Takeaway Q&A: Food Chats with Maddie Lesperance
For the love of Greese's Pieces. 🫒
Maddie Lesperance (they/them) is a painter, freshly-minted writer, hopeless romantic, and lifelong kitchen dweller based in Brooklyn, NY. Their Substack, Big Feelings, Bigger Appetite, serves up sapphic short stories inspired by real-life first dates, paired with cozy, craveable recipes that anyone can follow. Maddie’s been cooking since before they had teeth and now caters private dinners for their local community. They’re a sucker for a good game night, and while they’ve been known to get a little competitive, they’re learning that cooking’s even more fun when you let people help.
You can find Maddie on IG @maddieles or on Substack at Big Feelings, Bigger Appetite.
Maddie! So excited to chat with you today. I know you live in NYC now, but you grew up in Philly?
Yeah, I moved to New York in 2017, so I've been here for almost eight years. I’ve lived in a lot of places, but most of my life was spent in Philly. I love Philly. I just wanted to go to New York.
Are there specific meals or cuisines you miss the most from Philly?
I mean, Philly's a huge food town. Have you been?
Oh yeah. My mom grew up outside of Philadelphia, so I remember going there with her a few times, taking the train and going to her favorite cheesesteak place. And TastyKakes! I love those.
For sure TastyKakes, cheesesteak, soft pretzels... There’s a significant Vietnamese population, and also a huge Northern African population and lots of Ethiopian restaurants. I grew up on Vietnamese food and Ethiopian food. My family is heavily Italian, so tons of Italian food. And my mom loves sushi. So I had a lot of Japanese food around too.
Are there any places in NYC that come close to the cheesesteak of your youth?
Well Bradley Cooper recently opened his new cheesesteak spot - which I haven’t gone to out of protest. He is from Philadelphia and it’s supposedly really good. But it’s New Yorkers telling me that, so I haven’t been. I probably will eventually.
I do think Fedoroff’s has a pretty good cheesesteak. I like their roast pork. Philly is known for cheesesteaks, but also for roast pork sandwiches. You know, the long seeded roll, usually baked in-house or by a Philly bakery that distributes to every spot. The rolls are crispy on the outside, soft inside. Then there's pork marinated in juices, some of those juices go on top, and they add broccoli rabe and provolone.
That sounds so good. I’m definitely going to try Fedoroff’s.
They have cheesesteaks too. I can’t remember if I’ve had one from them. I don't think I have, but that’s what they're famous for. It’s a Philadelphian who moved up here and brought it with them.
Ok, so I am really really excited to talk with you about the way you dream about food combinations. Is it true that you concoct recipes in your literal dreams?
I do.
I’m so jealous. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked or tasted anything in a dream.
Food’s always been a big part of my life, that’s how I was raised, so I think it just seeped into my dreams. And the more I cook, the more it happens. I'm a flavor person. Anyone can cook and follow a recipe, but not everyone combines flavors in interesting ways, which is fine.
Yeah, you have to develop your palate, especially if you grow up with a limited or consistent set of the same sort flavors.
Exactly. Like, most people wouldn’t put bonito and sumac on popcorn1, but I love it. I probably use sumac every day. So in dreams, it’s not like I'm cooking - I’ll just be eating something you might not expect.
Remind me of some of the food combinations you’ve dreamed up.
One that comes up often, both awake and asleep, is ceviche with a few different seafood options in it, served with really fresh chicharrón instead of chips. The fat and acid together - it's so good. I’ve never seen it served, though I'm sure someone out there makes it. I’ve made chicharrón and ceviche separately, but not together.
You’ve had this dream more than once?
Yeah. It’s in my Notes app.
I’m so jealous of your food dreams!
It’s interesting. I dream about congee a lot. I love congee and pork floss. So there’ll be pork floss in there, maybe macerated cherries, dukkah, cilantro… like, why put those together? But it sounds so good to me. Sweet cherries, creamy congee, savory pork, fresh herbs, maybe some nuts? It’s not something I’d think of while I was at the actual grocery store.
Right? You wouldn't necessarily grab cherries and rice at the same time. Or at least I wouldn’t think to.
Exactly. And I’m from Philly - so, like, a meatball hoagie comes up a lot in dreams in various ways. But often it’s pesto meatballs instead of red sauce. When those sort of unexpected combos come up in dreams, when I wake up, I try to jot them down.
Can you actually taste these food combos while you’re dreaming?
Yes! I can taste them. I can discern if they are good or not, and I remember that when I wake up.
Do you ever try the food from your dream in real life and find it doesn’t quite work?
I haven’t yet made something from my dream that doesn’t actually taste good. Once I think of something, my brain starts developing it.
Imagine how your flavor profiles could evolve over time if you kept refining dream combos.
Right? I dream about pork a lot. I use kimchi paste a lot when I cook, so kimchi shows up in my dreams too. But the rest really varies. And I’ve actually made some of the combos.
Which ones have you made?
Let’s see… I did make a pozole ramen. It was delicious. Not dry ramen, but soup-style. I added andouille sausage. I think I had a dream about pozole ramen and also one about gumbo ramen, and I combined the two.
That’s amazing.
I also made a kimchi eggplant parm with pulled hand noodles instead of spaghetti.
MUG BREAK! 🍵
Do you have a favorite mug and why?
This mug was given to me by my roommate. They worked on the set of the show The Equalizer and when it ended they brought this home from the set for me. I love it because it’s so me, but also the thought of Queen Latifah drinking out of it just gives me butterflies. Who doesn’t want a King Salmon mug? This was so hard to choose one mug though, honestly.
Do you have a signature dish? Or are you the type of cook who’s always changing it up with the seasons?
Always changing. I’ll eat anything, try anything once - unless I know I’m allergic in some way, which hasn’t happened yet.
Same. There’s only one food I don’t love. I always feel bad about it, because I love everything else. It’s olives.
What?! I love olives.
I want to love them. Black olives on pizza are fine, but the really cured ones are just too intense for me.
I eat them out of the jar! I literally saved a meme this morning of E.T. eating out of a jar and saying, “Why are they called olives and not Greese’s Pieces?”
Have you really tried all the different kinds of olives though?
I really have! At least I think I have. I can do mild green ones. The Castelvetrano ones. I’d never buy them myself, but if they’re on a charcuterie board or something, I’ll eat a few.
I love all of them. The really dry-cured Moroccan-style ones that are like salty prunes? So good.
What about stuffed olives?
Stuff it, deep fry it. Whatever. I’m in.
What are your favorite coffee spots in the city?
Che down the street from me is the one I go to most. I used to be a barista. I’ve had like, 30 lives. I’ve done a lot. One of those things was being a barista, so I’m internally snobby about coffee. Che is very consistent. I love it.
Also, Devoción. They’re popular because the owner owns the farm in Colombia. The beans arrive every day. Super fresh. Always good. I love the Williamsburg location. There's one near my new office too.
What’s your coffee order?
Hot coffee: whole milk. Iced: almond milk. I love a cappuccino, an iced Americano with honey, or an iced chai with almond milk. Che doesn’t have almond milk, so whole milk there. Devoción’s at the top for me. I used to work at Blue Bottle, so I’m still a bit Blue Bottle-pilled.
Is Blue Bottle the one that was bought by Nestlé?
Yeah. I worked there when that happened. Got a bonus, luckily. I think they still have solid pour-overs.
You worked at the Rockefeller Center location, right?
Yeah - the busiest location in NYC. There are two bars, 10 people on shift, nonstop flow. Celebs, tourists, everyone. I got so good at making pour-overs. Five or six at a time. But when I left, I didn’t want to touch another pour-over coffee for years.
At the risk of sounding like a tourist, who’s the most famous person you made coffee for?
I accidentally gave Elliot Page whole milk instead of almond milk once. For the rest of my life I will wonder if I gave him diarrhea. I’m so sorry Elliot.
Did you realize it after he left?
Yeah. The cups were accidentally switched. It was chaos. Five minutes later, that’s when I realized.
Poor Elliott! He's out there ice skating..
Exactly! I feel so bad. So that’s my biggest celeb memory. There were also a lot of random celebs because of SNL and NBC nearby. Radio City Music Hall too.
Did you ever serve a Rockette in full costume?2
Yes in their full costumes for sure. Around the holidays, all the time. Ice rink staff too. So many stories.
What was the standard Rockette order?
Usually skim milk lattes.
What I wouldn’t give to serve a Rockette a skim milk latte!
Thanks so much for chatting with me Maddie. Next time I hope we can go on a cheesesteak tour!
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Maddie brought bonito and sumac popcorn they made to this interview and it was hands-down the best popcorn I have EVER had. And I love popcorn. I think about this popcorn every day.
At this point I literally dropped the Tahini cold brew I was holding due to shock and jealousy.