The name ‘Stephen Colbert’ makes many folks think of many different things. But mostly, he’s known as an incisive, amusing late night talk show host. But did you know he’s also an avid cook? And now, Stephen Colbert has his own cookbook!
You knew he was different – quirky, even – the first time you came across him. He looks like your 9th grade Math teacher. And sounds like your 12th grade Civics teacher. And, perhaps most of all, he in-sists on pronouncing his surname the ‘French’ way: ‘cole-BEAR’. Why? Just because he always wanted to – to set himself apart from the crowd.
But I think he may also have been aware that ‘Colbert’ is also a French male given name meaning ‘renowned’, ‘bright’, and ‘famous’. That sounds more like the Colbert we know and love…
Nevertheless…
Colbert is almost always the one conducting an interview, and rarely the one being interviewed. But we now know that one of his fave off-screen activities is cooking.
He and his wife Evie actually started thinking about writing a cookbook during the COVID lockdown, when they were spending almost all their time hunkered at home. Naturally, they hauled out a lot of old family recipes. But they also tried a lot of new, interesting, enticing dishes. Which is why Does This Taste Funny?: Recipes Our Family Loves is what it is.
Try before you buy?
If you want to try Colbert’s cookbook before you invest the $25 on a copy, AllRecipes contributor Sara Haas has already preformed an empirical experiment on your behalf, cooking Colbert’s favourite childhood dish – his Mom’s Chicken l’Orange.
The dish carries a lot of family history. Colbert explains, it was not only his fave dish, but the entrée his mom choose to serve his future inlaws when they visited to celebrate Stephen and Evie’s engagement.
“After trying my hand at the recipe, I can say that the resulting dish looked fantastic—I couldn’t wait to try it,” Haas recalls. “I don’t often get excited about chicken, but as soon as my fork met this dish, I was thrilled.
“The chicken was so incredibly tender that it took just a gentle push of my fork to pull off piece after piece. Paired with the sweet, slightly spicy sauce, it made for some of the best chicken I’ve ever had. I even poured extra sauce over my rice, and I’ll admit, I had no problem cleaning my plate.”
My take
I was surprised to find that Stanley Tucci loved to cook – and came from an Italian restauranting family. So I shouldn’t be surprised to discover that Stephen Colbert Cooks. And does it well, according to Sara Haas!
I was intrigued to hear that the book came out of Stephen and Evie’s efforts to cook for their family during the COVID lockdown. That’s exactly the kind of dynamic many observers predicted – and I hoped – would emerge from the Great Hunkering of 2020-2023!
My prediction for the cookbook? If you like Colbert and his style 0f humour, you’ll love his style of cooking!
~ Maggie J.