An imagined gathering
1989 · New York, New York
Colwin cooks in her tiny New York kitchen for Lukins and Smith, proving that good food needs no space.
Colwin's kitchen is genuinely small, and she likes it that way; she has written that a cook needs no more than a stove, a pan, and the will to feed people. Sheila Lukins, whose operation is industrial by comparison, and Jeff Smith, who built a career on thrift, have both squeezed in for supper.
The fried chicken is Colwin's, the chocolate cake is hers too, and the Greek lemon chicken, carbonara, and fried rice come from her guests. They trade notes on feeding a crowd on a budget, which is the common ground between a novelist, a shopkeeper, and a television minister. Nobody minds the lack of counter space.
Host: Laurie Colwin
Sheila Lukins — Cook and shopkeeper, used to cooking on a much larger scale.
Jeff Smith — Television's Frugal Gourmet, sympathetic to a small kitchen and a tight budget.
by Jeff Smith
by Jeff Smith
This gathering is an editorial recreation grounded in the biographies of those present; it did not necessarily take place as described.