1. Who inspires you?
My mom, of course. She moved halfway around the world to go to college, and then in addition to raising two kids in a country where she didn’t have any family (aside from my Dad), she also worked and got her PhD at the same time. I’m so incredibly proud of her.
2. What was the best concert you ever went to?
Singin’ in the Rain at the Hollywood Bowl, with my best friend.
3. Where’s your favorite place in the world?
There’s a tea shop on High Street in Oxford that serves the best scones with cream.
4. If you could be any animal, which would you be?
A red panda – they seem like they get a good mix of adventuring and sleeping.
5. What’s the last book you read?
I am, I am, I am by Maggie O’Farrell. I also couldn’t resist picking up Goodbye Crueller World, with its cover art of a cute kitten next to a wall of doughnuts.
6. What are you passionate about?
Books, good food, and my two cats.
7. What’s your favorite movie?
Ocean’s 11.
8. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Does moving halfway across the country to a city I’d never lived in before, with no family there and no job, count? If not – then it was definitely eating 52 oysters by myself at an All-You-Can-Eat Oyster buffet.
9. What are you currently watching on Netflix or TV?
Russian Doll, and The Good Place.
10. If you were a super hero, what would your super power be?
I went to a bookbinding workshop, and I’m working on binding my own “book” on places to eat in Los Angeles.
11. Who would you most like to swap places with for a day?
Kristen Bell.
12. What’s the best meal you ever had?
Next Restaurant in Chicago.
13. If you could visit anywhere in the world you’ve never been, where would you go?
Tokyo or Antarctica.
14. What are some of your pet peeves?
“Norman Doors” – doors that are poorly designed and lead you to do the exact opposite of what you need to do in order to open them!
Also the word “nonplussed” – how can a word mean both “surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react” and the exact opposite “not disconcerted, unperturbed” – I am nonplussed at the very idea.
15. What’s your secret talent that no one knows about?
I can make a mean risotto.
16. Which four individuals, living or dead, would you like to eat dinner with the most?
Jonathan Gold, Phil Rosenthal, Marie Curie, and Jane Austen.
17. What is the best gift you ever received?
Iridescent.
18. Name one thing on your bucket list?
Directly and with specifics.
19. What is your favorite family tradition?
Purchasing bacon cheddar buttermilk biscuits from M.B. Post to bring to the family dinner for Thanksgiving.
20. What is your least favorite dessert?
Ant-man, although Paul Rudd is pretty great.
