TENAYA & ANDRE DARLINGTON > Authors
TENAYA
From: Philadelphia, PA. Switzerland: Greater Basel Region.
Work: Professor, Cheese Director at Tria Cafe & Wine Bar.
Hobbies: Photography, travel blogging.
Recent books: A Rich History, by Elaine Khosrova; The Whole Fromage, by Kathe Lison.
Favorite food from Switzerland: Vacherin Mont d'Or.
Favorite spot in Switzerland: Lake Geneva Region.
ANDRE
From: Philadelphia, PA. Switzerland: Greater Basel Region.
Work: Consultant and Freelance Writer.
Hobbies: Hiking and Yoga.
Recent books: Faces in the Crowd, Valeria Luiselli; The Forgiven, Lawrence Osborne.
Favorite food from Switzerland: The Basler Läckerli.
Favorite spot in Switzerland: Zürich.
What is your background?
André | I started out as a food and wine journalist, became a cocktail columnist, and then owned my own bar. A few years ago, we decided to pitch a book together and now we’ve written three! It’s been an amazing journey.
Tenaya | By day, I am an English professor at Saint Joseph’s University, by night I write a cheese blog called Madame Fromage (madamefromageblog.com). I always like to tell the story about how our mother made a Swiss cheese board every Sunday when we were young – that’s why I love cheese. We always had Gruyere and Emmentaler, and it was very celebratory. We always had family friends over, and André and I were allowed to drink a little wine. The cheese board always included charcuterie, pickles, a baguette, and a bar of Swiss chocolate. Those Sundays started us off in hospitality and solidified our love of cheese and drink, for sure.
André | We grew up in Madison, WI and there you will find a Swiss community. When we moved to Madison there was still a radio station broadcasting in Swiss German. You will still find rösti and yodeling. And lots of brown cows. It’s heaven.
Tenaya | Our grandparents lived in Cleveland. They were part of the Swiss community and they only spoke Swiss German to each other at home. So, we grew up hearing a lot of Swiss German, always having raclette and fondue dinners around the holidays, and knowing all of our grandparents’ Swiss friends.
André | There was lots of yodeling and singing! My grandfather loved yodeling, and he could play the accordion pretty well.
Tenaya | So it was definitely in our blood. Both the food and the culture.
You’re hosting a dinner party for close friends, what will you serve?
André | One of the things we talk about in our books is always making people comfortable right when they arrive by giving them their first drink. And usually, that first drink would be something bubbly. It can be non-alcoholic, too, but we always serve something that is effervescent. Either champagne or Crémant de Bourgogne, or something like that. But French 75 is our go-to, which is gin, lemon juice, and champagne together. Try it at the next party!
Tenaya | André and I love nothing more than having a party and serving French 75’s, but also a cheese plate. I think the French 75 is the most cheese appropriate cocktail, so I always make that for guests. I also love hosting raclette parties, and my friends ask for it any time of year, but usually, I do it around winter. We grew up sitting around the table-top of the oven and grilling cheese and potatoes all night. I have all my friends bring a different condiment, different mustard or pickle, and then we play a game at the end that involves dice and Swiss chocolate that we learned from our grandparents. In fact, the next book I’m working on has a whole raclette party as one of the chapters on entertaining with cheese. We were very much influenced by our Swiss upbringing.
Has a favorite or most inspirational food/drink in Switzerland influenced you?
André | Well, if we’re sticking to cocktails, it’s probably absinthe. Although, as a child, I remember my parents having a bottle of William’s Pear with the pear in it, and I thought it was fascinating that a pear could get inside a bottle. So maybe that is the deep psychology behind why I now write about drinks. Because that was like having a preserved animal or organ in this jar – but it’s an edible fruit! Years later, my friends and I broke open one of those jars and we ate the pear – so it came full circle, eventually. I would say, influences would have to be the raclette, fondue, and Gugelhupf. But also, every holiday our grandmother would send a full box of probably 12 different types of Swiss cookies. So, I always remember that as really the centerpiece of every holiday.
Tenaya | Definitely for me it’s been raclette. Really getting to understand through the cheese world the history of raclette (both the Swiss and the French). There’s also a wonderful Swiss cheese importer named Caroline Hostettler in Florida who I’ve gotten to know through attending cheese conferences and she has a very cool Adopt-an-Alp program that she runs through various cheese shops in the United States. Through cheese, I have become more connected to my Swiss heritage – and for me, that translates into a love for stinky cheese that melts well.
When and how did you start writing books?
André | I was writing mostly about wine, and I had a wine column. And Tenaya was writing about cheese. So we pitched a wine and cheese pairing book. Our publisher came back and asked us to write about cocktails instead. They liked our voice, they liked our sense of humor, but they wanted a cocktail book. From that, we were asked by Turner Classic Movies to write their entertainment guide. Afterward, we pitched Booze and Vinyl, a book pairing music and cocktails. From an unlikely start, it’s been a whirlwind 3 or 4 years.
Tenaya | I went to graduate school for writing, and in 2013 I published a book called House of Cheese with the cheesemongers of Di Bruno Bros., the local specialty foods shop in Philadelphia. After that, I was hooked, so André and I pitched a wine and cheese pairing book together.
André | We both ended up in food & beverage and then collided. I was living in the Midwest, and she was living in Philadelphia. This was like a hobby that exploded into a career. How long did it take to develop and write your books? André | The first book was a beast. That was 2 years in the writing. We started ‘The New Cocktail Hour’ in 2013-14 and it came out in 2016. That was our biggest book by far. It ended up being a bible for the industry and started the whole ball rolling. The other 2 books each took about 9 months to 1 year. Which is a really hectic schedule even with 2 people.
Tenaya | The brilliant thing about working together is that we work twice as fast. Which we are both discovering now working on our own books, how much work it is, and how much work the other person was doing.
What are you currently working on?
André | I’m working on a new global cocktail book. It will be 44 locations around the world. It’s a big project. Its working title is Booze Cruise. This fall, I’m traveling to 11 cities: Berlin, Kyiv, Athens, Beirut, Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo. Quite an undertaking!
Tenaya | I’m finishing a book called, ‘The Milky Way: A Cheese Lover’s Guide to The Galaxy’, which will be published by Workman Publishing in Spring 2021. I’ve just spent the last year traveling to France, Switzerland, and England – all in the name of cheese!
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