Posts by author

Phyllis Grant

Phyllis Grant is the author of Everything is Under Control: A Memoir With Recipes. She is an IACP finalist for Personal Essays/Memoir Writing and a three-time Saveur Food Blog Award finalist for her blog, Dash and Bella: Cooking With 2 Kids. She has cooked in world-renowned restaurants, including Nobu, Michaelâ€™s, and Bouley. Her essays and recipes have been published in dozens of publications including Best Food Writing, New York Times, Esquire, O, Real Simple, Saveur, Time, San Francisco Chronicle, Food52, and Salon. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and two children.

Interviews

Phyllis Grant

Dec 30, 2025

Getting the Clay of a First Draft on the Table to Pull It All Apart: A Conversation with Adam Roberts

“Writing that first draft gives me all the information that I need to make a really strong second draft. It’s a rehearsal, in a way. It was almost like doing improv in that world so that I could write the…
Interviews

Phyllis Grant

Dec 16, 2025

Hospitality Training and Taking Care of the Reader: A Conversation with Gabrielle Hamilton

“ I don’t like reading books where you can feel the writer fiddling with you and admiring themselves as they manipulate the words on the page. I don’t love a self-congratulatory writer—you can sniff it on the page immediately—more than…
Interviews

Phyllis Grant

Nov 29, 2023

The Antihero: A Conversation with Kim Foster

I had to change the parameters of what I thought success was. Success might be a plate of eggs with toast or a talk on the curb. Sometimes the most simple thing is the thing that makes the difference. I
Features & Reviews, Interviews, Rumpus Original

Phyllis Grant

Jun 22, 2022

Imagination Hunting: An Interview with Michelle Huneven

Start at the beginning—you would think it was something I should have learned from the first novel. But I wonder about these obstacles that we put in front of ourselves that keep us from getting further along or finishing.