August 4-10, 2005

artpicks

Recreational Cooking

by Carolyn Wyman

books

The Cooking Ladies are North America's Two Fat Ladies. "They're two English women on motorcycles," says Cooking Lady Lamont Mackay about the Food Network's BBC cooking show stars. "We're two Canadians in a motor home."

Another difference: Mackay and fellow Cooking Lady Phyllis Hinz communicate with their public in print. The Cooking Ladies' Recipes from the Road, a recounting of the travel adventures and food the former restaurateurs have enjoyed since hitting the road full time in 1998, did so well as a self-published book that Ten Speed Press re-released it in the spring.

Like the Fat Ladies, the Cooking ones seem willing to do just about anything for a good picture or story, including parasailing off Prince Edward Island, playing pickleball (a racquet game) in Washington state, mining for gold near Lake Superior and eating pigtails (a Mennonite favorite) in St. Jacobs, Ontario — although the connection between Recipes from the Road's stories and its recipes often seems rather tenuous. For instance, there are no pickles in the pickleball recipe, and a profile of Yukon cinnamon-bun maker Steve Watson comes with a recipe for — tomato-broccoli pasta?

The gals have no Pennsylvania stories, something they hope to change when they appear at the Rittenhouse Barnes & Noble next week. "The purpose of this trip is really twofold: to promote Recipes from the Road and collect some new stories and recipes," explains Mackay. If you want to pitch your grandmother's scrapple recipe or Mummers club dinner as entries in their next book, the women should have plenty of time to listen. In Philly, at least, despite their name, the Cooking Ladies will not be cooking.

The Cooking Ladies meet, greet and sign, Tue., Aug. 9, 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 1805 Walnut St., 215-665-0716.