Dazzling . . . brilliantly written . . . [Hamilton] is as evocative writing about people and places as she is at writing about cooking.
— Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Rhapsodic, profane, wonderful . . . A fabulously talented writer‑cook, Gabrielle Hamilton is also a contrarian one, and you never know quite what will come next.
— The Wall Street Journal
Dazzling . . . brilliantly written . . . [Hamilton] is as evocative writing about people and places as she is at writing about cooking.
— Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Rhapsodic, profane, wonderful . . . A fabulously talented writer‑cook, Gabrielle Hamilton is also a contrarian one, and you never know quite what will come next.
— The Wall Street Journal
Gabrielle Hamilton is the chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York’s East Village and the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef. Anthony Bourdain called Blood, Bones & Butter “simply the best memoir by a chef. Ever.” Hamilton also writes for the New York Times on food, memory, and the restaurant industry. Q&A with Molly Wizenberg, author of The Fixed Stars.
Although this event has passed, you can still purchase a digital pass through February 12 at 7:30 p.m.
This event is online-only.
A self-trained cook turned James Beard Award–winning chef and moving writer, Gabrielle Hamilton opened Prune on New York’s Lower East Side 21 years ago to great acclaim and lines down the block. A deeply personal and gracious restaurant, in both menu and philosophy, Prune used the elements of home cooking and elevates them in unexpected ways. When the pandemic hit, however, and the restaurant was forced to close it prompted a reckoning that Hamilton chronicled in a deeply moving essay for the New York Times. The essay mediates on the role of restaurants in our lives while also laying bare the shaky financial scaffold that the industry is built on.
Before Hamilton opened Prune she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Blood, Bones & Butter is her memoir, which follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s past and her own future family.
Hamilton received an M.F.A in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, GQ, Bon Appétit, Saveur, House Beautiful, and Food & Wine. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and the Food Network, among other TV, and she has won a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef NYC.
She currently lives in Manhattan with her two sons.
Molly Wizenberg, our Q&A moderator for the evening, is the New York Times bestselling author of three memoirs: The Fixed Stars, Delancey, and A Homemade Life. She has written for the Washington Post, the Guardian, Saveur, and Bon Appétit, and she was the author of the James Beard Award-winning blog Orangette (2004-2018). In a previous lifetime, she also co-founded and co-owned the award-winning Seattle restaurants Delancey and Essex.
Video
The New York Times goes behind the scenes at the East Village restaurant owned by Gabrielle Hamilton.
Gabrielle Hamilton remembers the first time she stepped into Prune with Vanity Fair.
For Gabrielle Hamilton and the staff at Prune, deciding what to eat for family meal can be a challenge. Here, the staff dig for ingredients to create a meal everyone can enjoy before the hustle of dinner service.
The New York Times goes behind the scenes at the East Village restaurant owned by Gabrielle Hamilton.
Gabrielle Hamilton remembers the first time she stepped into Prune with Vanity Fair.
Event Details
lectures.org
Know Before You Go
Need access to the digital event?
Most tickets have been emailed for Hamilton’s event, so be sure to check your inbox for an email from boxoffice@lectures.org. Call us at 206-621-2230 x10 if you can’t find them.
Your e-tickets, which come attached in a PDF with your ticket order confirmation email as well, will contain your digital access password. Return to the event page the night of the event at lectures.org and enter the password where prompted. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. (PST) and will be available for viewing for a week after the event.
SAL will also send an email the day of the event, containing the same information. If you have opted out of receiving SAL emails, you will miss this important information—please email us at boxoffice@lectures.org and we will assist you.
Have a question for the speaker?
Want to ask Gabrielle Hamilton something? Send your question to SAL’s Associate Director at rahoogs@lectures.org—it might be asked during the event!
Books
Our partner bookstore Third Place Books will have copies of Hamilton’s work available for purchase online.
Accessibility
Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.
Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals at online events. To make a request for ASL interpretation, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select Sign Language Interpretation from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will reach out to you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.
We are pleased to offer these accessibility services for online events, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at boxoffice@lectures.org, or Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at 206.621.2230×10. For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility.
