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| Steve said, "She's a lucky cook, because I eat out a lot."
Glamour Off After recording sessions, television and personal appearances, Eydie turns off the glamour and dotes on her real life role of wife and mother. Most of her cooking takes place in the roomy kitchen that took a solid year of revamping before it suited her. "Most gourmet cookbooks are bunk," she said. "They always call for a cow hanging up in the kitchen. But let me give you one of my favorite recipes. You have to watch me as I tell you exactly how to make it. I call this dish spinach fritda. It's the greatest, most marvelous bit of Spanish-Turkish deliciousness you've ever tasted. But you must have the right ingredients and make no substitutions. "Take a large pan, I'd say a flat baking pan, oil it well with vegetable oil. Sprinkle the pan generously with matzoh meal forming the lower crust!" "So right there, you've already lost half the population," cracked a friend. Never Measures Eydie ignored him. "My mother uses fresh spinach, but I prefer chopped frozen spinach that completely thawed. Squeeze out all the water," she said, wringing her hands. She continued to act out the recipe, saying at one point: "Beat an extra egg and drizzle over the top to form a custardly upper crust." "You really have to see one made since my mother and I never measure. I can't tell you the exact proportioins," she said. "It should be like a souffle, damp and light textured. But if it rises and falls, you're in trouble already. If you have trouble with it, just let me know, and I'll send you one in the mail," she said. "All I can tell you is, it's utterly divine and my children adore it. Besides, it's the only way I can get them to eat spinach," she said, sounding rather like a suburban housewife. "I make many other dishes that are the end, such as spaghetti sauce with meat balls, pepperoni and sweet Italian sausages or peppers fried in olive oil." She explained her preference for Italian cuisine. "I suppose because there's so much variety. Day in and day out, the food is healthy and satisfying." Steve's Cooking Steve's kitchen talents are limited to egg cookery ("He'll never starve on his own cooking," Eydie reported) and occasionally barbecuing steaks or chickens. He is most apt to cook when the pair summer at Lido Beach, Long Island, with their boys. Asked about his barbecue marinade, he said, "Oh, lots of goodies go into it," as if revealing a trade secret, "like olive oil, soy sauce, wine vinegar, herbs, garlic, seasoned salt - but mostly a lot of love!" "We're headed for Vegas next where everyone likes to cook for you, especially Italian food. I'm getting very spoiled. When I'm out there, there's an Italian grocery store where the owner makes things to order, from pasta (lasagne and rigatoni) to sauces. You name it, and she makes it. Her spaghetti sauces are superb, so why should I make them when I can buy them ready made," she said. Eydie, like most performers, must watch the calories but frankly considers the subject boring. She pokes fun at herself in the act when she wears what she calls "my stock exchange dress. When I hit 130 pounds, it splits." Steve also teases her by saying, "A Twiggy you'll never be. You're not even in the same forest!" Eydie's recipe for her main dish pie can be found on her Recipes Page - just click here! |
| Steve 'n Eydie, Singing Gourmets |
| by Johna Blinn |
| Chicago - "I'm a help cook with a big staff," said Eydie Gorme, prettier half of the star singing team of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. "Actually, I'm a good cook though I now travel with a cook on tour. They put in a stove for us." She pointed to the white enameled stove cornered in their posh suite at the Palmer House Hotel. The pair, who were entertaining in the hotel's Empire Room, talked between shows in the presence of a few friends.
"Now that the boys are out of school, we're on tour for the summer and carry the cook with us," she explained. The Lawrences, with David, 7, and Mike, 5, have always traveled en famille; they strive to live as normally on tour as they do in their Manhattan home. "I've always cooked on the road, even if it's only a hot plate. So far I've escaped the house detectives! Obviously, I don't make my mother's sweet and sour cabbage," the Bronx-born singer said. |
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