What does Donald Trump eat in a day?
This isn't an April Fools' joke, it's the inaugural edition of Inside Cover
Welcome to the first edition of Inside Cover, a column about literary goings-on, trends, events, and gossip.
Over the past year of running Open Book Club, I've met a lot of cool people: NYTimes bestselling authors, celebrity book club hosts (and the people who run them behind-the-scenes), NYPL librarians, literary magazine editors in the downtown scene, and what feels like every job title at major and indie publishing companies.
I love talking to them and asking them questions. I've realized that asking questions is actually one of my favorite things to do.
So I'm going to use Inside Cover to ask questions inspired by the literary trends I'm seeing, the events I'm attending, and the occasional hot goss I'm hearing.
I'll give my thoughts. I'll invite guests to weigh in. But mostly, I want to hear from you, the cool people I've met who read this Substack.
I'm going to run the column for free for a few weeks to get your feedback. After that, it will be exclusively for paid subscribers. If you like it, let me know with a heart, comment, or subscription upgrade.
The first edition of Inside Cover includes:
My notes from the a pre-publication event for the book Cooking to the President's Taste along with my take on whether we'll get a Wishbone Kitchen coming out of the White House
My favorite post on Substack from last week
A reminder to get your April meeting tickets before they sell out!
What Donald Trump eats in a day
My favorite post on Substack last week was
’ From The Odeon to Gonzo's to Fanelli's...How Waitresses Stay So Beautiful.Here’s a snippet:
The business of food and beauty has forever been in a glissade towards each other, like Austenian lovers, corseted and thirsty. The result is something intellectually bizarre. This weekend, The Ordinary (the vegan skincare brand) sold cartons of eggs for $3.37 on Prince St. Native Deodorant has a collab with Dunkin’ Donuts, as does Dove X Crumbl. If you ever wanted to perspire with a hint of Boston Kreme, it’s game time, baby.
To commemorate this divine, syrupy moment, I asked waitresses from Prince to Duane Street, a West Village line cook, a restauranteur, a nightclub bartender, and more about their pre-and post-shift beauty routines.
The same day I read it, I was invited to an event with two-time James Beard award-winner Adrian Miller to promote his upcoming book, Cooking to the President’s Taste.
The book profiles Asian Heritage chefs who have prepared meals for the presidents at the White House, at State Dinners, on Presidential Yachts, and at Camp David.
I was chatting with Adrian before the event and he said I would hear things that have never been heard before about chefs in the White House. I think that’s probably true. But to be fair, I’ve don’t think I’ve heard anything about chefs in the White House since watching Cory in the House.
Two of my favorite bits:
A handful of early White House chefs were treated like local celebrities. Media outlets would cover things like their relationship statuses.
Adrian couldn’t get the chefs to reveal the any of the first family’s favorite foods. So we probably won’t get a Wishbone Kitchen out of the White House. The first family gets more privacy than Hamptons homeowners. Lame.
These two pieces popping up at the same time got me thinking about a shift in food writing.
Do you think we're getting less interested in what influencers, celebrities, or presidents eat in a day and more interested in the people who prepare and serve that food? Also, what do you think Trump eats in a day?
This section will focus on less on links to paywalled articles and more on experiences and events. Think books I’m reading this week that you can pick up, too, or readings that I might stop by.
There are a few April book club meeting tickets left. You can look through the calendar and get tickets here.
Margaux is hosting a book club meeting on Thursday reading Good Girl by Aria Aber. Their book club is called Footnotes which I think is a really cute name for a book club run by a footwear brand.
This week I’m reading Flashlight by Susan Choi. I loved her last novel, Trust Exercise. The early Open Book Club members will remember our meeting reading it because pretty much everyone hated it and the questions included a Reddit fan theory attempting to dissect the ending.
Someone on Twitter made a website that scrapes the New York Public Library's website to see what books people are checking out in real time. When I looked there were 3 checkouts of Fourth Wing. Love.
I reread In The Kitchen with Jamie from Foodjars after writing this post. Shoutout
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lol cory in the house
Would love to read that question fleshed out with your perspective , will this be longer form or just a few blurbs with the link?