So Much to Say in the Month of May

A stream-of-consciousness work of self-promotion and rambling.

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m feeling wind-toss’d and sore. I’ve just returned from an open level ballet class at Peridance in which I struggled mightily with the petit allegro. For non-balletomanes, that’s the part of class where you do all these small very fast jumps. The trick is, well, it’s not even a trick, the important thing generally is that as soon as your foot leaves the floor, it’s pointed and that your legs are either straight or have assumed one of the few other acceptable positions (passé or coupé or whatever). In a petit allegro you have to make sure the jumps stay small and tidy. Small and tidy has never been my thing.

When I saw myself in the mirror, I was legitimately ashamed at what I saw. Instead of working through my feet, I anticipated landing with a gross bent leg and a foot somewhere between pointed and flexed. Instead of being erect and still, my upper body labored up and down like a wheezy accordion. I looked like a pigeon doing a mating dance. I haven’t taken ballet class in a few months so I get it. But now writing this, I realize not only had I gotten out of practice both in terms of picking up choreography and the mechanical logistics of dancing ballet but more importantly I had gotten out of practice of being compassionate to myself. I mean, who tf cares? I’m a 43-year-old man, doing ballet just for fun on a Sunday with a bunch of ladies (and one 70 year dude, who is my hero.) I’m not saying I’m not going to work hard to correct my form but that, yeah, maybe I won’t look in the mirror during and think, “You sad pathetic fuck.” Also, maybe I won’t then try to hammer that dun feeling into some self-effacing (but ultimately wise) anecdote to open a Substack which is basically just a list of things I’ve done.

I promise — promise! — the next Substack is not going to be an advertisement for myself. It’ll be about some really really mean emails I get from my ex and how my friend helps me deal with them. (See, now that I wrote that I have to write it.)

OK so here’s what’s going on in May.

• After a long hiatus, Julia Rothman and I are resurrecting our curated figure drawing series. (It was called Figures of Speech. Now it’s called Seen Here. The events take place at her very cool Gowanus studio, The Hot House. They feature interesting characters who I’ll interview and who will also demonstrate their craft. First up is Todd Neufield of Twisted Balloon. As some of you know, I fuck heavy with fine art balloon sculpture. Todd is a luminary in the field. And yes, he’ll be bringing balloons. The event is May 15th. [Get your tickets now.]

• Me and Heston Blumenthal are going to chop it up at the first Chef’s Conference in New York. The conference runs May 18th and May 19th. I’ll be closing it out on the 19th. [Tickets here]

• I have a book coming out with Che Fico’s David Nayfeld called Dad What’s For Dinner?: Lifesaving Recipes to Avoid Meltdowns, Have Fun in the kitchen and Keep Your Kids Fed. It comes out May 27. Really this book is the culmination of a lot of work I’ve been doing in the past few years around fatherhood and parenting. — for instance, my books Cooking for your Kids and To Me He Was Just Dad — but it utilizes David’s deep culinary knowledge. Of all the cookbooks I’ve worked on, this is the one I’ve cooked from the most. My kids love the spaghetti alla limone recipe. [Bookshop]

In case you missed it….

• I reviewed a couple of memoirs for the New York Times. One book was very good. One book was no so good. [NYT]

• I wrote about inventive pasta for the Wall Street Journal. [WSJ]

• I wrote about Severance for Men’s Health (and interviewed showrunner Dan Erickson) and, as an added bonus, Apple+ sent me some Severance mailer with a Lumon mug and Airpods, where was great because I had JUST lost my own headphones and was like, Dammit, Stein, you can’t have anything nice. [Men’s Health]

• Also, I took Auggie to MagicCon and wrote about it for Men’s Health. Look, we got an illustration! [Men’s Health]

• Oh, Julia Rothman and I hit the Westminster Dog Show for Town & Country. I wrote; she illustrated. [T&C]

• For the Financial Times, I wrote about the best tiki bars, the best Manhattans in Manhattan and giant fart monsters at the Toy Fair [Financial Times]

• Oh yeah, Esquire’s Best New Hotels dropped. I wrote a bunch of those too. [Esquire]

• Haha. Oh shit. Yes, and I went to the Alinea pop up at Olmsted and reported on that for Grub Street. [Grub Street]

• One last one, ten course kimchi tasting menu restaurant for Grub too. Though the style guide forced them to spell it kimchee which is wut? [Grub Street]

Upcoming Projects:

• Russ and Daughters Cookbook: 100 Years of Appetizing by Niki Russ Federman and Josh Tupper Russ with ME! out September 9 [Pre-order here]

• The Stranger Things: The Official Cookbook: Recipes from Hawkins and Beyond by ME! out February 3. [Info here.] I am particularly proud of the Demogorgonzola Cheese Balls. (It was demigorgonzola because it isn’t all gorgonzola but demogorgonzola is just better.)

Celebrate the culinary cravings of your favorite Stranger Things characters with Stranger Things: The Official Cookbook, featuring sixty recipes from all facets of this beloved world, whether it’s ’80s mall food, a weeknight dinner at the Wheelers, or the best Dungeons & Dragons snack.

Each recipe belongs to someone in Hawkins and comes with a recipe card, postcard, diary entry, or other in-world artifact. Make Barb’s Baked Ziti, Steve Harrington’s No Fail Crepes Suzette, or the scary good Demigorgonzola Cheese Balls. Experiment with Erica Sinclair’s science project that yields Doubly Delicious Maple Pancakes or bake Eddie Munson’s favorite Hellfire Club Devil’s Food Cake. Learn the dining rules for Castle Byers (annotated by hungry D&D players) and the secret to Hopper’s perfect tuna melt (with mustard, dammit, and potato chips).

Packed with mouthwatering photos that bring the ’80s roaring back, this cookbook offers up a big slice of Hawkins for Stranger Things fans with an appetite

• Nothing Matters…But Delicious: A Radically Honest Cookbook by Greg Baxtrom and ME! Hahahaha. I don’t know when it’s coming out. Sometime in 2026.

• Oh, I sold my first YA novel. It’s called Shadowing. Here’s the announcement!

Joshua David Stein's SHADOWING, the author's debut, following a 16-year-old, who, in the wake of his mother's death, discovers that the father he never knew is a world-renowned chef who abruptly vanished from the restaurant scene, triggering him to chase after his father by working in all the kitchens that turned him into a culinary (shooting) star, to Nick Magliato at Penguin Workshop, in an exclusive submission, for publication in fall 2027, by Stephen Barr at Writers House (world).

If you want to dance with me

(and as

Klancy

will tell you, I love dancing with my friends)

I continue to take Alec Cohen’s Intro to Pop Star Dance, Angela Trimbur’s Thirteen, Pat Hall’s Afro-Caribbean class and Chelsea Thedinga’s Intermediate Contemporary both at Mark Morris, Graziela Kozak’s Intermediate Ballet at Peridance, Tenaya Kelleher’s Wednesday line and Buckwild line at Desert 5 Spot on Sundays. (It’s where I’m going right now.)

And if you want to roll with me…

M-W-F at noon in the Blue Basement with Rafael “Sapo” Natal. Monday and Wednesday is no gi; Friday is gi. It’s an advanced class though so blue belts or above.