In this episode, Joe Yonan takes the stage! Joe is the food and dining editor of the Washington Post and author of multiple cookbooks. Joe tells a hilarious recollection of his childhood where at only 8 years old, he makes the culinary discovery of a lifetime….butter.
In this episode, Joe Yonan takes the stage! Joe is the food and dining editor of the Washington Post and author of multiple cookbooks. Joe tells a hilarious recollection of his childhood where at only 8 years old, he makes the culinary discovery of a lifetime….butter.
Story District's podcast brings you hilarious, heartfelt, and thought-provoking true stories told live on the Story District stage. Host Amy Saidman goes behind the scenes with the storytellers to hear more about what it takes to tell a great story.
In our third season, we bring you I Did It for the Story. All new episodes will feature true stories told live on the Story District stage and insights about storytelling from Host and Story District founding director, Amy Saidman.
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Amy Saidman: What's up everyone. I'm Amy Saidman, the director of Story District, and this is I did it for the story at Story District. We help people like you become great storytellers on stage at work and in life, and we believe a well told story is powerful. It can open hearts and change minds. And in this podcast, you'll hear some of our favorites. True stories told live on the Story District stage.
In this week's episode, we'll feature Joe Yonan, food and dining editor of the Washington Post and author of multiple cookbooks, including Cool Beans, the ultimate guide to the world's most versatile plant based protein. Eat your vegetables, bold recipes for the single cook and serve yourself nightly adventures in cooking for one.
He's been honored a number of times by the James Beard Foundation for Best Newspaper Food Section. And we were lucky to have him on the Story District stage. So buckle up and get ready for Joe Yonan.
Joe Yonan: When I was a kid, my mother had a favorite thing that she made for special occasions. She called it Texas Salad. I'm going to give you the recipe. One head iceberg lettuce. One large red onion. One large can red kidney beans. One one pound block cheddar cheese. One large bag Fritos.
One bottle Catalina French style dressing. Not French dressing, French style. Those of you who know it know that it... is orange. I learned later that no dressing actually made in France is orange. So this is what she made for special occasions, but every night, no matter what she was cooking, there were always two things on the table.
There was a loaf of Wonder Bread. And there was a large tub of margarine. Now, my mother sometimes called it margarine, she sometimes called it oleo, and she sometimes called it butter. Interchangeably. I didn't really care what she called it because I thought it was just tasteless grease. And that's really all I knew about the subject until the day that my friend Greg invited me to his house for dinner.
Now I'm eight years old, and I'm actually pretty nervous about it because Greg's mother is German, like really straight from Germany, and she's really tall, and she has her hair, she pulls her hair back in this really tight, And she has a really sharp German accent. She scares me, but I go over and we're sitting at the table and before we eat, she brings out two things, um, to the table.
Um, one of them is a plate that's stacked with slices of bread. And the other one is a smaller plate with a block of a pale colored spread. And the bread is really intriguing to me because it's the color of chocolate. Um, it, it, it has a smell. It has a, a, an aroma. Uh, it smells really nutty. And it looks like it has a crust, and that it actually might be chewy.
And I happen to know that bread is none of the above, right? Bread is snow white. Um, bread has no smell. And you don't even really need teeth to eat bread because You just sort of mash it between your tongue and the roof of your mouth You know, until it forms a glue ball. But I am smelling this bread And so I really am into it And I reach over to take a piece And here, this totally blows my mind It is
Alright, so I take a piece of bread, and I'm about to taste it, and Greg's mother stops me. What about the butter? Try it with the butter. I'm like, that stuff?
I have no interest in that. I know exactly how bad it's going to taste, but I'm trying to be a good guest. So I take the slightest little bit, smear it on the bread and take a bite. The bread is amazing, it's got this incredibly complex, deep flavor, but what really floors me is this spread. It's like, it's not greasy, it tastes kind of grassy, and a little creamy, and a little salty, and I say, what kind of margarine is this?
No. No. This is not margarine. This is butter. I thought they were the same thing. Now she just looks at me like she feels sorry for me. No. No. Margarine is fake. Margarine is from a factory. Butter is real. Butter is from a cow. Margarine is nothing. Butter is everything. And you know what? She was right.
So now, I take like the biggest glob of butter and smear it on the bread and I'm eating slice after slice of this bread with these thick smears of butter and I'm in a fog of pleasure. I'm in a butter smeared coma. Um, Um, and And, you know, I, I, I can't even remember anything else that we had that night. We could have had schnitzel, we could have had sauerkraut for all I know, but all I can remember is the bread, and particularly the butter.
So that night, Greg and I are drifting off to sleep, and uh, it was a sleepover, and uh, and I'm having a hard time getting to sleep because I'm thinking to myself... Why didn't I know about this? Why did my mother not tell me this? And then it quickly moves to, why did my mother lie? So the next morning, we have breakfast.
I am positive that Butter was somehow involved. And then they drop me off at my house. I immediately run inside to find my mother. She's gone. She's standing at the stove, she's stirring some pot of sauce, she's pushing up the sleeves on her caftan, and she says, How did it go, honey? Did you have a good time?
Hmm. Sure. Fine. But why did you lie to me? Lie to you? About what? About butter. What on earth are you talking about? I pick up the tub of margarine from the table. This! You told me this was butter. You told me butter and margarine were the same thing. And I've been at Greg's house and his mother showed me that they're not.
She served real butter and real butter is from a cow. And margarine is fake and margarine is nothing and butter is everything. So I look at her and I can see, you know, eight kids worth of fatigue cross over her face.
Honey, butter is also a lot more expensive. So I run up to my room, you know, I'm still mad, still going over this. Like, why? Why? And why did I not know? And why couldn't I have known? seen and where could I have noticed and, um, and something slowly starts to dawn on me, which is that I actually do all of the grocery shopping for the family.
So I'm only eight years old, but when my parents got divorced, my dad was in the air force. My mom lost privileges to shop at the discount, um, air force. Commissary on the base, but she discovered a loophole which was that her kids did not lose privileges and so every Saturday she wrote a list and she gave me cash and she dropped me off and she waited in the parking lot and I went in and I shopped and if I got everything on the list and came in under budget I Could buy something for myself So I knew what I would do.
The next Saturday rolls around, my mother hands me the list, and I grab the pen, and I make one very important addition. Butter. Thank you.
Amy Saidman: Butter is life! Thanks so much to our storyteller, Joe Yonan. I love this story. It's a fantastic example of Telling a story from the perspective as it happens, going back in time. We worked a lot with Joe to remember what it was like to tell his story from the perspective of his eight year old self or however old he was.
Not. As an adult with an adult's mind, remembering the past, but really going to the past, being there at the moment of discovery, at the moment that he realized, Oh my gosh, butter, butter, butter is an incredible thing. And at the moment that he was, you know, furious at his mother. Uh, we also worked on how to develop, you know, just a sense of...that space, that kitchen. So to take us to time and space, and that's a critical part of how, what we teach when we coach people in storytelling, we focus a lot on structure, but also on scene. And these are great examples of really developing the scene. I hope this story is getting you to think about your own stories.
And if it is, Story District can help. We have classes, coaching, and consulting online and in person. Visit our website, join our mailing list and follow us on social media at storydistrict.org and at Story District. In the meantime, subscribe to this podcast, tell your friends about it, and please leave a review.
Until next time, I'm Amy Saidman, and this is I Did It For The Story.