Selected Shorts: An Appetite For Travel

Gourmet Editor-in-Chief Ruth Reichl hosts a delicious evening of stories about foreign food and the wanderlust it inspires. The ever epicurious Calvin Trillin reads a story of his own. Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara and Isaiah Sheffer read stories by Laurie Colwin and Harry Mathews.

Performance playlist:

An Appetite for Travel
Hosted by Ruth Reichl

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant
By Laurie Colwin
Performed by Kelli O'Hara

Dissed Fish
By Calvin Trillin
Performed by the author

The Bird Woman
By Melodie Edwards
Performed by Kelli O'Hara

Country Cooking from Central France: Roast Boned
Rolled Stuffed Shoulder of Lamb (Farce Double)
By Harry Mathews
Performed by Isaiah Sheffer

Laurie Colwin (1944-1992) wrote novels including Happy All the Time, Family Happiness, and A Big Storm Knocked it Over, and the short story collections Passion and Affect, The Lone Pilgrim and Another Marvelous Thing. Many of her articles from Gourmet magazine were collected in her books Home Cooking and More Home Cooking.

Harry Mathews has published numerous works of fiction, poetry and critical and autobiographical nonfiction, including The Sinking of the Odradek and Other Novels, an omnibus volume of his first three novels; Immeasurable Distances, a collection of short stories; Twenty Lines a Day, a journal; and The Orchard, a memoir reflecting on his friendship with Georges Perec. His latest book is My Life in CIA.

Kelli O'Hara has been nominated for two Tony Awards, one for The Light in the Piazza and one for The Pajama Game. Her other Broadway credits are Jekyll & Hyde, Sondheim's Follies, Sweet Smell of Success and Dracula; and she has worked regionally and Off Broadway in Sunday in the Park with George, My Life with Albertine and Beauty. She recently played Eliza Doolittle in the New York Philharmonic production of My Fair Lady, and made her Carnegie Hall solo debut with the New York Pops.

Ruth Reichl was editor in chief of Gourmet magazine from 1999 until its demise in 2009. Before joining Gourmet she was chef and co-owner of The Swallow Restaurant in Berkeley, and the restaurant critic for The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Ms. Reichl is also the author of three memoirs: Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me With Apples, and Garlic and Sapphires. She is the editor of The Gourmet Magazine Cookbook and The Modern Library Food Series, which includes Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet, Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet, and History in a Glass: Sixty Years of Wine Writing from Gourmet. Ms. Reichl has been honored with four James Beard Awards and numerous awards from the Association of American Food Journalists.

Isaiah Sheffer is a founder and the artistic director of Symphony Space, as well as host and director of Selected Shorts, live at Symphony Space, on tour, and on public radio nationwide. He is also founder, director, co-writer, and host of Symphony Space's political cabaret, The Thalia Follies.

Calvin Trillin is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His work includes two comic novels, a collection of short stories, a travel book, an account of desegregation at the University of Georgia, family memoirs, and three antic books on eating, which were compiled into a single volume, The Tummy Trilogy. He recently published another book of food essays, Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco; and satirical verses on the current government, Obliviously On He Sails: The Bush Administration in Rhyme. His most recent book is About Alice.