Here's a video from Pok Pok chef Andy Ricker visit to the Strand Book Store in New York City, where he discussed his new cookbook with co-author JJ Goode in a conversation moderated by Lucky Peach editor Peter Meehan. Through the course of the roughly 45-minute conversation, Ricker touches on his winding path to cooking professionally, the history of Thai food in America, and how it came to be that he is "large and white and ha[s] a Thai restaurant." Goode discusses the difficulties of collaborating on a cookbook and writing about a cuisine that he did not initially have expertise in. On the challenges of Thai cooking, Ricker says: "What we wrote was essentially Pok Pok for dummies. Every recipe is really really spelled out from start to finish ... the hope is that you can take on a recipe like laap and do it." Go, watch:
Video: Pok Pok's Andy Ricker and JJ Goode with Peter Meehan
· Pok Pok's Andy Ricker and JJ Goode with Peter Meehan [YouTube]
· All Andy Ricker Coverage on Eater [-E-]