The New York Times, Sunday, January 17, 1999

    Most weekends, Arthur Schwartz, host of "Food Talk," a daily New York radio program on WOR-AM, heads for his second home in West Cornwall, known to listeners as the country kitchen.

    On a recent Sunday morning, he answered the door barefoot and dressed in black sweat pants and an old, blue shirt with the tails hanging out.

    In his spacious new kitchen, part of a remodeling project that more than doubled the size of the former cottage, Mr. Schwartz was busy preparing omelet rolls filled with ham and cheese for brunch. The recipe comes from his new cookbook, "Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania," published in November by HarperCollins.

    He placed the casserole in the oven, then gathered his thoughts before heading down a hall to broadcast remote from a guest bedroom, equipped with a microphone and computer patched into New York. At precisely 12:06:40 P.M. the red, "OnAir" sign lit up, and Mr. Schwartz was live on the 40 stations that carry his two-hour, nationally syndicated Sunday show.

    Before taking calls from listeners, who test Mr. Schwartz's encyclopedic knowledge about food, kitchen equipment and recipes with questions ranging from the elementary to the esoteric, he offered a few opinions. As usual, Mr. Schwartz was not afraid to name names, talk prices or make comparisons.

    For those considering buying espresso machines, he recommended a two-cup Krups model ($99 at Williams-Sonoma).

    "That may be the bargain of the season," Mr. Schwartz said. "Most of these coffee machines are several hundred dollars."

    He'd tested pricey, new stainless steel cooking tools like slotted spoons, whisks and spatulas and advised cooks not to buy them.

    "My experience with this new stuff is that it's just very expensive, not necessarily easy to handle, even though they have ergonomically designed handles," Mr. Schwartz said. He prefers inexpensive utensils and replaces them as needed. "I don't think I need a $20 slotted spoon," he said.

    By the time Mr. Schwartz finished reading the recipe for a rich macaroni and cheese dish he had cooked the previous night, several callers with questions were waiting on the toll-free line. It was time for a commercial break.

    Suddenly, Mr. Schwartz remembered and ran for the casserole in the oven. "It's quite far gone," came the muffled report. Fortunately, one taste proved him wrong. Then it was back to the callers.

    Joanne was worried about salmonella if she used six raw eggs in a recipe for chocolate mousse.

    "Joanne, live dangerously," he counseled. "Use the eggs. You buy them from a reliable source, right? Don't feed them to anybody elderly or children, anybody with a compromised immune system."

    Claire said she had received a clay pot without instructions as a gift. What should she do with it?

    Mr. Schwartz explained clay pots are used for cooking chicken or pot roast with vegetables in the oven. The pot should be soaked in a sinkful of water before use. "After you've done that once, you can then use it as a planter," he joked.

    Edith called for help with a recipe for Jewish fried dough balls that seemed short on liquid ingredients. She took offense when Mr. Schwartz said the recipe was similar to that for struffoli, a popular sweet in southern Italy.

    "Edith, Edith, calm down," Mr. Schwartz said sternly. "I know what I'm talking about." And then he told her to add a little water to the dough.

    With each caller, Mr. Schwartz listened intently, his brows furrowed behind tortoise shell eyeglasses, asked a few questions and offered a good-natured solution.

    When he needed a reference, he grabbed a cookbook from the hundreds lining three walls of his makeshift studio. His collection numbers "thousands upon thousands of cookbooks," he said.

    Anne wanted to know if price indicates quality in spices. The answer was no.

    "McCormick has the highest prices," Mr. Schwartz said. "I go to the supermarket only in an emergency." He recommended Penzey's mail-order catalogue or Indian and Pakistani markets for lower prices.

    The strangest question of this particular day came from Al in Palm Springs, Calif. He wanted to know what canned and dried foods would be best for the emergency food baskets he was making for friends expecting the ultimate earthquake.

    "Are you serious, Al?" asked an incredulous Mr. Schwartz. "This is very foreign to me." Convinced that Al was indeed sincere, Mr. Schwartz reached for a copy of his 1992 book "What to Cook When You Think There's Nothing in the House to Eat," and reeled off a list of stock pantry items: dried beans, canned tomatoes, sardines, barley, oatmeal, dried fruits and more. How long would they last? "Longer than most marriages," he quipped.

    At 1 P.M. Mr. Schwartz introduced his on-air guest, Rozanne Gold, author of "Recipes 1-2-3 Menu Cookbook." She was calling in from Queens. The topic was recipes with only three ingredients for entertaining.

    Does Mr. Schwartz get hungry talking about food?

    "I'm always hungry, so it doesn't make any difference," he replied.

    A blind woman named Alice called from Iowa to say Ms. Gold's cookbook makes things easier for her. She asked Mr. Schwartz if "Naples at Table" would be available on tape. He said several agencies were interested in recording the book when he could read it aloud.

    The last caller of the day, Renee, wanted to know how to make orange flower water to put in panettone, a sweet yeast bread.

    "This is something you have to buy, Renee," Mr. Schwartz said. 'He steered her to Middle Eastern stores, where it is inexpensive.

    With only seconds left, he signed off: "I'm Arthur Schwartz, and I'm looking forward to talking to you again real soon." Indeed, he would be back on the air in 22 hours. "Food Talk" is also broadcast live Monday through Friday from noon to 1 P.M. On Saturdays, the show is taped in advance with his co-host, Joan Haimourg. He has been host of the show since 1992.

    Mr. Schwartz said he broadcasts from West Cornwall nearly every Sunday. During gardening season, when he grows tomatoes and herbs, he often broadcasts remote on Fridays and Mondays too.

    Mr. Schwartz, who is 51, has been writing about food for 30 years. From 1969 to 1979, he was a food editor and writer at Newsday in Long Island. Then he created the "Good Living" section at The New York Daily News, where he was the executive food editor and a restaurant critic.

    His other cookbooks are: "Cooking in a Small Kitchen" (Little Brown, 1978), and "Soup Suppers" (Harper Collins, 1994).

    "I'm self-taught, except that my grandfather was a professional chef, and he was one of the people who taught me," Mr. Schwartz said. "When I became a professional journalist, I observed lots and lots of cooking classes."

    Why did a Jewish New Yorker write a southern Italian cookbook?

    "The first six years of my life we lived in a two-family house in Brooklyn with a Neapolitan family downstairs," Mr. Schwartz said. He learned there were no cookbooks in English about Campania, whose cuisine was the basis for many Italian-American dishes.

    Mr. Schwartz said he receives about 300 pieces of regular and electronic mail each week from listeners. "I get lots of nice, complimentary notes and not too many hysterical criticisms," Mr. Schwartz said. However, he does take criticism to heart.

    "I just told a listener I didn't think he'd be able to get elk anywhere," Mr. Schwartz related. "And somebody found elk in a butcher shop, so I was happy to tell the audience where they could find elk."

    Does Mr. Schwartz ever get tired of talking about food?

    "No, no. My most fun of the day, absolutely, is being on the air, he said. "The hour or two hours on the air is very focused. You forget all your troubles."

Back to Who is the Food Maven