Gabrielle Hamilton, Author of Blood, Bones & Butter
I had the pleasure to chat with Gabrielle Hamilton, Author of Blood, Bones & Butter when she visited Vancouver last month. We talked about her passion for great food, her culinary background, and her day to day live in the East Village in New York City.
I was curious what is it like to run a restaurant in New York City, Gabrielle said that running a restaurant is like a marriage and she runs her restaurant like a cherished marriage, tending to it day after day, hour after hour.
Her restaurant Prune is located in the East Village in New York City, I asked her why she named the restaurant Prune, it was her childhood nickname so she decided to name the restaurant that way, she didn’t follow any trends, the restaurant retains its original vision that she set out to create about 11 years ago. The food had to be what she would like to eat herself, edible (not self grandizing), European with a personality point of view.
The book that was recently published is titled, “Blood, Bones & Butter’ and took her many years to write, the book evolved as did she, she was attracted to the connotative value; Blood – coming up with being a chef; and Sweets – family, food and life.
The book is popular, Gabrielle was afraid the book would not be satisfying, literate or foodie enough for foodies. Finally she was writing it during service on the line, nursing it as her child, in taxis, and in her office.
I asked if the evolution changed from when she started to when she finished; her marriage took a long time to clarify so the book took awhile to complete.
Happy the book is loaded with food, but not about food (food is the context), it is about life, meaning and purpose, work, people and places.
When we spoke, she was in the midst of a 21 city book tour that took her through Vancouver and across the USA.
Her mom, was French and worked in large scale catering companies her whole life, absorbing her mothers passion for hardwork, Gabrielle likes edible and delicious food!
