If you’re looking for a fun read during your winter break, you’ve got to put Babe Scott’s Delicious Dating on your list. Babe breaks down your dates into personalities depending on what their dining norm is. Chips and beer? You’ve got a Homer Simpson-eque Trans Fat type. He’ll eat anything…even if it’s raw and maybe still alive? Definitely an Adventure Eater.
Babe was gracious enough to give us a fun interview in the midst of her book hitting shelves this week!
1. If you had to go on a date with one of your dining styles, which one would you pick and why?
I would probably pick an Adventure Eater. This guy is the Indiana Jones of the alimentary canal. He likes to travel off the beaten path at the table and beyond. Accordingly, a date with him is a journey in itself and will take you out of the everyday. This Male Food Type will select a restaurant that evokes another part of the world or another era and will introduce you to new tastes. Although somewhat of a vagabond, this guy is a sentimentalist and likely the meal will represent a culinary snapshot of his travels or the hometown he left long ago. This guy is hard to pin down but very beguiling. A meal with him is always an original dining experience.
2. Is there a dining style you would absolutely not see yourself having dinner with? Or if you got stuck having dinner with him, which would make you sneak out the bathroom window?
The Transfat Type would have me crawling out of the ladies’ bathroom window. This guy believes in only four food groups: fast, fried, frozen and salty snacks. If you had to sum up his culinary philosophy, it’s food that goes well with football. This guy works on a model of energy conservation when it comes to food and foreplay. If you can coax the Transfat away from his couch, he will take you to somewhere he can watch action replays while he downs beers and burgers. He’s not a bad guy if you like Homer Simpson types but if, like me, you don’t like fries with your McSex then he may give you heartburn.
3. Do you think love can work even if you don’t think he’s your dining style match?
It depends how far apart you are on the culinary spectrum. For instance, if he is a Transfat and you are either a Food Purist or a Food Sensualist – eating together would be torture for your psyche, not to mention your intestinal tract. It’s the staples that bind a relationship. Dining together is the route to connectivity.
If you can’t connect in your culinary spheres than it will be really hard to in other realms. If you are both prepared to compromise and try each other’s food then it could work: For instance, if he’s vegetarian but you eat part of the meal together. There is nothing sadder than eating together and dining alone. This is the difference between cohabitating and connecting. The couple that dines together, or in the case of the Low Carb Cowboy ‘diet’s together’, stays together.
4. Do you have a specific food or dining weakness? If a man said “Babe, let’s go eat…..” what would make you jump for joy?
I have so many weaknesses when it comes to food and wine that they are almost too numerous to list. One of the great things about this culinary journey was that I fell in love with food. I found so many new food and wine crushes that it was like losing my virginity again and again. It awakened my senses. I’m not your Steak and Two Veg, I get excited by new taste sensations as well as the promise of amazing food. I could equally be thrilled by some bolt-hole that a guy has discovered that makes authentic exotic cuisine as the promise of sampling the tasting menu of a truly amazing chef like Daniel Boulud.
5. Vegan meets trans-fat type: is there hope or ultimate fail?
Being with a vegan or Food Purist is like joining a cult. This type is changing the world one bite at a time. Vegangelists do love a challenge (like most crusaders) and are eternal optimists when it comes to human nature. If the Transfat Type is prepared to convert his lifestyle as well as start picking up his socks then there is potential for a relationship. The vegan probably won’t even consider kissing the Transfat unless he gives up meat and animal products. It’s a stretch but if the Transfat had a life-changing experience like a sudden coronary during a suspenseful Superbowl match, then he might be persuaded to change his ways. Otherwise, it’s ultimate fail. It will come down to a choice of you as his partner or processed meat.
6. What was your craziest research experience in writing this book?
I ate squid livers, sautéed silkworms, dined with the Naked Cowboy in his trademark skivvies, went on a blind date in the pitch dark, foraged for wild greens, dumpster diving with a freegan….but probably the craziest experience was dining with the Clothing Optional Dinner Group. This is a group of naturalists who dine au natural in various New York City restaurants.
I went to a buffet in the buff at a venue downtown on a date with an Adventure Eater type. I’m the sort of person who doesn’t leave the bathroom without a towel and multiple glasses of wine were required to give me the moxie to strip down to barely there underpants. The food wasn’t much to report and the assortment of jiggly body parts was enough to dampen anyone’s appetite but it made for an interesting night. I think there is something to be said for maintaining a sense of mystery and I didn’t find dining in my birthday suit conducive to romance but it did take me out of my comfort zone.