Laurie Woolever
Laurie Woolever is the author of the 2025 NYT best-selling memoir, Care and Feeding. She is also a James Beard Award winner, and co-authored NYT best-selling books with Anthony Bourdain. She also wrote Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography in 2021. She has written for the New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Food & Wine, Rolling Stone, Saveur, Bloomberg, Dissent, Roads & Kingdoms, and others.
Culture
RIP Tony Bourdain, You Would Have Hated All This Discourse
How would Tony the man feel about Tony the film? As Bourdain’s longtime assistant, I learned never to predict his responses.
Culture
How Dominic Sessa Becomes Anthony Bourdain in A24’s New Coming-of-Age Biopic
Actor Dominic Sessa retraces the late legend’s volatile yet formative years as a Provincetown line cook.
Recipes
Lobster Catalan, Revisited
This recipe is a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, especially when prepared and eaten outdoors, in warm weather, with bread and unconscionable quantities of Italian or Spanish rosé, ideally in Sardinia or at least with Sardinians. Female lobsters, with their delicious red roe, are a must. Ask your fishmonger, or look for animals with broad tails and soft, translucent feelers that cross at the tips.
Recipes
Turkey Matzo Ball Soup
I‘ve substituted sage here for the more commonly-used dill, to keep the soup’s flavor more in line with Thanksgiving. If it’s post-holiday time and you have leftover turkey meat, feel free to add it to the soup in hunks, about 5 to 10 minutes before serving, to warm it through without overcooking it. You can use neutral oil in place of the chicken fat, or even melted butter, if you don’t keep a kosher kitchen and/or want to make your ancestors turn over in their graves.
Recipes
The Ripper’s Pasta With Uni and Caviar
Eric Ripert's original version of this dish at Le Bernardin in NYC is prepared with half as much pasta—usually super-delicate angel hair—and is painstakingly and exquisitely plated. I’ve doubled the pasta here to make it more of a family-style dish; there is still enough sauce to coat each strand of spaghetti. A few judicious pinches of bonito flakes make an economical and visually appealing substitute for the pricy caviar, and the dish can also stand with no garnish at all.