Get To Know Hannah Kirshner, Stylist, Food Writer, And Author Of Water, Wood & Wild Things

GET TO KNOW

HANNAH KIRSHNER, STYLIST, FOOD WRITER, AND AUTHOR OF WATER, WOOD & WILD THINGS

Interview by Suzy Chase founder of ‘Cookery by the Book’ / Photography and illustrations by Hannah Kirshner
Cookery
Hannah Kirshner is a Brooklyn-based stylist, food writer, and artist who one night received – and accepted - a life-changing invitation to apprentice with a "saké evangelist" in a misty Japanese mountain town called Yamanaka. Here she soon met a community of craftspeople, farmers, and foragers, master woodturners, hunters, a paper artist, and a man making charcoal. Inspired by these masters, Hannah devoted herself to learning how they work and live, and captured the experience in an enthralling book.

Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, and full of her own beautiful drawings and recipes, Water, Wood & Wild Things is an ode to a place and its people, as well as a profound examination of what it means to sustain traditions and find purpose in cultivation and craft.

Main: Hato-chan, a lost racing pigeon, lived with the author while she finished writing her book. Wild black walnuts dry in the foreground. Above: Hannah Kirshner harvests her first crop of rice. Right: Water, Wood & Wild Things, Hannah Kirshner’s new book about living in a Japanese mountain town.
Main: Hato-chan, a lost racing pigeon, lived with the author while she finished writing her book. Wild black walnuts dry in the foreground. Top: Water, Wood & Wild Things, Hannah Kirshner’s new book about living in a Japanese mountain town. Above: Hannah Kirshner harvests her first crop of rice.

Bloomist and Cookery by the Book have joined forces to bring you the work of amazing cooks the world over. As proud sponsors of the CBTB podcast we’ll introduce you to monthly articles and recipes as well as sell the featured books. In this episode Suzy interviews Hannah Kirshner, author of Water, Wood & Wild Things.

Suzy Chase: Water, Wood & Wild Things is the engrossing brilliant book we need right about now. Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, and full of your beautiful drawings and local recipes. But first I want to tell you that I have been a huge fan of yours for years, since you were with Food52 back in 2016 and you would do these Facebook lives and I just adored your kitchen in Brooklyn. It was so organized.

Hannah Kirshner: That's amazing, you know, broadcasting those I really had no idea who was watching in a way it just felt like I was alone in my kitchen. And yeah, it's amazing to hear that you were watching and enjoying them.

Hannah’s drawing of the small mountain town of Yamanaka, Japan.
Hannah’s drawing of the small mountain town of Yamanaka, Japan.

Suzy Chase: I loved it. And you know, what's so funny for the longest time I didn't know your name was Hannah. I was like oh Sweets & Bitters is on.

“WATER, WOOD & WILD THINGS IS THE ENGROSSING BRILLIANT BOOK WE NEED RIGHT ABOUT NOW.”
-Suzy Chase, Cookery by the Book

Hannah Kirshner: Right, so that was the name of the magazines that I self-published. It just kind of stuck. Actually, I chose the name when I was still, I hadn't even started the magazines, but I was a baker and I was a bartender and I was doing some cocktail events and baking cupcakes and all sorts of things. Then I was like, well, this will just sort of work for whatever I do I think.

Suzy Chase: It was perfect. And I still just want to call you Sweets & Bitters.

Hannah Kirshner: Well, I think I'm stuck with it. So that's good.

Hannah’s drawing of a duck that was captured by net and given to her on her birthday.
Hannah’s drawing of a duck that was captured by net and given to her on her birthday.

“I WANTED TO LEARN ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE DOING AND HOW IT ALL WOVE TOGETHER INTO THE CULTURE AND COMMUNITY OF YAMANAKA. AND THAT’S WHERE THE BOOK IDEA CAME FROM.”
- Hannah Kirshner

Suzy Chase: So in 2017 you did some videos for Food52 in Japan and my favorite of all time was when you went to Kathy's Kitchen and Kathy does all this American baking and her cookbook collection was fantastic. She showed you a cookbook from when she was 10 that was all about Pennsylvania Dutch Baking. I will always remember that episode. I loved her shop.

Hannah Kirshner: She's amazing. So Kathy is her American name, but her real name is Kei Yamaguchi and so she has this baking space in Kyoto. Now, I can't remember if at that time it was her old space or her new space, but she sells baked goods and she runs baking classes. Most people in Japan don't have an oven in their home kitchen so she's able to teach people and give them an opportunity to cook all these baked goods that require an oven and she has this amazing cookbook. I think she's published two of them now called Friendship Cooking, where she travels around Japan and cooks with different friends and learns their recipes.

Continue reading or listen to the podcast at Cookery By The Book With Suzy Chase

*Suzy Chase is an avid home cook and keen conversationalist with a background in cookbook publicity as well as major market radio. In 2015 she realized there wasn’t a podcast devoted to cookbooks, so she started ‘Cookery by the Book’. Suzy believes that every cookbook tells a story and seeks out chefs and cookbook authors with fascinating tales to tell. Today ‘Cookery by the Book’ is the #1 cookbook podcast in the world followed by 40,000+ enthusiastic home cooks.

Cookery by the Book is a podcast series hosted by Suzy Chase. Visit cookerybythebook.com for more information.