Lucinda Scala Quinn: Taming Appetites, Feeding the Soul

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

After seeing Lucinda Scala Quinn on the Today show I have the impression that she gets some anti-feminist flack for the title of her new book Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys. Mostly because Ann Curry feels the need to chime in something about “feeding the gals too” at the point of the segment when the rest of the crew joins in to nosh on vittles from the day’s celebrity chef demo.

Gender stereotypes aside, Mad Hungry is loaded with recipes for any size appetite, and you don’t have to have males in the family to make good use of this cooking tome.

“This book is for anybody who wants to eat well,” says Scala Quinn.

And if you happen to have a gaggle of men and boys to feed, so much the better.

Scala Quinn is herself well versed in taming voracious, man-beast appetites. Growing up with brothers, and feeding a perpetually hungry husband and three sons, she has had her share of experiences feeding males of all ages. So when she says things like, “Guys are not pretense. What they need is what they ask for,” she is speaking less through a pop culture filter of gender stereotypes, and more from her own objective experiences raising a family.

From where she sits, the title Mad Hungry is an apt description of the male quest to satiate hunger pangs . “It’s almost like when you have more than one male whose hungry, it becomes an urgent situation,”  she explains.  And this is the perspective from which she wrote Mad Hungry.    

The book itself goes far beyond mere recipe recitation (although if you’re a recipe hound no doubt you’ll find some instant classics here) and lays out some very basic menu planning methodology for readers before they even attempt to turn on the gas stove.  For example, feeding a ravenous family requires shopping ahead, and in some cases prepping ahead, she cautions. If you put off thinking about the dinner hour until the 5:30 p.m. meltdown, you’re already behind the eight ball. For some that may be elementary and obvious, but for those who find the dinner hour daunting, this is an example of how her book delivers the handholding when necessary.

Though chefs of all skill levels will find something to pique their interest, the recipes in Mad Hungry lead even the most novice of cooks by the hand at times. The simplest thing like frying an egg properly is not above description. “I decided it was better not to alienate anyone for lack of knowledge,” she says.  Case in point: Scala Quinn remembers once after an art director watched her  filet a snapper in a studio kitchen, she incredulously commented, “Oh, that’s where those come from,” in refrence to the bodiless filets. 

You may also find Mad Hungry helpful in conquering age old culinary battles such as the Kids vs. Vegetables. Scala Quinn  decries the impossibility of getting a kid to eat vegetables. Around her own family table she always included veggies in some form by throwing them down without a fuss next to all of the other meat and starch dishes. For Scala Quinn the proof is in the proverbial pudding : ”Now I have vegetable eaters who ask for vegetables when they come home,” she says of her older sons who are away at college or busy with high school. 

Lastly this culinary tome is really a celebration of creating a space where families are nourished body and soul. Says Scala Quinn,”The riches from eating well extend beyond the physical, they are spiritual and emotional as well.”  

–Amy Loeffler

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