Lisa Lucas and DeBrianna Mansini don’t compromise. Both are veteran film industry professionals and strident feminist activists, who met at marches for abortion rights before they became close friends. But their cookbook, That Time We Ate Our Feelings, is full of recipes meant to be non-intimidating, cozy, and accessible. The cookbook uses recipes from the Santa Fe-based duo’s hugely popular weekly live cooking show, Corona Kitchen, now called Golden Goose Kitchen.
That Time We Ate Our Feelings, A Cookbook from Friendship
Aside from running into each other at feminist marches, Lucas and Mansini knew each other from their television careers, where they both have star-studded resumes. Mansini starred as Fran in AMC’S Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, as well as writing and performing her own plays. Lucas has her own production company, LikeMinds, and served as an executive producer on hit shows like ABC’s The Bachelor.
Mansini, who comes from a large Italian family and sees the kitchen as her “creative space,” initially proposed the idea of a live cooking show. “I called up Lisa and said ‘Wanna cook live on Facebook and see if anybody joins us?’ And then we cooked live for 143 days straight,” she said.
“I credit DeBrianna with helping me use food to de-stress,” Lucas said. “I had gotten to that place where I was like ‘we’re doing takeout.’ All I made from scratch was cranberry sauce once a year. As Americans, we don’t take breaks. We’re workaholics. The pause of COVID allowed me to catch my breath,” she added.
From Cooking Show to Cookbook
That Time We Ate Our Feelings might focus on comfort food, but its recipe titles have some zingers. You won’t easily forget recipes like “Make Your Own Damn Ramen,” or “Throw Away Your Xanax Tribal Sustenance Homemade Matzo Ball Soup.” Mansini explained: “We’re actors. We like to laugh!”
Part of what made (and still makes) Corona Kitchen so popular is Mansini and Lucas’s humor and warmth. “I once had a KitchenAid mixer fall on my head when we were filming, and I just rolled with it!” Lucas remembered.
Apollo Publishers, which published the cookbook, was also drawn to their unique personalities. The cookbook came out in spring 2023. “We just thought: We’ll make the book we want to write, and maybe someone will want it. But we were in the meeting with that publisher for about twenty minutes before they said ‘Okay!’” Mansini said.
Then, it turned out food photographer Penina Meisels was a Corona Kitchen member on Facebook. Because COVID-19 restrictions were still tight, Meisels was working out of her home studio to photography. “I will never forget as long as I live the food styling sessions we had,” Lucas said. “Mostly everybody involved was women, and it was so different from our male-dominated film sets.”
What Makes Comfort Food Comforting
The height of the COVID-19 was an isolating time for everyone. Most of us needed some comfort. Mansini and Lucas defined “comfort food” as things that made them feel happy. That could also include meals meant to serve to others, not to eat themselve. “It’s the joy of sharing that’s as important as your own personal comfort,” Mansini said.
Lucas said that to her “food is love. It’s the memory of a family, something you can share with others.” And having both a cooking show and a cookbook means that they have an archive of family recipes. “That’s the beautiful thing about the internet. I tell my kids that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, they’ll be able to feed themselves,” Lucas said. In That Time We Ate Our Feelings, Lucas recommends the Dutch Baby recipe and the Caesar salad as easy, fun cooking projects that can become staples. “I make both of those all the time,” she said.
To this day, the pair run continue to run Corona Kitchen as a Facebook group. They feel that with the upcoming 2024 election, people still need comfort food more than ever. Mansini and Lucas also aren’t shy about their feminist politics in their cooking show. “We used to think we’d lose followers for talking about those things, but we didn’t,” Mansini said. “We know we have Republican followers, and they stick around because we make good food.” On how cooking and feminism connect, she proclaimed: “We can choose to work in the kitchen, but you can’t keep us there.”
Story by Emma Riva / Photo by Penina Meisels
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