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Podcast Summary
This Is TASTE - Episode 381: Cooking at the South Pole with Cree LeFavour
Episode Overview The 381st episode of "This Is TASTE" features Cree LeFavour, a novelist, cookbook author, and chef, who recently spent four months cooking at the South Pole. The discussion revolves around her unique experiences in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the creative challenges of cooking in extreme conditions, and her insights into the culinary adventures she encountered. Additionally, Aliza Abarbanel shares highlights from her recent trip to New Orleans, including her favorite food spots and culinary experiences.
Guests
- Cree LeFavour: Novelist, cookbook author, and chef with experience cooking in extreme environments.
- Aliza Abarbanel: Co-host sharing her travel experiences and culinary adventures from New Orleans.
Key Topics Discussed
Cree LeFavour's Experience at the South Pole
- Duration and Location: Cree spent one month at McMurdo Station (coastal) and three months at the South Pole during Austral Summer.
- Job Discovery: She discovered the job listing while searching for Antarctic jobs on Indeed, motivated by a long-standing fascination with Antarctic literature.
- Interview Process: Involved passing physical qualifications due to the extreme environment at high altitudes (effective elevation of ~11,000 feet).
- Living Conditions: Describes the shared living space and immediate immersion into kitchen duties upon arrival.
Culinary Challenges and Creativity
- Ingredient Limitations: Emphasized the scarcity of fresh produce, reliance on frozen and canned goods, and the difficulty of baking without typical ingredients.
- Baking at High Altitude: Discussed the challenges of bread-making, including the need to adjust traditional baking methods due to altitude effects on yeast and other ingredients.
- Morale Boosting Role: As a baker, LeFavour played a crucial role in maintaining morale among crew members, creating celebratory baked goods to uplift spirits.
Unique Insights
- Environmental Isolation: Reflections on the psychological and social dynamics of being in such a remote location with a limited population for extended periods.
- Community Dynamics: Noted the differences between summer and winter crew members and their experiences.
Aliza Abarbanel's New Orleans Trip
- Carrot Yogurt at Molly’s Rise and Shine: Highlighted a unique breakfast item that includes roast carrot marmalade and granola.
- Dining at Mr. Mao: Enjoyed a tropical roadhouse experience with diverse menu items, including an aguachile and a humorous take on burrata.
- Brennan's and Bananas Foster: Shared insights about the restaurant's lively atmosphere and the famous dessert.
- Panola Street Café: Described a memorable breakfast featuring griddled biscuits.
Themes and Takeaways
- Resilience and Adaptation: The ability to create and innovate in challenging circumstances, as demonstrated by Cree's cooking at the South Pole.
- Culinary Culture: The power of food to bring people together and enhance the communal experience, even in isolation.
- Exploration and Discovery: Both Cree and Aliza's narratives reflect a journey of exploration in kitchens and cities, highlighting the joys of culinary adventures.
Additional Notes
- Cree's Future Plans: Showed interest in returning to Antarctica in a different capacity, possibly in a lecturing role, while also expressing a desire for a more balanced work-life dynamic.
- Culinary Inspirations: Cree is also working on a book about walking in France, adding another layer to her diverse experiences.
Conclusion The episode concludes with a lively discussion about food, travel, and the intricate relationship between cooking and the human experience, offering listeners a unique perspective on life and cooking at the ends of the Earth.
Links and Resources
- [Cree LeFavour's Substack: My Antarctica](https://www.substack.com)
- [Taste Cooking](https://tastecooking.com)
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Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:28This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. The winter baker managed to save me a small case of whipping cream. And then it was gone. And I had no more cream through Christmas all the way through until the last month or so. And then I got a big delivery of whipping cream and I was so excited.
0:51This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbart.
0:59Today on the show, I have such a great conversation with Cree LeFevre. Cree is a novelist, cookbook author, accomplished chef, and most recently spent some time cooking at the South Pole. We talk all about this adventure of a lifetime, the ups and downs, how she cooked at elevation and with very little fresh vegetables and produce. And really, we got into what life is like living at the South Pole. I hope you enjoy this conversation.
1:35Kriela Favor, welcome to This is Taste. How are you? I'm doing really well today. I'm all dried off from the rain and happy to be here. Well, weather is maybe a topic we can get to. We will. You're a celebrated cookbook author, a journalist, and we could get into your career. and we will a little bit, but I really wanted to ask you in, because you just returned from the South Pole, where you were working for, was it six months, five months? You know, it was four months I worked there. Felt like four years, I bet. It did a bit. It did indeed. So actually, to be totally accurate, I was one month at McMurdo, which is on the coast.
2:11Right, right, right. For anyone who doesn't really know the geography of Antarctica. And then I was three months at the South Pole for what is called the Austral Summer. So it's just, you know, summer down there. And they have an opening. The station, the U.S. station opens during that period. I get it. So I found your kind of journey through your husband, Dwight Garner. He was a guest on the show, and we were talking about it, and then I found your sub stack, and I read every single one. You're such a talented writer, and you painted this picture of isolation, of creativity, of – you were cynical about the administration there.
2:51I just want to get into all of it. And so you were technically at the South Pole for three months, which not everyone who goes to Antarctica gets to go to. Is that correct? Absolutely. I really got lucky because a lot of people kind of wait in line with the unit. It's USAP, which is United States Antarctic Program, which is how you one way to get there. That's really the only way to officially get to the South Pole unless you're working for a tourist outfit. it. So yeah, I got really lucky with a last minute sort of contract. The contract's process is complicated and I was so thrilled. So yeah, it's my dream.
3:28Let's start from the beginning. And you wrote about this in Substack. I'm going to link to in the show notes because I think listeners should go back and read some of Kri's writing. It's fantastic. Maybe it's a longer piece. We'll get into that. But how did you find the job listing? I mean, it sounds like you just kind of stumbled upon this kind of listing. Well, I kind of did. So I was already an Antarctic fanatic a little bit because I, as I explained in my substack, I've just been reading Antarctic literature for a really long time, like well beyond the sort of typical Shackleton obsession that everyone went through.
4:05I started reading absolutely Cherry Garrard's book, which is called the worst journey in the world. When I was really young, my dad gave it to me. So I've sort of had this location, this geography in my mind for, I don't know, a really long time. So I've always been fascinated. And then I couldn't sell my novel. So I was sitting on the sofa and just, you know, trying to think of anything but that, trying not to check my email, trying to be a human being. And I had set up an alert for an indeed alert for jobs in Antarctica, just so I could just look at them and be, oh, wow, check it out. They have mechanics.
4:38They have carpenters. They have water plant supervisors. They have all these weird jobs. And then occasionally a chef job would come up and I'd think, huh. And then I think, eh, the only thing I've really done professionally in the kitchen, I grew up in a restaurant family, so I'm familiar with kitchens and I've grown up in the food world. But I've only really worked professionally as a baker before. So I suddenly one day when I was sitting there, a baker job came up. It was literally a baker. It was Head Baker McMurdo Station. Yeah. And you knew what that meant. It's a bigger station there. It's a bigger station.
5:11So you're baking actually for more like you're one of three bakers there and you're baking for the population there blows up to over a thousand at points when the vessel comes in to resupply, which is once a year. But I didn't care. I was so thrilled. So I applied just on a whim because they make it so easy for you. and just click through the thing. And I thought that's probably the end of that. And then from there, I just was like a day later, I got the, you know, you've qualified sort of some bot decided that I had the qualifications by scanning my resume. And then before I knew it, I had an interview and I had what's called an alternate contract.
5:51Oh, I see. Yep. So you had this call and I remember you wrote it in your sub stack and there was a vetting process. There was like some background check happening. I'm sure there's like some psychological examination thing happening. And what is that interview process like? Because, you know, you're asked to bake in an environment that most even professional bakers, it sounds like you're like fringe professional baker, probably are going to have challenges at. Very much so. So there is no psychological testing even for winter at the South Pole, which is insane, so to speak. Yeah. There used to be.
6:28used to have to pass a psychological full-on, like, multi-hour interview with a shrink in order to just overwinter there. Now they've cut that out entirely. So you essentially have to pass an extensive physical test so that it's called a PQ process, physical qualification. So you have to be pretty top shape. Like, you can't, it's tough if you're diabetic, it's tough if you've got really crazy high cholesterol, have had heart problems, any of that. They don't want it because it's just a nightmare. And particularly for the South Pole, which is different because it's at 11 ,000 feet effective elevation.
7:04No way. It's technically 9 ,300, but effective elevation because of the pressure, which they keep track of on the big board, is mostly around 11. What's Mexico City? Is that around? Boy. I'm sorry to quiz you, but I feel like Mexico City is close. I mean, that's like - Is it that high? It's pretty high, but I mean, 11 ,000 is pretty high. 11 is really high. I was born in Aspen, Colorado, which is eight. Yeah. So that, I think, helped me because I didn't really have a lot of trouble with the altitude, actually. Yeah. I mean, growing up in the Rockies, yeah. Yeah. So you passed the exam. So I passed the exam.
7:39Exactly. I passed the physical exam. And then they do an extended background check, which is called an EBI through the federal government. Like, I don't know who the hell does it. And sometimes that takes a long time. Mine got done really fast and I was good to go. So that's a green light. And then you're kind of at the ready. you're an alternate. And then they happened to call me up and say, I kind of made nice and tried to be really available. And they said, well, something's come up. And basically, someone didn't PQ for my position at the poll. So they got disqualified through the PQ process.
8:10And they needed somebody at the last minute to go to the poll. And I took that job. That's incredible. I know. You take this job. You're in New Zealand. You're writing from New Zealand. And then you end up at McMurdo for that first month. Take us through the first 48 hours once you're in your very small bunk and you take a lot of photos in your sub stack about this room that you live in. What's the first 48 hours like? So you want the first 48 hours, that small bunk is at the South Pole. Okay, so you had a little more space. I know. So when I arrived at McMurdo, and this is one of the worst things in the world for someone who's no longer in their 20s, you are sharing a room with three other people.
8:48Four people in a room. I was on the bottom bunk. Nobody was on the top bunk, thank God. But it could have happened. So I was actually sleeping in a room with all these other women who had never met. It was insane. So I was dreading that, but actually it was kind of okay. I just like put up a curtain, which is what people do and deal with it. They do not mess around. They are exploding their labor force immediately. There's like no get used to the station. Can we show you around? Day, like I got there in the evening. Next day, kitchen. Yeah. They issue you, I'd been issued six kitchen uniforms in New Zealand, which they hand out along with what's called the ECW, which is the extreme cold weather gear.
9:33Yeah. And so I had all that stuff ready to go and I had my kitchen shoes ready and I just showed up in the kitchen. Wow. And so you show up in the kitchen and what's the actual pantry? What are the ingredients looking like? You talk about freshies, which is parlance for fresh produce, which is very hard to find. What's it like when you walk into this kitchen? So at McMurdo, because they had already had some planes, they had a crazy quantity of freshies, actually, at that point. So they get it in giant pallets. And it's something of a disaster sometimes because they have to go through it really fast.
10:07And it's tough getting it. They have to get it on a pallet off a military plane when it's well below zero, even worse at the South Pole, which when I was there never got above 10 below Fahrenheit. Wow, wow, wow. So you know what happens to a banana when you put it in the fridge. Yeah. You know what happens to it when you put it in the freezer. It doesn't matter what state it's in. And lettuce and everything. So everything gets nipped a little and then starts to rot. Yeah. So you got to go through that. But basically at McMurdo, I started in baking. It was a crazy sort of power grab in baking. There were three bakers trying to get lead baker.
10:44The woman who I ended up with was such a disaster. I was so glad when they came and said, would you like to work in freshies because we have to process. And I was like, I'm out of here. So happily. She was a disaster because she was just not, did not have her stuff together. No, she didn't really know what she was doing. She suddenly had this sort of ego problem. Oh, I see. Yeah, it was just not fun. Not great. But did you ever regret it in that first month when you're at McMurdo and we'll get into the South Pole? Did you regret it? I mean, I was so glad I was leaving there. I don't think I would have made it if I had stayed at McMurdo.
11:18It's a big kitchen. It's really overcrowded. You cannot go. There's tons of corners. It's really poorly designed. So you're constantly like yelling, coming out, corner, blah, blah, blah. Like there's no sanity in there. And there's a lot of sous chefs. There's a lot of bosses. The main boss was gone. I don't know. It was kind of a mess in the food. anyway i i mean i definitely wept in the walk-in yeah yeah wow i definitely wept in the walk-in it's not just a tough job it's a tough job like ice in isolation with nothing to decompress plus far from your family exactly really hard you don't know anyone you know i mean there were there were nice people around but you know i'm also a little older than most of the population there so that's a little yeah i mean i'm not by any means the oldest but i'm certainly the majority of the population are in their 20s and early 30s.
12:12Well, so let's go to the South Pole. So you end up taking the transport down to the South Pole where you ended up staying for three months. What's the difference there right away that you notice? Right away, it's a tiny station. So, I mean, tiny in that its max capacity is somewhere around 150, 145. Not 1 ,000 like McMurdo, right? No. So it's just intimate in a sense. So everyone, when you arrive at McMurdo, South Pole, you have to mask for five days. And I noticed over the course of the summer, watching people mask was so interesting because it was a marker of the new population. So people come and go.
12:48And so everyone who was new on station had a mask on. Not that I wouldn't have recognized them, but it was so interesting. Yeah, that dynamic. So once you finish your five days, you're free, but then new people come in, you know who they are. Yeah, and you know exactly who they are. So when I arrived, I was arriving to a kitchen full of people who had wintered over. That is a nine-month, no-moving-out, no-going-anywhere situation where it's dead dark most of the time. And it's like 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit? No, no, no. It was minus 40 when I arrived. Wow. Yeah. And it gets down to, I mean, it's been down to minus 100.
13:23It's usually minus 80 Fahrenheit or so. So it's incredibly cold over the winter. So summer's warm, and the flights can't really come in and blow. So when it gets around minus 50, they can't really fly at all. So when you are speaking for the first time with these folks who wintered over, is there a do you notice a difference in personality type of these individuals? Well, they were kind of nuts. Yeah. Yeah. They were absolutely nuts. I really I was like, can we get you guys out of this kitchen? Maybe. I mean, and there are flights. So flights coming in and out of the South Pole, it's complicated.
13:58There's weather. There's old planes, C-130s that are breaking down. There are crew issues. There's COVID. it there's just like endless delays the new crew me and my new boss got in there and we're so ready just to start yeah but these older holdovers are there i got two days with the former baker yeah which was great she was great and she like gave me the ropes quickly and got the hell out of there because she could not have been more excited of course yeah to go back to her life in and like reality they had been there you know i just can't even imagine i mean nine months is Three times what you spent there.
14:36Exactly. And you seemed like you're ready to bounce after three months. Oh, absolutely. I was absolutely ready to bounce. So anyway, they were a little nutty. The kitchen was not clean. Yeah. We were just like scrubbing it down, trying to get some order in there. Things were disorganized. I don't know. Everyone does a kitchen differently. So I shouldn't really criticize them. No, you're not. That's just the way it does. That's just the way it rolls. And I can imagine my kitchen would look like garbage if I stayed there for nine months. I would have been like, fuck this. What's the biggest shocker that you realized when you're speaking with these winter over folks that you maybe didn't even perceive as spending nine months at the South Pole?
15:10And we'll get into your three months, too, which is. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, just the prospect of being with the same group. It's 40 people over winter. Oh, man. Between 40 and 45. It's really tiny population. So I just left the population that of people that I maybe half of the people I knew were staying who were in the summer were staying over. And I just was like, oh, my God, you poor bastards. Yeah. Some people really dig it, though. Some people love it. I'm sure it's the personality type. I mean, there's definitely I mean, it's constant danger. I mean, when it's 80 degrees below, 20 degrees below, 40 degrees below.
15:44I mean, it's constant danger. You're risking your life daily, right? Well, if you go outside, you have to really pay attention. Yeah. I mean, the biggest danger, obviously, would be to be drunk and outside. Yeah. I mean, you very quickly be a dead person. And they have an emergency pod because obviously if the main generator went down or the main power plant, everyone would die. Right. So they have a whole backup system that could support the winter population if that were to happen. So, yeah, it's a very serious situation. Yeah, it's serious. And no one can come in or out. So in other words, there's nobody is coming to rescue you.
16:20So there have been cases where a woman discovered she had breast cancer over winter and they dropped chemo drugs. I interviewed her in 1999 in college when I was at a college paper. Oh, cool. I remember her vividly. She was incredible. She wrote her memoir about that time there. Isn't it amazing? I mean, I just think that's so amazing. That whole story blew my mind. I remember reading it at the time. Amazing story. She was a physician, right? I think she was the physician. They always have a physician and a physician's assistant on station, winter and summer. We could go in so many directions.
16:53I know we could. Sorry. No, no. This is amazing. And I love having you in Korean. I mean, I want to hear about what you were baking when you were at the South Pole. What are some of the challenges that you face when having to make things that are not just edible, but actually celebratory? Because baking, we know, is part of like we love baking. Baked goods is what makes us feel good. And I'm sure you are a big part of making your fellow pollers happy. Exactly. So it's a morale position. It really is. It's a morale booster. So and baker more than anyone, like you just pointed out. I can tell you it was very challenging.
17:33So because there are no quote unquote freshies, that means there's no actual eggs in the shell. There are frozen cartons of eggs that you need to blend in order to thaw, blend and use. There's no milk. There's no cream. There's powdered milk. I mean, which is really essentially no milk. Which is not baking. You can't bake with powdered milk. You do. Oh, you do. Oh, you do. Yes, you do. Even if it's nonfat, which is really hopeless. There's no sour cream. The winter baker managed to save me a small case of whipping cream, which was incredible to have at the beginning because I love making scones for my other job.
18:14And I was really excited to, you know, have a little cream to work with. And then it was gone. And I had no more cream through Christmas all the way through until the last month or so. And then I got a big delivery of whipping cream and I was so excited because if you if you're a baker, there are so many things that you cannot do without cream. So I really just tried to work. You have to learn to work with your ingredients. We made yogurt there out of powdered milk and yogurt starter. So there are ways to make sour cream from, you know, that product, which isn't great. There's plenty of butter.
18:53It's been frozen since the Carter administration, like a lot of the other stuff on station. It is old. So I found some pie mix, which I wasn't using, but it was in the pantry. And I looked at it and it was pre 9-11. So April 2001. Oh my goodness. So stuff is really old. So there's canned goods there that have been leaching the lead into them for 10 years. Was the lack of humidity help preserve? Absolutely. And the stuff is in a very cold space down in the, we put it in order every week that they bring up our supplies. So that's kind of like your restaurant order arrives once a week. Same thing.
19:33It's coming up from a space that's about 60 below. So that does help preserve it. You really paint a picture of the staff there in your substack. You know, the folks who are doing like the petroleum, those guys seemed like intense. The guys bringing up the, guys, I'm just saying not gendering, but the bringing up the products from these 60 below, that's a job. No, supply is a job for sure. Supply is a job. Yeah. So I was jealous of all these people. I know. They're outside half in, half out. Some of them are out a lot. Which is why you're there. You want to be outside. Exactly. It's amazing. I want to be out in the world.
20:11Even if I'm driving a bulldozer, I want to be outside pushing snow around. Right? And I'm stuck in the kitchen, which I did have a fabulous view. So I had an incredible view of the ceremonial South Pole. Oh, wow. I know it. You've seen it in media. Yeah. No, I mean, it was incredible. I had the spread of view. that I couldn't believe. And every time I got really angry in the kitchen because I was working overnight, which was so unusual. Important point to bring up. Yeah. Your hours were intense. Yeah, the hours were really intense. So that is a really important point to bring up. So I knew that I signed on for a six-day week and they call it nine-hour day.
20:51Wow. Which is, you know, it includes breaks, right? Well, I worked overnight shifts. So I'm not taking a break. I'm just trying to get my job done. Right. So forget the breaks. I often work to 10, 11, 12 hour day. And then that was six days a week. So it's a lot of it was a lot of hours. And I was trying to do a really good job as we all would, like as anyone would. And I was really invested in trying to make good stuff with what I had, which wasn't always easy. I mean, I had canned fruits I had, which were amazing. Like I've never appreciated canned peaches. Yeah. What did you make with the canned peaches?
21:29I made a really nice like custard tart, like a pretty like peach custard tart that sort of hardens and caramelizes in the oven. I love that recipe. It's a joy of cooking recipe, actually. I don't know. You know, I had a lot of nuts, which was great. Yeah. You know, there's certain things that I did have. Having butter doesn't hurt either. No, having butter is amazing. I mean, the butter was fine. I mean, it wasn't perfect. I wouldn't really like want to eat it cold on a perfect piece of bread because it had a little off going on. But it was fine. But it was fine for cookies. I'm sure you made cookies a lot, right?
22:07So basically my job was to make put out a morning item. So some kind of baked item for morning, which might be a muffin, might be a scone. And it might also be a pre-made item, like a pre-made croissant that's frozen on the dock, which I call the most beautiful freezer in the world because it's where I put all my frozen stuff. And I step out there and this is our freezer space for storage of our frozen goods for the kitchen that we have up with us. And it's just so beautiful. So I walk out there to get my croissant, frozen croissant, to put in the oven. And there I am at the South Pole looking at the endless white, perfect pristine.
22:45I mean, it's incredible. Actually, that's not true. It's not perfect pristine because there are many little buildings and all kinds of things. Some bulldozers running around. I'm sure there's like some, you know, oil leak somewhere happening. Yeah, they're very stretchy about oil leaks, but definitely lots of activity. They're doing their best. They're doing their best. They're definitely polluting the air during the day with tons of bulldozers. Yeah, I'm sure the air quality, too. You probably smell diesel all the time, right? Being at the bowl. I wouldn't go that far. Okay, that's good. Just reading your work, I was like this gnarly.
23:19Yeah, I mean, I would try to get outside every day, even though I was exhausted. um and walk around and yes you do smell the they're moving the snow around all the time because it's a real drift problem it's actually not snow it's ice crystals yeah and they accumulate around the buildings and they have to move it away so anyway um let me ask you did uh you feel the workers there appreciated what you were doing yeah i did that's they were super nice about it everyone was really like oh my god we love this oh my god can you make this again yeah and it was great you know when i had that cream for example i made flan and everyone's like freaking out because they just were craving that for some reason i mean you're like such an important part of the morale of a place where morale is like probably the most important thing yeah once morale goes south there's no work being done yeah and morale can go south um yeah yeah i think the baking can really help people out i think people i mean people blame me for not losing weight or gaining weight while over there summer.
24:20Some people. So anyway, I was starting to say that my job was to make that breakfast item. And then I need to make a cookie because you brought up. Yeah. There's always a cookie. I made a cookie every lunch, basically. That was my deal. So and then I made a dessert item that's not a cookie, like a kind of deserty dessert, like a cake or cupcakes or pies or whatever. So, and then I made bread for dinner. The bread and the bread was a, that's going to be challenging. Oh my God. So I made bread at home a little bit, but as anyone who makes bread for a living knows or has tried to do it at a home, unless you do it all the time, your results are not consistent.
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25:02Yeah. And like being thrown into a scenario where you have to make sandwich bread for people who expect it to be commercial sandwich bread. Okay. I didn't have to do that. That's good. Thank God. If I had had to do that too, it would have been bad. So there was already sandwich bread. So there's crappy sandwich bread that's frozen. Again, maybe you Obama administration. Yeah. So I made the bread that goes with dinner. You made like the good bread. I made the good bread people slice and their meal. So I try to match it to the what's going on. Like I made a lot of focaccia for the Italian. I made like masala loaves for like Indian night.
25:40You know, whatever. Try to be a little creative. I had a couple interesting challenges with the bread. I mean, A, I'm not a super bread pro, so I had a learning curve, which was great. And I actually am so much more confident now because I made bread every day for three months, which is like going to bread school, right? I mean, it's essentially - Going to a lot of schools. Yeah. I mean, this is such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yeah. You went to a lot of schools. No, I did go to a lot of schools. You're right. It's cool. That's a good way to put it. But so, yeah, so and bread is up holds really fascinating because there's absolutely no air pressure.
26:16So baking at high altitude, of course, as everyone knows, is a is a whole different game. Different. And I hadn't really baked at high altitude since I was a kid, which really doesn't count. So sugar liquefies at a lower temp. Everything rises like crazy. And then if it's a cake, it doesn't have the structure to support it. So it falls. Oh, my goodness. So you got to slow it down. The bread doughs, you got to cut the yeast and it still rises like crazy. I turn around, the thing is coming out of the lexan. I mean, it's insane quantity of dough just like rising like the great blob. So I learned.
26:54The oven wasn't great. I hated the oven. Honestly, I hated the oven. But I had to deal with it. So let me ask you about recipes. Did you bring any books with you? And were you combing, you know, NYT cooking, Epicurious? I mean, where were you finding these recipes? All of the above. So I brought, I have a baking book that I keep at home because I love baking. And I have my own recipes that - Oh, your own book, cool. Well, like my own book, yeah. Of recipes that I put, that I always love, that I trust. And the ones that I used at my previous job, which was 10 years ago at the Garrison Institute.
27:30and so I copied that out into a new book so I have a little extra room to add I brought um my particularly favorite I think it's this 86 edition of joy of cooking just I just peeled off the baking section of that because my husband didn't want me to take do that to the one we have so I I um I just got a new copy and did that and then so that's what I brought because I knew that would be my basics and I always trust that particular edition of joy. And then, yeah, sometimes I would just get on the internet when it existed. So internet is a satellite at the South Pole. So it's about six hours a day, eight hours.
28:10I forget already. Is that right? Yeah. So there's like internet hours. Yeah. And it changes by four minutes a day. So it gets, it got earlier and earlier in the day. Wow. And it's amazing how that adds up. So by the end of my time there, I really only had internet started at sort of 1.30 a.m., which was great for me because I could look something up or, you know, check my email at 1 a.m. because I was awake. But for the rest of the station, and then it's just off. Like this is like what an amazing opportunity to have only six hours of internet a day. It's great. Is it great? So I was going to ask you is great.
28:51I think it's kind of great. I mean, as someone said about the dining room, so it's a cafeteria where everyone eats, of course, between every meal. And when the internet shifted at night and there was no longer internet at night, all of a sudden people – no one's looking at their phone. Yeah, it's a social study, yeah. Suddenly people are talking to each other at dinner. I mean, that's not true. People do talk to each other at dinner because I think people, you know, it's a little like it reminded me very much of college slash maybe high school dynamics. There's a lot of people that stay together.
29:25There's definitely hierarchies. I mean, Anthony Bourdain made a famous episode about Antarctica, which is great. Yeah, 0.0. I was working there actually when they were filming that. And I remember walking to the kitchen one day and they had a big map of Antarctica and the producers were all looking at it. That's amazing. He got the grand tour. I mean, you got to go to a field camp. He got to go to McMurdo and then he went to South Pole. And he made the point that everyone's equal, like everyone's equal. Well, you know, not really. Because there are NSF, which is National Science Foundation, which runs the whole thing.
29:57It's in charge of the whole program. Scientists. And ostensibly, we're all there to support the science. That's the whole reason. I'm glad I was meant to jump. There's like a whole purpose for this. It's not just hanging out in the snow. No, it's not just moving. Save the planet. It's exactly save the planet and find out about black holes. There are two giant, super important telescopes there. There's a neutrino detector, which I'm not going to explain what a neutrino is because I will I will I will I will embarrass myself. But it's essentially fascinating how deep in the ice. That's what that's the perfect place to do that.
30:33So the science is really why we're all there. And it seems it's always struck me as a really crazily big infrastructure for the number of scientists. I think the ratio needs to be a lot different just to politicize. Like, I'm just going to throw that. I mean, you have at the end kind of your coda for the for the for your work there. You have some thoughts, some general thoughts. Yeah. One was I believe you were definitely underpaid and also be and please correct me. You would rather be driving a bulldozer or doing something scientific than baking. 100 percent. Let's get into that. Yeah. So the kitchen staff in general, not just the baker, the kitchen staff 100 % and the people who wash dishes and keep front of house are paid the least.
31:22Stewies, we call them Stewies, the stewards for the front of house. Those are paid. They're paid considerably less than I was paid, which was not a lot. Everyone else on station is making more money than you are. Some buy a lot. So some people are making really good bank and they're not spending any money because you can't really spend any money there. Six hours of internet, you're not hitting like the real real at all. No. No. No, no. You're definitely not. And it's not getting delivered either. No, it ain't making it down there either. Yeah. Nope. It's not going to get delivered. That said, you can buy on Amazon and get a package there, but, well, you better do it first day of the season or it's not going to make it on time.
32:01Yeah. I ordered vanilla and ginger. Oh, wow. And it got there. My vanilla got there. It started to crack and everyone's like, the mailman was like, I'm pretty sure this is yours because the package was wrecked. Wait, do you get Prime? Is it free? Yeah, totally. Isn't that nuts? I mean, it's amazing. I feel like Amazon needs to pay you to do some speaking about it because it's pretty great. Exactly. I mean, free shipping to the South Pole? Get out of here. I mean, for real, get out of here. I know, it's crazy. But back to the dynamic, it seemed like you probably, if you go back and we get into that, you would not want to be baking.
32:35You'd want to be doing other things. Yeah. So I'd like a job where I was outside. Yeah. I'd love to make a little more money. And the hours are really unbearable for the cooks, right? So like I said, and other people have a lot more time. They're sitting around at lunch for a long time. They're sitting around for their afternoon break. I mean, they're coming and going to outside. And I love the snow. I mean, snow and ice and cold and the history of the fact that Scott and his companions made it there. And Amnison, the Norwegian, made it there first. Yeah, the Amnison story is crazy. I mean, his story is crazy.
33:09Scott's story is amazing. Cherry Garrard's description of that story and finding the bodies later and his various journeys. I write a lot about that in my subject. So the Shackleton story is a little bit overblown, you think, a little bit. It's been overdone a little bit. Well, I think it's become, he's become a leadership kind of icon, which is sort of annoying. Yeah. I found it sort of annoying. Yeah, I love it. I mean, because he was also kind of a, he's kind of a dick. The New Yorker recently wrote about Shackleton, and I felt like that was really clearly, guy's a dick. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
33:41Yeah, yeah. Wow, we could talk forever, but let's wrap it up. and let me hear a little bit about leaving the poll and your thoughts on that last day and do you think you'll ever go back? So everyone's really excited to leave, obviously. Yeah. Because you haven't had any proper fresh fruit or vegetables and I am, I mean, one of the things - Your body's feeling it. My body's feeling it. One of the things that we didn't talk about is the general food there, which is just really simple. Yeah. I mean, it's like starchy white carb. I was so craving complex carbs and protein that I, I mean, I lost a ton of weight there.
34:19It was great. I mean, I'm really happy about that. But anyway, so everyone's dying to get out, get to New Zealand, eat a bunch of fruit and have darkness because, of course, it's light 100 % of the time you're there. And I managed to sneak out one day early, which was fun, just because it irritated one person. And then, I don't know, coming back to New Zealand was incredible. bowl the coffee was excrucible at the pole i mean just so bad and i would double the quantity and just about you didn't bring any coffee no i'm an idiot yeah i was gonna say like i would be like the v60 would be the first thing i bring no you're 100 right and chili crisp and hot sauces like you gotta bring that stuff oh my gosh there's all this list of things you wish you would have packed oh my god chili crisp would have been it would have been a little because that would that like You can definitely ration that out pretty well.
35:08Well, and I lived on Top Ramen. Whoa. That's what I eat every day. And if we had eggs at all, I would throw a couple in there and get some protein. Or I would cook up some spinach and throw that in there. Yeah, it's a good combination. Yeah. But coffee was best. Coffee. I really just like to get coffee. And then since I've been back in New York, my husband Dwight just calls me a fruit bat. Like all I do is eat fruit and veg. And I don't eat. It's kind of changed the way I eat in some ways right now. I mean, I'm not a huge white car person anyway, but boy. You burned out. What about like meat? Were you eating meat down?
35:41Very little. Yeah. It's all been frozen for so long. Yeah. And I don't do chicken breast. I don't believe in it. No. Good, good. The thighs occasionally I would eat if the night chef cooked them because she was really talented. So that's about it. Okay. So you're on the plane back to New Zealand. Do you think you're going to be back? So I've already trolled some jobs. Oh, Cree. I know. You've already trolled. I'm a crack addict. You're so going back. Wow. So I don't know. So I will never go back as a cook. I will never go back in the quote unquote galley. But OK, so there's one outfit that does tourist trips and they have a tourist camp right near the South Pole, which we all despise because it costs like 80 to 100 thousand dollars to go for one day.
36:24So I know that kind of gross spending. I just do. I was making like two dollars an hour and I just like, fuck you people. But then I looked at that and they need like a lecturer. And I'm thinking, that'd be really fun. Oh, for sure. Right. And then I saw a historian job like on some cruise. And I was like, that'd be fun. Are you kidding me? I mean, anything with like tourism, you get a little bit cushier. But now that you've been there, you have like this history. I have a little leg in for those kind of jobs. So I don't know. I also don't want to spend Christmas away from my family again. So I'm probably going to have to cool my jets a little bit for a minute.
36:58I want to have you back to talk about your cookbook career. We kind of like let this time fly and, you know, you've written several cookbooks and you've written single subject books on steak, chicken, fish and pork. Wow. I know, right? I love it for Chronicle and 10 Speed Press. Yep. You're just fantastic. You're great. And also my novel and memoir, which I'm really proud of. So I know this is a food podcast, but I had to throw that out. No, we talk about fiction all the time. And I'm working a book right now about walking in France because I walked from Paris. Well, technically, I was set out to walk from Paris to Avignon for my father, who walked in France a ton on the trail system there.
37:40And so I'm writing a book about France. So anyway, I'm working on that book right now. That's coming out from Bloomsbury, hopefully not too long from now. Going to have you back and talk about that and your career and your cooking in New York. And we had to just talk about the pole. on this is taste we ask guests about the discerning taste so to close this interview here's a little rapid fire fast furious taste check are you ready oh i'm ready the best fruit uh satsuma tangerine oh my god of course it's like i mean the seasons it's march now it's kind of just over i eat like three pounds of them i love it so much the worst vegetable potato fuck potatoes oh my gosh first time ever awesome i'm so glad to be alone on that one i hate them i'm gonna let that sit listener your favorite american fast food chain i really don't i don't want to sound like alice waters but i don't do it and the one exception i make is the egg mcmuffin oh me too okay so that's it so i guess mcdonald's sad your favorite new york city restaurant right now you know via carata i just love that place your favorite cookbook of all time okay i'm gonna be honest in terms of just useful i think a particular version of joy yeah because i use it all the time you already it's It's my go-to.
38:53You just laid that out. It's just my go-to. Your favorite city outside of America to visit for food? I'm going to say Rome, even though I haven't spent that much time there. It's aspirational. I've spent a few, I've spent a little time there. And every time I eat, I love, I love being in Italy and eating food in Italy. It makes me so happy. A cuisine you would like to learn more about? I would like to be a better Indian cook. And that means, obviously, going to India, checking out all the regional versions of what that means. I love Indian food. Your favorite sandwich? peanut butter and marmalade oh marma wow marmalade do you make marmalade every every winter i don't but my friend in vermont does and she does it right and sends me some you got the plug you got the hookup yeah i got the hookup so there's that creela favor thank you so much for joining this is taste thank you so much for having me it was really fun
39:50what's up eliza how are you you know i'm recovering because i just got back from new orleans and i think my body is still processing all over the butter and alcohol but i'm good were those the major food groups in new orleans butter and alcohol i mean i love it yeah to be honest they kind of were in a fun way shellfish uh hurricanes all of the above um before you get into your list and I can't wait to go over with you. I love New Orleans. I haven't been in a minute. Oyster situation. Are oysters making an appearance on your list? To be honest, and I'm afraid to admit this on air, I'm not a huge oyster person.
40:22All good. No judgment zone here. I feel like they just don't do it for me in the same way they do it for other people. So if people are ordering oysters, I will have one just for the spirit, but I don't really appreciate them in the same way. Respect. Gulf oysters are quite different from those New England ones. but also aren't you supposed to eat them in months that end in an r and it's currently march which does not end in an r so i did not eat them golf oysters are different it's a great point and march doesn't end in an r i uh golf oysters uh are year round uh-huh i believe and but this is your list not mine i want to hear about yours and i will add an aside at the end about my favorite oyster spot in new orleans but let's go into your list i'm so i'm so curious Well, so I'll just say that I was staying uptown in the Garden District.
41:08I was there for the weekend. So a lot of the places I went to were uptown, but all over. And I was so excited because I was staying very close to Molly's Rise and Shine. And I finally got to have the carrot yogurt that I feel like they've become quite known for. Do you know what I'm talking about? I know the name of the venue, but I don't know the yogurt. So Shalia, you're shaking your head. You know it. I love this. Shalia just told me before we started recording that she has a lot of New Orleans food opinions. So I'm really just making eye contact with her and hoping that she approves. I love it.
41:37This is the breakfast spot from the Turkey and the Wolf crew. The carrot yogurt, I think, is what I would expect would be like my dish there. It's like a roast carrot marmalade they do over yogurt and granola. and they just grate a ton of lemon zest over the whole thing, which is something that I was like, why am I not grating citrus zest over my yogurt at home? I did that this morning, actually. So immediately I took that away. I really liked that there. They also do this crispy rice salad. They call it like Thai night market style that has peanut and cilantro and jalapenos. And they serve it with like a roti scallion pancake.
42:12Very good. I had a roti last night. I'm thinking like I need more roti in my life. So I love that one. Me too. And you know, I don't like eating eggs that much. So having like a good savory breakfast option, that was really awesome. I also went to Mr. Mao, which is on the James Beard semifinalist list for Best New Chef of the South with Sofina Wong as the chef there. They call themselves like a tropical roadhouse. Wow. And it's just a really fun experience. The menu also is really funny. They refer to burrata as the white claw of cheese on the menu. They're just making taking names right there.
42:46I love that shit. That's so funny and smart. Yeah, they call it burrata, quote, the white claw of cheese. And it is that in a fun way. They also had a whole section called These Things Bring Us Joy and Hellfire Heartburn. My family ordered everything on that list. Oh, man. And we were like, please tell us if we're going to die. But it was really fun. They did a really good aguachile with passion fruit that I really liked. Also, panipori. And then not in that section, like a little less spicy. They did a smoked oyster mushroom with smothered greens. It feels global. Like there's not a, is there like a, like, it's just like its own roadhouse, tropical roadhouse.
43:23I would say tropical roadhouse, like kind of heavy on the South Asian flavor profiles, but all over. I believe the chef herself is Cambodian, but they're kind of just having fun with everything. That's like, sounds amazing. Like I need to go straight there. Yeah, it was really fun. And then I also got to go to Brennan's for the first time. Oh my. Which is like down in the quarter. It was St. Patrick's weekend, which was quite the choice to go to Brennan's out of any restaurant because they are Irish. But they also are in the inventor of the Bananas Foster. Yeah. You know, like the fajita effect, how in a restaurant when one table orders fajitas, everyone else does.
43:57Oh, yeah, of course. It's like it's like it's like a virus, you know. They have that. But with Bananas Foster, which is at every table in the restaurant is doing Bananas Foster. And they truly flambe it like up to the ceiling. Like it's there's just fire shooting off around the dining room the whole time you're eating there, which is really fun and festive. So T. Martin, the owner and kind of face of Brennan's is somebody I've always wanted to have on the podcast. So I feel like we got to we got to hear this story. It was awesome. The service there was really fun. They were all kind of like old school New Orleans servers.
44:29The person who was flambéing Urban Annas Foster told us that it's actually banned in some parishes in Louisiana because people kept burning down their restaurants, which I believe based on the sheer scale of flames that were happening. Oh, and I just wanted to shout out this place I went to for drinks, which was Cane and Table. They do their take on a hurricane where they make their own fascinola is what it's called, which is, I guess, like a kind of fruit punch concentrate that goes into a hurricane traditionally. But they're making a lot of things like that themselves. And it has like fresh citrus and rum.
45:02It's a very like rum heavy restaurant. but I thought that was really fun for drinks. And then afterwards, when you kind of need a good breakfast to soak it all up, I went to Rico Bono's Panola Street Cafe uptown, which my sister went to Tulane and she was with me and that was her kind of default breakfast spot. I love that you had local picks. You buried the lead here. Oh, well, okay. I love it. The whole reason that I went was that my sister used to live in New Orleans and she's getting married in New Orleans next year. So we came back and did like wedding prep. Oh, cool. And she's the person that turned me on to the fact that you can order a biscuit griddled.
45:37Yeah, sounds amazing. And more butter. So it's like crispy, flaky sensation. And that was probably like the best breakfast I had the whole trip. Besides, I guess, the carrot yogurt. But it feels like those are very, it's like dessert breakfast and like breakfast breakfast. Yeah, one's like a breakfast like post like 18 hurricane breakfast. Which, did you hit Bourbon Street? Do you even go? Well. Or did you step foot on the avenue? Yeah, so Brennan's is pretty close to Bourbon Street. And we were there on Sunday, which was St. Patrick's Day. And after dinner, my sister decided to go to Pat O 'Brien's Piano Bar.
46:14Oh, okay. Have you been there before? Shalia is nodding her head at me. Pat O 'Brien's Piano Bar on St. Patrick's Day in the French Quarter. Interesting. It was a choice. They have like two people doing pianos. And you can give your suggestions for songs. You write it on a table with a tip. And I was very proud because I wrote down Oh Bloody Oblada by the Beatles because I thought that was a good like generational piano bar song. And they put it to the top of the list. They really you're just creating the vibe in the piano bar. It's a great song. Yeah. Yeah. So that was my Bourbon Street moment.
46:46I will say this. My auditions. I like Felix for roasted oysters. I think in New Orleans, roasted oysters is really the way I dig it. And I love that place. Roasted or like char grilled. Grilled. Yeah. I guess you could call it grilled. Yeah. on the grill, served hot. I love Coops, which is a jambalaya spot next to Fiorella, which is a fried chicken spot. And you can get fried chicken at both. But it's been years since I've been there. It's a great town. I love New Orleans. I think when I travel, I really like going to cities that have a strong sense of place. You know where you are. You couldn't be anywhere else.
47:20And New Orleans just has that in the architecture and the people and the climate and the food. It's so singular. And it's so fun to get to go and just kind of buy in fully, which is what I did. Absolutely. And I'll say like the food is so unique and singular. Great call. And when, you know, New Orleans style restaurants are attempted outside of New Orleans, they're never good or as good. I know there's there are folks who are very cool doing New Orleans style in cities outside of New Orleans or outside of Louisiana. But something about terroir that you just you can't beat the seafood that is pulled from those waters.
47:55and of course the the tradition like the the creole tradition is like you can't get like creole chefs up in new york you know yeah i think there are people that are doing great cooking in that style but to me what really sets it over the top when you're in new orleans is just the attitude that's there i had a friend from new york that was with me for the night we went to cane and table and we were waiting at the bar the bartenders were kind of walking around she was trying to flag down a bartender to come over. And I very gently just pulled her arm down. And I was like, we don't do that here. We're gonna wait for them to come to us.
48:28That's just the vibe. And I think even as a New Yorker myself, who very much, you know, when I'm hungry, I want to eat like when I'm in New Orleans, and I'm hungry, I'm gonna sit down and smile and hope that somebody comes to me. Thanks so much for sharing this cool, cool, cool memories there, Eliza. Yeah, thanks for talking about it with me.
48:49This is Taste is hosted by Eliza Abarbanel and me, Matt Rodbar. The show is produced by Shalia Harris and Pat Stango and edited by Clayton Gumbert. Theme music by Steve Rydell. Visit Taste online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on all cool things that are happening.
From the publisher
It’s really great to catch up with Cree LeFavour, a novelist, cookbook author, and chef who just returned from four months at the South Pole, as documented in her excellent Substack. What is it like to bake bread at elevation in the world’s largest freezer? Her story is pretty entertaining, and we hear about how the world’s harshest environment can inspire creativity in the most interesting way. We also talk about her cookbook career and some of the cool projects she is working on since returning from the Pole.
Also on the show, Aliza tells us all about her recent trip to New Orleans. Fewer oysters and more…roti! Visits include carrot yogurt at Molly’s Rise and Shine, the “White Claw of cheese” at Mister Mao 😭, the “fajita effect” (but with bananas foster) at Brennan’s, good hurricanes at Cane & Table, and the griddled biscuit at Panola Street Cafe.
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MORE FROM CREE LAFAVOUR:
My Antarctica [Substack]
Private Means [Grove Atlantic]
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