Mark Bittman

I really liked cooking.

Then I needed to find more material to write about, so I cooked more and better and differently, talked to people about it, went and cooked with other people, sold more stories to more important publications,

had more freedom to write about the stuff I wanted to write about, had more freedom to go like, oh, I want to learn about Korean food.

I'll go cook with some Korean people who are interested in cooking with me, write about that.

Oh, I want to learn about Italian food.

I'm going to go to Italy.

Just compounded, compounded, compounded.

It is.

But it's the real story.

I mean, also, I was lucky enough to become interested in and have positive reinforcement around food as opposed to, I don't know, concrete, which I'm sure you could make an interesting career out of studying concrete, but I probably couldn't have.

The ugly stuff.

I mean, I did, and of course these things are of interest to people who are involved in them, but I did spend a year covering a local zoning board and a board of appeals and the local education system.

And, you know, of course those things are important and interesting, but if you wind up doing that for your whole life, I'm not sure you're happy as a journalist.

I mean, I think when I cooked, when I,

Cooked all the time and wrote about food all the time.

Wrote about cooking all the time.

I was out in the world a little more.

I am spending more time alone.

I think in part that's about the memoir.

But look, I'm not a journalist anymore.