puts too much responsibility on the human being at the end of the chain.
No one wants to think about these things all the time.
For most people, they just want to eat something.
Shifting slightly back to chocolate.
Do you have a favorite chocolate brand?
Raakachocolate is my absolute favorite.
They are super transparent.
Everything they make is vegan.
They make my absolute favorite chocolate bar on the planet, which is a coconut milk chocolate bar.
They dont call it raw.
They call it un-roasted.
Its fermented, and then its not roasted.
Its just made into chocolate.
I wrotea whole pieceyears ago about why they dont use that word.
What do you like to bake with your chocolate?
If I make cake, Im baking chocolate cake with chocolate ganache on top.
Because its so humid here, I cant make traditional buttercream.
It just kind of collapses.
Chocolate ganache works with the climate.
So does coconut whipped cream.
I have to get the coconut cream super, super cold to make it work.
Ive also been doing a powdered sugar and local fruit compote to decorate cakes.
What are your favorite kitchen tools, and which ones do you think are not worth it?
I think single-use tools, generally, are bad.
I dont have a garlic press or anything.
I use a chefs knife and a cutting board all the time.
But there are other things that are necessary.
You need a micro plane for citrus zest.
I dont think you might get really get around that.
I think all of my special tools are for citrus.
And I still have a 12-inch Japanese chefs knife fromShunthat I use for special occasions.
My aunt bought it for me years ago.
I never pay for a chefs knife.
Thats the moral of the story.
I made zoodles for dinner once and no one was happy.
I love my immersion blender a lot.
I use it for salad dressing.
I use it to make cashew cream.
Im a firm believer in the Staub Dutch oven over any other kind.
I have a red one that I got on sale and its kind of changed my life.
I also have three Lodge cast iron pants.
One is a deep 20-inch, and the one I used the mostmy oldest oneis the classic nine-inch.
Those are my super essentials, which is obviousknife, citrus stuff, pots and pans.
He loves eggs, but only if theyre cooked in butter.
Someone gave me an Instant Pot and I never used it.
Left it in York.
I have a zoodle maker, but that can also be used for other stuff.
I made zoodles for dinner once and no one was happy.
I might use it to make curly fries.
I have a torch, but for me that makes complete sense.
I have a molinillo to make Mexican hot chocolate.
Ive never made Mexican hot chocolate, but I take it everywhere I move just in case.
Youre a martini drinker, right?
Do you have a favorite ratio?
Then there are days when I want a traditional-ratio martini because its been a hard day.
Then its two parts gin to one part vermouth.
Also since the pandemic started, my boyfriend got me into drinkingTuxedo No.
With booze, I just want it drybone dry.
