savory Salons

Savory Salons is my way of bringing the nourishment of pie together with the laying open of the heart on the page. Camaraderie and food go together. I host salons with authors and a small intimate guest list of folk who bring conversation that stems from the author’s latest work. We divulge secrets, we eat If you want to be invited, let me know and I’ll put you on the list.

In-Person Salons are happening

"Scorched-earth memoirist" Gina Frangello

Sunday, August 29, 2021

WARNING: THIS IS NOT A BOOK CLUB.

When we gather to eat together a conversation begins and flows among the diners with a camaraderie that feels safe and open. As we devour comfort food, we tend to relinquish secrets and savory morsels of stories from our experiences. Gina Frangello's story is ripe for instigating the sharing of secrets as her "truth-telling is a feminist act."

Sometimes what is revealed is what didn't make the final pages, but what makes us understand each other better. This table is set for a limited number of guests, and we all share stories that the book and author and food stimulate.

It's a very intimate group of diners, so reserve early because seats are limited to 10. $85 includes dinner, camaraderie, and a signed copy of Gina's memoir Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism & Treason, or if you already own a copy you'll receive a gift certificate to The Book Catapult. All proceeds from the book and the evening are donated to Deborah's Place.

An excerpt of Gina's book, and the discussions it has already stirred are here, and here, and here.

2020 Zoom Salon

Guest of Honor: Kate McDermott

Friday, October 9 at 5pm

My favorite neighborhood indie bookstore, The Book Catapult will be hosting this Salon online. It’s a live streaming event, so get your free tickets here. It is sure to sell out, so be sure to sign up. It’s free!

Live streaming. And this time we have writer and baker (my fave kind of person) Kate McDermott of Art of the Pie, Home Cooking with Kate McDermott, and NOW Pie Camp: The Skills You Need to Make Any Pie You Want. Join us for an interview, the savory part of a salon—Q&A, and a demonstration by Kate. I’m so excited about starting up the salons again that I just might go bake a pie.

Bernadette Murphy’s Salon

Bernadette Murphy’s salon gave us hot chicks a chance to ride a Harley. Or, at least to sit on one with the motor running revving. That’s really all it takes to get a buzz, or more. I tried to embrace risk and made a tartin en croute that night with all sorts of specialty meats in a hot water crust. Bernadette’s most recent book is Harley & Me: Embracing Risk on the Road to a More Authentic Life. We felt a little Thelma & Louise spirit that night. Here’s Bernadette’s take on those ladies.

Sue Silverman’s Salon

Sue Silverman’s salon in 2016. I took her backstage to meet Adam Lambert in person and she was beside herself (she’s a huge fan—see her essay online).

Once recovered we ate Persian Pie in a Lavosh crust with wonderful readers of her most recent memoir The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo Saxon Jew

Hope Edelman’s Salon

Hope Edelman Author of the Motherless Daughters series spent an afternoon in my living room telling us stories of her youth and her life and asking us all about our lives and grief and joys. It was a day filled with not just tears and laughter (and pie), but realizations and camaraderie.  I first met Hope when I read her book 30 years ago and it spurned the idea for of my own fears of losing my mother which is where my memoir led. Then, I ended up being asked to join her writing group about 10 years ago and learned she’s as grand a person in real life as she is in print.

(Photo by Irene Keller)