Show notes
"Preppy Kitchen Super Easy" is John Kanell’s follow-up to his best-selling cookbook “Preppy Kitchen.” In this episode of “Dishing With Stephanies Dish,” I speak with him about his success, the ease of his recipes, and his favorite tools to use in the kitchen. Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thanks for reading Stephanie’s Dish Newsletter! This post is public so feel free to share it.PODCAST TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:Stephanie [00:00:15]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Dishing with Stephanie's dish podcast. I am here with John Cannell, and he is the author of the Preppy Kitchen cookbook. Now feel like Preppy Kitchen is such a complete statement because it makes me think of all the things about you right off the bat. Congratulations on a great moniker on on a well titled cookbook.John Kanell [00:00:42]:No. Thank you. Preppy Kitchen's super easy.Stephanie [00:00:44]:Yeah. And, like, do you identify with that just in terms of I mean, I'm looking at you. You're pretty cute. You seem like a preppy person.John Kanell [00:00:52]:I suppose I do. But, you know, I used to be a math and science teacher, and I dealt with all these kids. It's kind of a long story, but I dealt with kids who had all this math anxiety and science anxiety too. They thought, like, I am an English person or I'm I love history, but I cannot do it. My brain doesn't work this way. And I was teaching middle schoolers, and they already had the sense of failure ingrained in them, and it was heartbreaking. You know, like, later on in life, when I switched careers and I pivoted over, I saw the same thing for people in the kitchen. They're like, I'm a baker.John Kanell [00:01:24]:I cannot cook. Or I am fine on the grill, can't bake anything. Or I just use my credit card and call it a day.Speaker C [00:01:30]:No. You can send itJohn Kanell [00:01:30]:with my kids. Like, you can do it. Let's just be prepared. Let's have all the steps laid out and everything else. So it's kind of a play on words. It's about being prepared in the kitchen and having, like, a fun, easy time, not anxiety inducing train wreck where you're, like, halfway through a recipe, like, I don't have this ingredient. Why do I die? You know?Stephanie [00:01:51]:Okay. I'm just gonna back up for a second because your aesthetic is really appealing to me in lots of ways. Number 1, just talking to you and the way you have your background set. Awesome. Number 2, the photographs in the book and the photographs on your Instagram and on your sites are also incredibly beautiful. Are you doing all this by yourself? Do you just have this lifestyle persona hidden inside you as a math and science teacher? Come on.John Kanell [00:02:18]:Well, I used to do it all by myself back back in the day. But to answer part of your question, like, in pieces, I was an art major. So I wasn't a science teacher, but UCLA and had, like, a fine arts degree. So I was about color theory and putting things together and conceptual art. So my career path has gone all over the place. And now, you know, I find that as business gets busier and my kids get older, I have 2 7 year old boys, they're twins, that whatever someone else can do, they can free me up to, like, spend more time with my family or do things that only I can do, I'll outsource. So the book, book number 1 and book number 2 were both shot by David Meloche, who's a be like, a wonderful photographer. For styling here, like, I do like to collect antique copper and stuff like that.John Kanell [00:03:09]:But there's there's a community that comes together.Stephanie [00:03:11]:I love antique copper, and I also actually kinda like cooking with it, But cleaning of it and the maintaining of it is, like, a full time job.John Kanell [00:03:20]:If like, you have to just understand, like, most antique copper is tinned on the inside, so you might just have to get it retinned every once in a while. Or if you found a piece for, like, $5 at a flea market and it's falling apart, you're gonna say, okay. This is $5 plus the retinning cost, and then it'll be good as new. Because copper you know, old copper's is so heavy. It's gonna conduct the heat really beautifully. And part of being prepared and having the right tools, like, you know, having the nice a nice pot or pan, a nice heavy one that conducts heat conducts heat evenly because you could be following a recipe perfectly to the t. Everything is right. But you had one of those, like like, a sad pot that has paper thin walls that scorches everything.John Kanell [00:04:02]:And, you know, your food's kind of it's not ruined, but it's not as good as it could be just because of the tool you had.Stephanie [00:04:07]:You're speaking to the choir. I'm at my, summer place, and I'm working on a cookbook. And we got a new stove, like, last year, and we have to buy a our place is super little, so we had to buy this specific size stove. Yeah. And it is just the worst. Like, everything I cook for the cookbook burns. There's so many hot spots in it. It's 75 degrees off.Stephanie [00:04:32]:And I'm just like, okay. I don't know if I can cook a cookbook and all the test all these recipes with this horrible stove. No. So, yeah, it's been challenging. NotJohn Kanell [00:04:44]:cool. Not cool at all.Stephanie [00:04:44]:When you when you besides your fancy French copper cookware, do you have, like, anything that you recommend for just the basics?John Kanell [00:04:54]:You know?Stephanie [00:04:54]:I, like, I always recommend All Clad, but that's a kinda easy one. AllCloud.John Kanell [00:04:58]:Because it kinda just lasts it's, like, indestructible, lasts forever, and is you know, it's expensive, but I will have the All Clad until I don't know what happens to me.Stephanie [00:05:08]:Yeah. Same.Speaker C [00:05:09]:YouJohn Kanell [00:05:09]:know, you just clean it with some steel wool. If it gets really singed, then it's fine. And then, also, you can find some, like, nice cast iron enameled, like Dutch ovens or something. You can get them secondhand. And if they're in good shape, they'll last forever. So those are, like, investment pieces that really make your time in the kitchen a lot easier.Stephanie [00:05:29]:Agreed. Now you're on your second book here. How did you can you give me the transition from math and science teacher to cookbook author? Did you just love cooking?John Kanell [00:05:41]:You know, I grew up in the kitchen with my mom. So I always had my mom taught chef, and my mom came from a very small town in Mexico where, like, everything was made fresh every single day. And she came to this country with a love of fresh flavors and ingredients and learning. She never wanted to stop learning. So she explored the world through her kitchen and cookbooks and recipes she clipped out. And, I got to be there on that journey with her and learn a lot from her. So and she was a teacher and retired as well, so I followed her by I just became a teacher. And, when my husband and I were planning a family, because it takes a lot of planning, we were thinking who's gonna be home? And, you know, my job had specific breaks, but you can't show up to school late.John Kanell [00:06:29]:So, if, like, you know, if your kid is sick or something happens, he really encouraged me to do a pivot. And he's like, you know, you love teaching, but you really are passionate about food. Like, that's what you kind of light up when you talk about. So he's like, you know, you could. I see people, like, having food blogs, and they can make that a career. So why don't we, like, try that out, and you can work from home and be there more often? So I really credit him for helping me do that because it was really taking a chance. Ended up working out pretty well.Stephanie [00:06:59]:And I I mean, congratulations on the books and your story of your mom is pretty inspiring. She sounds like a really neat lady.Speaker C [00:07:08]:She reallyStephanie [00:07:08]:But that is, I think, how a lot of us get started and and the being a cookbook writer is probably more possible now than it was before because of digital creation and social media, to be honest. Yeah. Did you always have a knack for that too? Because many people are great with, like, the food or the recipes, but they're not so great at the digital side. And then there's people that are great at the digital side, but maybe their recipes aren't the best.John Kanell [00:07:35]:Part of you thinks I was horrible at everything when I started except, like, I could make a delicious dish. But and I the funny thing is I went to art school. But, like, my photography classes were conceptual art photography classes. And there was no skill. Like, if you wanted to have any skill earned, you'd speak to a technician. And the teacher was just there for the discourse of arts and, like, different references. And, you know, it's a lovely conversation. I enjoyed it, but it gave me zero preparation for shooting food and making it look attractive because it's very difficult.John Kanell [00:08:07]:It looked tasty even as in the I mean, it's hard. And if you went scrolled all the way back on my Instagram, you would see some very tragic looking things. And I was, you know, so proud of them at the time.Stephanie [00:08:21]:Yeah. And I do think, like, the authenticity of the not so perfect photos too. Certainly not for a book, but we kind of had these whole curated Instagram feeds and lives and I do feel like we're getting away from that a little bit in a way that appeals to me just because it feels more democratic for everyone else.John Kanell [00:08:43]:Yeah. I mean, I am a bit of a klutz. I'm gonna acknowledge this. So for me, that part comes out of my YouTube channel where I'm making things and, like, something falls or, like, the I made eclairs 10,000,000 times. It's my favorite thing, but I'm filming it and they fall down because I added, like, a little bit too much egg that day, or the eggs were a little bit on the larger side than I was used to. And I'm I will show that. I don't edit it out. So I'll say, like Same.John Kanell [00:09:10]:And but now, let's just come back and say, could you use these? Yes. They're still gonna be delicious. They're not gonna make someone French happy, but you will eat them, or we can remake them. And let me show you the correct amount of egg right now. You know? Or IStephanie [00:09:23]:can Oh, I love that.John Kanell [00:09:25]:The fridge.Stephanie [00:09:26]:No. I absolutely love that. I have done 2 horrible videos. 1, I cut my head off, but I really liked what I made, so I kept it in. It's the headless shrub making. And then the second, I had a absolute whipped cream failure where it, like, just went like this all over my whole kitchen. Oh, no. And I just left it because I was like, well, I've done that once with soup where I Vitamix it and it was too hot and it blew out all over and now with whipped cream.Stephanie [00:09:55]:So I think people actually appreciate that because it makes them feel like they can do it too.John Kanell [00:09:59]:Yeah. And also, like, whipped cream is actually quite difficult because in the US, there's all these additives and every every brand is a little bit different. If you go abroad and you make a whipped cream with like a double cream or something else, it takes longer to whip. But when it does, it's a beautiful consistency. And depending on what's been additive or how it's been ultra pasteurized, it could become kind of chunky very easily.Stephanie [00:10:22]:Yeah. Okay. So yes. Also, cooking with well and your mom being from Mexico and probably you traveling all over too. Cooking all over in different places is weird. We travel a lot by boat. So cooking in a small space boat kitchen with, you know, butter from all over different goat butters and just like, oh my gosh. This is unique.Stephanie [00:10:45]:Let's talk about specific recipes in your book and give me, like, your top five that you feel really attached to.John Kanell [00:10:53]:Well okay. So on the back cover, I'm gonna start start sweet. In the book, I have the perfect birthday cake, which is like a beautiful vanilla melt in your mouth cake. But on the back cover is what I actually make for my birthday for myself. And it's a lemony Italian olive oil cake, Two layers with a crunchy sugar topping, and in between and on top, a mountain of mascarpone stabilized whipped cream with lots of fresh berries. It's, like, just perfectly sweet, has that wonderful consistency, and it's a very simple cake to make. So, you know, it's a good example of something delicious, something visually stunning. It doesn't have to be difficult.John Kanell [00:11:35]:It doesn't have to be time consuming. And you can really make it your own. One of the side dishes that I am very attached to to is part of my Sunday dinners growing up, and it's a Greek style, spicy tomato orzo. It goes with everything. Like, we would have it with a roast chicken or a big garlic studded leg of lamb in a salad. But you can have it a 1000000 different ways. It's silky. It's perfectly spicy.John Kanell [00:12:02]:It has a lovely play of flavors. It does take a little bit of time. And whenever you make something saucy and pasta y on the stovetop, you know, it's gonna burn on the bottom and you're constantly, like, stirring and scraping. So my time saving hacks for this were to start off by using Bloody Mary mix for the base because that gives you a perfect spiced tomatoStephanie [00:12:22]:Yes.John Kanell [00:12:24]:And saves a lot of time. And then we do a little work on the stovetop and then pop it into the oven and just bakes perfectly on its own. It's so silky, perfectly saucy, and goes with everything. There's, like on the cover, I have a a lemony chicken pasta bake, and it's a one pan meal. There's a whole chapter of 1 pan meals because, you know, we don't necessarily wanna feel like Cinderella every single day at the sink. And it is just a nice combination of pasta that's been cooked in a flavorful, like, white wine chicken stock sauce. Yum. It's made creamy with a little stir of ricotta, and then you have these beautiful, big, juicy pieces of chicken, lots of sweet cherry tomatoes, lemons, squash, and it's finished off with giant dollops of ricotta.John Kanell [00:13:14]:And it looks so good. It's delicious. It's decadent. And it's something you can just make really easily. And then for breakfast, there are these pear fritters where like, I make recipes for a living, and I enjoy all the recipes that I make because they're these pear fritters were so good. It was like, they're so easy to make. It's basically like if you haven't made fritters, which I'm sure you have, but they're it's like pancake batter holding a lot of fruit, and you deep fry it. So unlike a regular donut where you're you know, the yeast and the rising, it's time consuming.John Kanell [00:13:49]:You can just throw this together in a few minutes. And the combination of these lovely pears with just enough golden batter holding together, drizzled with a lemony glaze, they're like it's you will eat and inhale the entire batch of them.Stephanie [00:14:06]:I feel like you need to have a radio or a TV show too because one thing you're doing that's really working for me is you are making all of the food sound s…
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