NEW YORK — Many years into their marriage, Stephen and Evie Colbert suddenly became coworkers. And that is why, in a roundabout way, we have their first cookbook.
During the pandemic, Evie helped keep her husband’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on the air at CBS while the couple hunkered down in their South Carolina home.
“Evie was my crew and my only audience and my only guest. And it turned out we worked together well,” Stephen Colbert said. “We said, ‘We’ve always wanted to do something together. I think the thing to do would be a cookbook.’”
What emerged is “Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves,” a collection of tried-and-true Colbert clan dishes like Spicy Lemon Chicken Thighs or Panfried Spot Tail Bass that also opens a window into their lives.
“It had to be a personal story, because we’re not professional cooks. It’s all about our personal experience,” Stephen Colbert said.
The dishes range from a simple teriyaki-flavored pork loin — good for busy parents on a weekday for dinner — to an extravagant Beef Wellington, a fillet steak with mushrooms and prosciutto, wrapped in puff pastry, then baked.
It is a cookbook that also charts a love affair, celebrates extended family and rejoices over places visited — idiosyncratic and yet universal. There are four recipes for fudge — each boasts that it is the definitive one — submitted by the Colbert siblings.
A trip to a San Francisco restaurant in late 2007 inspired the recipe in the book for a clam chowder that is brothy and vegetable-forward and has plenty of clam meat.
“I don’t even know if the soup was as good as I remember it. We were just young parents with a moment away and big frosty glasses of sancerre,” Stephen said with a laugh. “Everything was tasting pretty good.”
Friends and family were tapped for their favorite dishes, like deviled eggs from Evie’s dad and chicken l’orange from Stephen’s mom. There are also photos and stories of their three children.
“For Stephen’s career, we purposefully kept our children out of the limelight, and when we sat down to do this, we realized, ‘Oh, we’re involving a lot of family. How do we feel about that?’ And it felt like a wonderful way to be personal,” Evie said. “It felt very much like a collective project that way.”
Many of the dishes lean on the South, which is natural: Both grew up in Charleston, S.C. There are Lowcountry recipes for pickled shrimp, pork belly sliders and red rice, a dish that Stephen said he enjoys making the most.
“At my little elementary school growing up, we had it just about every day. And it was fantastic. And this recipe comes closest to that really jammy, salty, smoky red rice I grew up with.”
Going back even further is Stephen’s Kindergarten Soup, which he learned to make helping the cook at Martin Luther Kindergarten. It calls for celery, carrot, onion, tomato, okra, corn, butter beans, green beans, peas and beef. The cookbook includes a photo of 5-year-old Stephen’s drawn recipe.
“It is the first recipe I ever learned. And my mom did hang up that recipe in her kitchen and take it down and make it every so often,” he said. He now laughs at its plainness, a yesteryear where it was “iceberg lettuce and salt and pepper for flavor.”
Back to their roots
The Colberts have upped their sophistication levels since then, of course, including in the cookbook a recipe for duck breast with fig-orange sauce.
“People are afraid of duck, but it is really, really simple,” Stephen said. “Start in a cold pan; render it out. Save that duck fat for the potatoes you’re going to want with this later. Throw in some fig jam or any jam in with a little orange juice. It’s fantastic.”
Making the cookbook reconnected the couple to their roots. “It put us back in touch with all the food we grew up with and the people who taught us how to make these recipes,” said Evie, who still refers to recipes as “receipts,” the way her mother did.
One of her favorites is the flounder stuffed with crab meat that she grew up with. “I was really happy to rediscover that recipe. It was one that I had sort of forgotten about. And when I worked on the cookbook with my mother, we talked about that recipe. And so we had to get her approval on when we made it.”
“Some of these recipes had to be released from their national security designation,” Stephen joked.
The book ends with breakfast recipes. “If the party goes well, hopefully you’re spending the night,” he said. “The breakfast is the reward.”
While the pair clearly enjoy each other’s company, things in the kitchen weren’t always so smooth. They both point to the “spoon story.”
When they were married in 1993, someone gave them a nonstick Calphalon pan. Evie hadn’t grown up with non-stick cookware and used a metal spoon with it.
“So Stephen and I are married, and he walks into the kitchen one day and he says, ‘You’re using a metal spoon on a nonstick pan.’ I really thought he was going to say, ‘I’m sorry, we have to get divorced,’” Evie said.
“I believe I offered you a wooden spoon,” Stephen said.
“That didn’t go over well,” she replied.
“Boy, the look on her,” he said, laughing. “She’s almost over it. She’s so close to forgiving me.”
