One woman’s food odyssey leads to stirring her own pot of love
Dawn Lerman, who grew up in Chicago, writes the popular NYT Well blog series, "My Fat Dad".
That Dawn Lerman-an emotionally undernourished kid from Chicago-would grow up to become a nutritionist and the author of the New York Times Well blog series, "My Fat Dad," might seem either against the odds-or pure destiny.
You see, her mother never cooked family meals and ate tuna from a can, dashing from one acting audition to another. And her dad-an ad man whose catchy slogans included "Leggo My Eggo"-was ruled by the bathroom scale and put the family on crazy fad diets. He spent nights at the Playboy Club, a Chicago nightclub, or at his typewriter.
"I would go to other people's houses, and think my family is just so weird. They are like the Munsters (on the TV show)," remembers Lerman with a chuckle.
From the first few pages of 2015's My Fat Dad: A Memoir of Food, Love and Family, with Recipes, the door to Dawn's lonely, chaotic childhood in the '70s is thrown open as her father, armed with Pringles, shuts his bedroom door to work. As I tag along on Lerman's journey to personal nourishment, there are many other doorways to enter. Many of her early food memories make me laugh out loud, others transport me to my grandmother's kitchen, and others break my heart.
Like a big plate of comfort food, her story is filled with rich family traditions, inspiring life lessons, and colorful role models like a homeless dad named Jim, Olga, the school lunch lady, and her doting grandmother, Beauty. "You can't change your parents, but you can always cook a pot of love," Beauty once advised the young Lerman.
The older, wiser Lerman has come to accept her parents-quirks and all.
Although her mom, Phyllis, wasn't the nurturing kind, she kept all of her daughter's poems and journals. "From age three and a half or four, she was writing in her Dream Journal ," she recalled during a phone interview from her Los Angeles home. "Dawn has this writer's sensibility to see what others can't see and to describe it poetically."
When it comes to her dad, Lerman admits, "I was a little nervous about having him read the book." But when he read it and declared, 'You've come a long way, baby' (another one of his slogans), she knew it was a winner.
Before "My Fat Dad" became a book, it was the title of her first New York Times column published on Father's Day 2012. Responses poured in from across the globe-more than 500 in a few hours-like lights dotting up an old-time switchboard. Her phone starting ringing; she got calls from Katie Couric's producer and NPR, to name a few.
Some had strong knee-jerk reactions to the book's title. "Why would you put up a column with the name, 'Fat Dad'?" That's so hurtful." "Why are you shaming fat people?" But plenty of readers strongly identified with the father's weight loss battles, while others were fascinated with Dawn's relationship with Beauty.
From an early age, Lerman's passion for cooking was nourished in her grandma's kitchen in West Rogers Park and during food shopping trips to Devon Avenue. "Cooking was her religion, and she loved to show me her world through food," she said.
When Lerman was 9, her family moved to the West Village in New York, but she keeps on cooking and remains close to Beauty, who sends her recipe cards every week. She learns the art of chopping onions like a chef from Jim, a homeless dad, who has suffered unspeakable losses.
"I thought if I can just be nice to this person like my grandmother said, I can change the world," she recalled. "Jim and I helped each other, but he was able to help me more than I helped him."
The book includes more than 50 recipes that mark significant moments and relationships in her life. Beauty's recipe for brisket with Coca-Cola marinade was featured in the Chicago Tribune column "What's your brisket secret?" just in time for Passover this year.
At Lerman's home in New York City, cooking is a family affair with son Dylan, 16, and daughter Sofia, 11, a strict vegetarian. When her daughter brings home friends, Lerman seizes the opportunity to pass on her love of cooking to the next generation. "I say, "Let's bake cookies!' They put down their cell phones, and all of sudden they are interacting, talking, and measuring," she said. "It's about creating happy food memories and traditions."
Lerman's plate is now full. She truly has come a long way-inspiring others to cook and eat good food, one recipe at a time.
Jennifer Brody is a former associate editor at JUF News and a freelance writer living in Chicago.
