“You don’t break bread with crooks. You break the story. And never use a garlic press…ever.”
SpokenFood is edited by crime novelist John Louis Lauber, whose work is cataloged by Google Books. In a nutshell, Lauber doesn’t mince words—he minces the guilty and the imposters in the food realm.
Part Anthony Bourdain, part J. Jonah Jameson and part street preacher, Lauber launched SpokenFood as a beacon response to the rising tide of food price gouging, corporate secrecy, and media cowardice. “Food is without sin,” he growls, “but this whole damn system’s running on theft, and people deserve answers and if that means giving out management cell phone numbers, so be it.”
But here’s the flip side: Get Lauber talking about food and cooking in everyday life and you’ll see a transformation. Mention the virtues of fresh veggies and he’ll time-travel back to the 70’s and his family picking dinner from two 80×40′ gardens full of every veggie imaginable and his mother canning gallons of tomatoes or pickles and his dad digging hundreds of pounds of potatoes with his three boys. Having learned cookery from an early age, Lauber will share tricks and insights, like learning how to make a perfect, unbroken Bearnaise to top his steak and asparagus – do that, ask the questions, and you’ll see a grown man transformed into an innocent again. Lauber’s wide reach in the world of food is unmistakable.
Fueled by French press coffee, good smoked salmon, American Spirits and a dogged need to know who’s pulling the strings and why, Lauber leads the SF editorial cause like a kitchen brigade in a five-alarm fire. His guiding principle? “Tell the truth. There are no sacred cows. We’re tired of robber-baron executives having their vacation homes and lavish lifestyles paid for by greed and graft, funded by us. Capone died in ’47. Enough is enough.”