Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Pull up a seat at our table, where badass women from all walks of life—fashion, beauty, design, music, philanthropy, art, and more—come together to share honest stories, serve truths, and dig into the realities of modern womanhood.
Johanna Almstead:
Hello everyone, and welcome to Eat My Words. I am menu-planning for my next guest, and I'm a little bit stressed because my next guest is for real, like for real for reals, a hostess with the mostest. So got to start with some cocktails. I think I'm going to have quite a few things going, lots of fresh garnishes, but I think I'm going to start with an elderflower, cucumber, and Prosecco spritz. I think maybe I'm going to do a little sliced cucumber on the top and even maybe a little edible flower. And then with that, I'm also going to have just perfect potato chips, really crispy, salty good potato chips, Marcona almonds, olives, those just little cocktail snacks I always like to have out right away. And then I think I'm going to go spring crostini. I'm going to go fresh pea and mint crostini with whipped ricotta and honey, little honey drizzle on it, just over some really gorgeous baguette toasted perfectly.
And then for the main, I'm going to go a pan-seared halibut with an herb gremolata and then maybe some roasted spring onions. And on the side, I think we should do a roasted asparagus maybe with a soft-boiled egg and fry a few capers and sprinkle them on top. So we have the halibut, and we have the asparagus. Maybe we'll do a couple little new potatoes on the side just to make sure we have a little carb. And I think with that, I'm going to do just a really, really chilled Sancerre, like a beautiful, bright, dry Sancerre. And then for dessert, I'm going to do a lemon custard tart with a little candied lemon zest on top and some fresh whipped cream. Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.
Oh, wow. For music, holy moly, I feel like this is going to be a wild night. I think we need some badass ladies. I think we need some Eartha Kitt. I think we need some Peggy Lee, maybe some Nancy Sinatra. Ooh, maybe a little Carla Bruni, like a little saucy, Frenchy kind of vibes. My next guest is a hoot. She is brilliant and creative and very, very funny, and I cannot wait for you guys to get to meet her. So let's dig in.
Hello everyone, and welcome to Eat My Words. I have a feeling today's going to be a good one. My guest today calls herself an entertainologist, which I love. I would like to go to the school of entertainology, and I would like her to be my professor. She has built a life and a business around the art of entertaining. She is a columnist, hospitality designer and product designer known for her effortless approach to entertaining and unmistakable flair. Building on her career as a celebrity chef and caterer, she has expanded her vision into a line of artful, functional tabletop and entertaining pieces designed to make gatherings feel effortless, and frankly, I think very, very fun because they're very, very fun pieces. She is also the author of the bestselling cookbook, Lulu Powers Food to Flowers. She is also a wife, a dog mom, and a friend to many. Lulu Powers, welcome to Eat My Words.
Lulu Powers:
Well, first, Happy Mother's Day.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. You, too.
Lulu Powers:
Thank you for having me.
Johanna Almstead:
Thank you for being here. I know life is crazy, and you've been traveling and bouncing all around, so I really appreciate you taking the time to be here with me. I always like to start with a question of where would you say your journey began? Because it's always fascinating to me to see where people start. So Lulu Powers, where did your journey begin?
Lulu Powers:
Probably when I was seven, when I was handed a stack of napkins and asked to pass the orders around a cocktail party at my parents' house in Connecticut, which had to have about 200 people at it. So when it comes to the entertainologist, cooker, creator, cocktail maker, I think I started on my journey when I was seven.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Your parents were big entertainers.
Lulu Powers:
My parents were big entertainers. Our house in Connecticut was called ... It was like Grand Central Station. People would just stop by, and I say this, there's one man who would stop by every night on his way home in his little MG. His name was Bill O'Brien, and he would really come by to just say hi and whatever, but he'd always borrow a bottle of wine. Why you never went out and bought a case? He just would always, "Oh, can I borrow a bottle of wine?" It was always like we didn't expect it. So-
Johanna Almstead:
And you guys all kept up the ruse? You just were like, "I wonder if Bill's going to show up tonight."
Lulu Powers:
I mean, my dad would say stuff.
Johanna Almstead:
"I wonder if he's going to want a bottle of wine."
Lulu Powers:
My dad would come up with the best one-liners for him. I mean, he was a bit of a character. But no, my mom was an amazing cook. She couldn't always cook. My dad had her go to cooking school. When my parents married, my dad cooked.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, wow. That was pretty-
Lulu Powers:
He taught her.
Johanna Almstead:
... evolved for back then.
Lulu Powers:
Yes. Evolved a lot. And where my mom would follow a recipe and do everything perfectly, I was more of my dad's, his way in the kitchen, kind of fly by the seat of your pants, little bit of this, little bit of that, oh, that needs maybe a little bit of this. And my mom was very methodical, and I was definitely not like that and still am not like that. I think entertaining, I guess when people would stop by the house, we'd always had stuff out on the counters, and we always ... My dad would say, "Did you offer them a drink yet?" Whether it was water or whatever. We were taught that at a young age. And everyone's welcome. It was definitely Grand Central. Everyone's welcome, kids, friends. By the way, the neighbor behind us, his mom worked and he lived in a little guest cottage on this estate over here, and he would just show up to our house for dinner.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that.
Lulu Powers:
No questions asked. He'd just sit there with us. And in the morning before school, the Sanfords would drop their kids off literally for breakfast at our lawn table in the kitchen, and my mom, God bless my mom, and they'd go to the school bus with us, but they drove them just around the corner to come feed them breakfast, to stop by before going to the ... By the way, the bus stop was at the end of our driveway. So that's the hassle.
Johanna Almstead:
That's hilarious.
Lulu Powers:
So if you grow up in a house like that, anybody's welcome. I have carried that journey here to LA where there's always an open-door policy. And someone said to me, "People just stop by if they hear you outside." I said, "Yes." She goes, "Doesn't that bug you?" I'm like, "No, I relish it. I love it."
Johanna Almstead:
Aw, that's so nice. Wait, so what would your parents have out on the counters all the time? They had snacks out all the time for people?
Lulu Powers:
No, we had a lollipop jar.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
We weren't allowed to have a lot of snacky and whatever. No, but meaning there was always something we could put out.
Johanna Almstead:
You always had stuff ready.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. There's always stuff.
Johanna Almstead:
There was something you could just grab.
Lulu Powers:
Not tons, but crackers, cheese. "You know what? You want a piece of an apple? Are you hungry? We have this." It was always something. And back then, you know what's funny? I was thinking about it right now. There were cans of peanuts and stuff.
Johanna Almstead:
Cocktail peanuts.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. And we liked the pretzels with the sticks. That's about as junk food as our house would have in it.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, ours, too.
Lulu Powers:
No junk food.
Johanna Almstead:
Ours, too.
Lulu Powers:
I love going to other people's houses after school or ... Their mom would put potato chips out with sandwiches. My mom would put celery, carrots and radishes, oh, and snow peas, which I loved.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes. I mean, my mom was more like yours, too. There's definitely fruits and vegetables, and my mom would make lentil casserole, and I'd be like, "Mm." And my friends would be having Shake n' Bake chicken and Stove Top stuffing, and I thought that was so exotic.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. Pizza out of the freezer. I'd be like, "Why can't you just do things like that?"
Johanna Almstead:
Yes. My mom eventually broke down and bought Stouffer's French Bread Pizzas when we were going to have a babysitter, and I remember thinking-
Lulu Powers:
Then you thought you died and went to heaven.
Johanna Almstead:
It was so exciting. I was like, "Oh my God, this is so fun."
Lulu Powers:
Yeah, this is cool.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. So you started when you're seven years old with a pile of cocktail napkins and a tray passing canapés at your parents' house. And then what happened next? How did you make this into a profession? How did you make this into your world?
Lulu Powers:
Well, I think we always cooked and there was so much going on in our house, and my mom had a catering business, but not till, I think, I was 14, 16, something like that. I think I learned how to cook through osmosis. It's not like I was in the kitchen helping to cook a lot.
Johanna Almstead:
No.
Lulu Powers:
Then-
Johanna Almstead:
It just was part of the air. It was in the ether.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. It was part of the air. It was definitely. And then in Nantucket, I got a job with this woman, Sarah Lee Chase. She had one of the real first gourmet food takeouts, where back then, when the '80s, I'll never forget this, the lobster salad was $62 a pound. I'm like, "Who is going to pay ..." The first day. Sure enough, guy comes in and asks for three pounds of lobster salad. It was like-
Johanna Almstead:
Holy crap.
Lulu Powers:
But I told her I know how to cook and whatever, but let's be honest, I didn't really ... I was always around it. So I felt like I lied a little bit. I didn't really know how to ... Oh, I know how to cook. But when it came down to it, she was surprised I knew so much.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. And at that point, you had no formal training. This was just what you had absorbed in your household.
Lulu Powers:
No, I've never had any formal training. So when I was a private chef, I was people's chef in Nantucket during the summers and stuff. But when I really started, when I realized that cooking was going to be my ... Really was a passion for me. I was already in it. I was working for Herb Ritts, who's a famous photographer at that time. He's at the top of his game, and he says to me, "Oh, well, I've just been told you're such a great chef. Sigourney told me." Sigourney Weaver, who I got a seven-month job with as a private chef because she was here from New York. But that was when I first moved to LA. I didn't even really feel like I knew what I was doing. I felt like I was faking it.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, yeah. Okay. Wait, let's back up. So how did you get your first job as a private chef? You just told somebody you could cook for them and they hired you?
Lulu Powers:
No. So I moved to LA to write TV sitcoms.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
I thought I was going to create sitcoms. I'm going to bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. But I had to work, and no one was giving me anything. And-
Johanna Almstead:
And how old were you at this point?
Lulu Powers:
26.
Johanna Almstead:
You were 26. Okay.
Lulu Powers:
I was in New York. I was working at bars. I was trying the acting thing. I went to The Neighborhood Playhouse. But in New York, I had this little business teaching housekeepers how to cook because back then in an apartment, which my sister and her husband, Gary, still owned today, the kitchen was like ... I don't even know how I cater things out of that thing. It was like there's a refrigerator, like this much space between the stove top and the sink, and then if you turned around just a little bit, there's maybe that much counter space.
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Lulu Powers:
But I'm a hustler. I do eight jobs. I'm making money. I'm making good money. And that man, whose housekeepers I taught how to cook, owned a TV network, and he's the one who suggested that, "Oh, I know this girl can cook," bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. And so that's how I get a call. I thought it was a joke when she called me, and in my mind, I'm like, "Who put her up to this? Who is-"
Johanna Almstead:
This is Sigourney Weaver?
Lulu Powers:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
I didn't think it was her. Why is she calling me? I'm not really even a chef. I'm a good cooker. I'm like, "Fly by the seat of your pants. I'm going to make money," but I'm not like ... If you would call me a private chef, I'd be like, "What?" Cut to I asked her a couple questions like, "Did you go to Yale Drama School?" Because somehow, I knew that, right?
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Okay.
Lulu Powers:
And then I also knew that her dad used to be head of NBC because my dad's roommate, Bob Butler from Notre Dame, from college, was the CFO, because if some nimrod is calling me and making this all up, they probably wouldn't know that. I'm like, "So is your dad NBC Pat Weaver?" And she said, "How would you know that?" I'm like, "Oh, I just want to make sure you're who you say you are."
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
True story. And I had just moved into the house I live in now, and I moved in here with my best friend who was on a TV show, and we had maybe two plates. Honestly, we didn't even have a pan to boil water, because I would have instant coffee back then.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. So you're 26, you moved into this house in LA, your roommate is on a TV show, you have two plates and a pan or not a pan-
Lulu Powers:
And I asked her-
Johanna Almstead:
... and you get this job with Sigourney Weaver.
Lulu Powers:
Oh, I was waitressing at the time, too, at the House of Blues, and I asked her, "Well, do you want to try my food?" Here I am talking to this big celebrity, I didn't know exactly what she wanted. I go, "What exactly ... How do you see this playing out?" She goes, "Well, my driver would pick the food up at your house at 11:00AM in the morning, and the set's an hour and a half from here and drive and bring me lunch, and then come back at four o'clock and pick up the dinner." And now wait, I was waitressing at the House of Blues, so in my mind, I'm like, "Oh, I can do this."
Johanna Almstead:
Right. You're like, "I don't have to be on my shift until 5:00PM or 8:00PM or whatever."
Lulu Powers:
I leave at 4:30 to go up there. So I'm like, "Okay." And then when I realized I could do it, I'm like, "Do you want to try my food?" And she's like, "Yeah, drop it off at the Four Seasons tomorrow night at 6:00." The Four Seasons Hotel is maybe a mile from my house and ... So crazy. True story. I went to Ross Dress For Less, which is open until 9:00, and I bought myself a frying pan, and some tongs and a bigger pan for pasta or whatever. And I bought a cooler just in case she hired me because I wouldn't know how to pack it. I didn't know anything. I then went to the grocery store and got some frozen peas just in case she hires me. Then I can put the peas in there as ice packs. At this point, I didn't know any of the tricks. Right?
Johanna Almstead:
Right. You were literally flying by the seat of your pants making this up as you went along.
Lulu Powers:
Totally. But I remember exactly still what I made to this day.
Johanna Almstead:
What did you make? You have to tell us. What did you make?
Lulu Powers:
I did swordfish. I did blackened swordfish, get the pan really hot. And then I did this orange, tomato with basil salsa, and then underneath it, I just made some white rice.
Johanna Almstead:
Fabulous.
Lulu Powers:
And then I put some asparagus, and then it looked pretty. My mom was always into presentation, presentation, presentation, the three Ps. So I made sure it looked nice. I put my little Saran wrap, which I had to buy that day, too. Saran wrap over it and I go with one of the two plates. I go to the concierge at the Four Seasons Hotel, and I'm like, "Can you please give this to Sigourney Weaver?" And handed her the plate, and she goes, "Sure." Now, that would never happen today.
Johanna Almstead:
No, never. They would think you were trying to poison her or something.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. So that's how it started, and I became her chef. And then that led to Herb Ritts in a way because someone gave Jeffrey Steingarten, who wrote for Vogue about food, my name and said I was a private chef in LA. Meanwhile, private chef during the day, waitressing come 5:00 at the House of-
Johanna Almstead:
Waitressing at night, with your Ross Dress For Less frying pan.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
So cut to-
Johanna Almstead:
Private celebrity chef. I love it. Fake it till you make it.
Lulu Powers:
This time, I'm just like a hacker. I'm just a cooker. I'm not going to do this. I'm doing this for money. I need to buy stuff for the ... You know?
Johanna Almstead:
Right. It was a means to an end.
Lulu Powers:
Totally. So then I get this call from him, and-
Johanna Almstead:
From Herb Ritts?
Lulu Powers:
Jeffrey Steingarten from Vogue.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, Jeffrey Steingarten. Okay.
Lulu Powers:
And he says to me, "Hey, I think private chefs are going to be the new rock stars, and I hear you're cooking for Sigourney Weaver." And I'm like, "This guy is ... Chefs, the new rock stars? What is he talking about?" Okay. Right? So I said, "Oh." He's like, "Are you cooking for Sigourney Weaver?" I didn't tell him I was waitressing, too, and that I'm-
Johanna Almstead:
Of course not. Right.
Lulu Powers:
... basically broke. And I said, "Yes." He said, "Well, I'd love for you to take me to your favorite places to eat. I'm coming out in two weeks. I'm writing this article."
Johanna Almstead:
What the hell?
Lulu Powers:
So I say, "Okay." Cut to two weeks, the day I moved here, someone took me to Thrifty's pharmacy, and he said to me, "If you ever get down and out, remember you can always eat for a dollar because Thrifty ice cream cones were a dollar." So I'm like, "Okay. By the way, I had not been to some fancy foodie restaurant. I had not been anywhere." And then in the paper, the day before, in the food section, on Wednesdays, I read about the Beverly Hills Cheese Store. So I said, "Okay, I'll take [inaudible 00:18:37] Thrifty's and I'll take him to the Beverly Hills Cheese Store." And I thought, who cares if he mentions my name? It's like an exercise at this point.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. It's just sort of funny. It's like a hoot.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. One of my favorite words - a hoot.
Johanna Almstead:
A hoot. Oh, I love that.
Lulu Powers:
I meet him. I pick him up at his hotel that's near there. I take him to the Thrifty's on Cannon in Beverly Hills. We parked there. He's like, "What are we doing here?" I'm like, "Follow me." I'm like, "Well, this is one of the places I eat for a dollar." He just burst out laughing. He's like, "Okay." I'm like, "What's your favorite flavor here?" He had an ice cream cone and loved it.
So my next job was to go to the Beverly Hills Cheese Store, which I'd never been to. I took a pen. I just put 8341 in the palm of my hand. So I knew it was on Beverly because we are going to walk over there. We go over. It's 11:30 in the morning, and I don't even know my way around Beverly Hills that well, but I drove by it so I kind of know and I was like, okay. I was trying to find the numbers, and then I see it's across the street. I'm like, "Oh, it's right over there."
So we go over. I am a very friendly person. Sometimes, when I say hi to people, they think I know them. They're like, "Oh, hi." I'm like, "Hey, how are you?" So there's a guy standing behind the counter, and I walk in. I'm like, "Hey buddy, how are you? Guess who I got here, Jeffrey Steingarten from Vogue. He's writing an article. He thinks chefs are the new rock stars." And the guy goes, "Well, of course, they are." And then the guy, the owner comes out. I mean, he heard Jeffrey Steingarten from Vogue. If you're a food person, you'd probably know who he is, and he's written books and everything else. So he comes out. He's having him try all these cheeses, the bread, the saucisson, that wonderful prosciutto. He's opening up wines. We're there for three hours.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, fabulous. I love when things like this happen.
Lulu Powers:
People that were coming at their lunch, everyone was more interested in him talking, "Who are these two people?" Or "They must be important if they're spending all their time over there." So I walked out of there and I seriously was like this.
Johanna Almstead:
For listeners, she just did the sign of the cross on her body.
Lulu Powers:
I'm like, "Ugh, I'm so glad that's over with." And then he wrote this little article. My name was mentioned. Herb Ritts read the article. Herb Ritts had an assistant get in touch with me. I went to his house for an interview. And-
Johanna Almstead:
This is so insane. I love this.
Lulu Powers:
I'm sitting across from him and he said, "I hear you're a good chef." And I'm like, "I call myself more of a cooker." And he goes, "Okay. You're modest." In my mind, I'm like, if he only knows, I don't really know anything technical, flying by the seat of my pants once again in life. Cut to he's like, "Well, I'd like to hire you." And I was sitting there and I'm like, "Oh my God, I don't want to be a chef. I am here to write TV sitcoms." And I said, "I moved here to write TV sitcoms." He said, "Oh, okay." And I said, "I don't really want to be a chef." Now, anybody else in the right fucking mind would be like, "You're in front of the most famous photographer in the world right now. He wants you to be a chef, and you're telling him how you're going to be a sitcom writer." And then I said, "Why don't we try it out for three months?" And I almost felt like he probably didn't know that I was serious and then he thought I was cooking. He didn't even make me cook for him.
Johanna Almstead:
He's like, "This chick is hilarious."
Lulu Powers:
I just started working for him. So the greatest thing about Herb though was, so I started right away. I quit my waitressing job because I couldn't possibly pull that off with having to cook lunch from him and then he didn't eat dinner until 8:00. It would have never worked. So that's how I started off full-time private chefing.
Johanna Almstead:
Holy crap. That was crazy.
Lulu Powers:
And I would never work for him on the weekends, and I would take these little jobs. He would recommend me to people. At one point, he said, "What are you doing this weekend?" I said, "Oh, I'm going to cater to this party." And then he just assumed I had a sideline catering. He would tell people to hire me. And we're not talking just the neighbor next door. We're talking-
Johanna Almstead:
We're talking probably the people he's photographing and-
Lulu Powers:
Yeah, I was the material girl, cooked for Madonna.
Johanna Almstead:
That is so nuts.
Lulu Powers:
Herb was my best ... God bless him. He really thought I was an incredible chef, and he was just ... I love him. The two of us got along so well because it was he and I a lot of the time, and I would sit down with him. His boyfriend, Erik Hyman, who now is a big lawyer in LA, was at law school in New York.
Johanna Almstead:
Aww.
Lulu Powers:
So that's kind of how it all-
Johanna Almstead:
Wow.
Lulu Powers:
... started.
Johanna Almstead:
And it just snowballed because it was one famous person after the other recommending you. And so you just had a career over-
Lulu Powers:
Honestly, you know how I was never had self-doubt, but I finally realized what I had all these years from watching a David Foster documentary. Like imposter syndrome, people would be like, "Oh my God, you're such an amazing chef. You're this one chef. You did this. You cooked for the president." And I'd always be like, "Yeah, I made it, got by." So I honestly had that, but I always landed on my feet.
Johanna Almstead:
Totally. I mean, I think that's a really common theme on this podcast because so many women just hustled their way into whatever job it was, they were faking it till they made it because they had no other choice, and then all of a sudden, you make it and you feel like this fraud because you're like, "Wait, I didn't do all the things I was supposed to do to get here. I just got here."
Lulu Powers:
I still, I mean, it's kind of crazy, but even to this point where I had this line come out of Bloomingdale's, someone actually said to me, "How do you keep pivoting so well?" And I'm like, "What do you mean?" "Because you keep reinventing yourself." And I sat there for a second. I was like, "Reinventing myself." I said, "No, it's just like a progression."
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. You've always been who you are and you just keep evolving.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah, evolving. We talked about learning. What I would love most was when I was catering or I had to hire other chefs when I was, say, working for Madonna because we're doing her birthday, all these other stuff, I always learned from other people. It could be a guy who's not even a chef. It could be someone serving that night and say, "Oh, I like to do it this way." I'm like, "Ooh, that's good." I like picking up all those tips. I always felt I'm very open to learn and if you think, "Yeah, I'm the boss, applesauce" in a lot of these situations, like what I say goes, not I'm the boss, meaning I know how to do everything, I don't.
And I even learned ... I remember one day when we were doing ... I do flowers, too, and I was doing everything for this event. And I'd hire the service who are working. I'd make them be the floral assistants, and we get things done, show them, get it done. And this one girl one day showed me, "Oh, you take the tulip, and if you do that ..." And I'm like, "Oh my God, that's brilliant. Do two of those and everything in the tulips so it'll just make it pop." And so what I'm saying is you learn from everything.
And by the way, if I got put in those situations, like those servers did, where when you work for me, you have to be jack of all trade. If I throw an onion at you or tell you to wash those potatoes or wash all those dishes in the sink, you got to do it.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. You got to be down for all of it.
Lulu Powers:
Because this happened to me. I hired this girl, and I paid people pretty well when they worked for me. And we're doing an event, and I asked her if she'd go over and help the lady who is doing this. It was someone who was becoming a citizen who was married to my friend Teddy, and he was a literary agent, Teddy's a literary agent. And I'm down on my hands and knees trying to help the woman with the balloons because she's ready to pop. She's nine months pregnant, ready to go. And her mother was there, and her husband was there helping. And two of the people that worked for her were both sick, and so I'm like, "Don't worry about it. We can help."
So I turned to the girl who's next to me, who's been working for me, and I said, "Can you go help her in the corner near the pool on those hedges? Stand on that ladder because I don't want her to. Look, she's pregnant," whatever. She doesn't say anything. She stands up, and she goes to me, "I didn't go to college for this."
Johanna Almstead:
Oh.
Lulu Powers:
And the kid that was actually helping me on my right, there was one kid who went to Harvard, another one just graduated from USC, but they're sitting there with these things I gave them and trying to fit them together. And she stands up and says that, and I hear them both laugh, and I'm like, I didn't know what to say. I was so stunned that this twat is this poor woman. And so I said, "You know what? You can go home. In this business, anybody working with me, we all have to help each other. Look who's the boss and who's down on her hand and knees with these two guys trying to figure out how to put this thing together." I said, "You might as well just go home." She could tell I was so disgusted. She goes, "But what about my check?" I go, "Call me on Monday." And she left.
There's a woman standing laughing who created a TV show called 2 Broke Girls, I think, and she comes over, she goes, "I could not have written that scene. It is almost unbelievable to me." The kids were laughing. Matthew, in particular, was laughing. He's like, "I can't even believe she said that to you." And everyone's not a team player, and that's something that was hard for me to learn. I wasn't a great delegator because I could do things like that.
Johanna Almstead:
Because you Were just used to doing it all yourself. Yeah.
Lulu Powers:
I was used to doing it myself. But what I really had to learn, too, is no one's like you, meaning you know what you're doing when it comes to just getting things done. They can't work as quick as you. You can't bemoan them for that. And sometimes, [inaudible 00:29:30] I'd be like, "Are you kidding me?" But I learned a lot. I mean, you learn from every situation, but-
Johanna Almstead:
I mean, that's one of the things I say to kids. I mentor a lot of young people and stuff and I'm always like-
Lulu Powers:
That's great.
Johanna Almstead:
... "Just say yes. If someone asks you to do something, if they ask you to scrub the toilet, scrub the toilet. If you're at the place where you want to work, you want to work at the NBA and someone asks you to scrub the toilet at the NBA, go scrub the toilet at the NBA."
Lulu Powers:
Oh my God.
Johanna Almstead:
"Go for it."
Lulu Powers:
You give the same two things I said to all the kids, one, say yes to everything just like you. The other thing is say hello to anyone. You never know what you're going to get with a hello.
Johanna Almstead:
Ooh, that's a good one. I love that one. Okay. So you did not ever picture yourself with this life that you have because you were going to do some-
Lulu Powers:
Not in a million years because I didn't want to cook. I didn't want to be cater. I thought I was going to write TV sitcoms. I'm very creative person anyways. I paint. I like to do so many things, but I just didn't think I'd be in this creative with all this stuff. But I realized how much I learned from growing up, and my mom was definitely an out-of-the-box thinker. My sister Sarah and I will never forget this. We always sat down on Sundays to a family dinner, and we all had to be collared shirts, and no T-shirts, no jeans, nah. That's how we grew up.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
I remember Sarah, my mom did this tablescape with it looked like weeds and grasses and dirt and stuff down the table, and I so remember this Sarah saying to me, "Why would mom put weeds and dirt down the table?" And my mom was so before her time.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. It's probably-
Lulu Powers:
I mean-
Johanna Almstead:
... super chic and beautiful.
Lulu Powers:
Come on.
Johanna Almstead:
So good.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. So you learn ... You know what I mean? You're like-
Johanna Almstead:
So you took these crazy strokes of luck, strokes of genius on your part, strokes of serendipity, and you've turned it into this career of multifaceted, right? You're a writer, and you're a chef, and you're making products, and you have a line. What of all the things you do is your favorite? What do you consider yourself or what is your favorite thing to do of all those jobs?
Lulu Powers:
You used the word stroke. I had a stroke.
Johanna Almstead:
You did? How old were you?
Lulu Powers:
2018. And they say after going through the rehab and being in UCLA and the whole thing, what I learned later is though they say I was burnt out.
Johanna Almstead:
Really?
Lulu Powers:
That my brain was Jell-O, meaning-
Johanna Almstead:
Maybe it was stress.
Lulu Powers:
... if your brain's Jell-O, you're so exhausted, you stress yourself. I was running on fight or flight at all times. I always felt I was on the-
Johanna Almstead:
Cortisol. The cortisol rollercoaster.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:32:16] and going on and on, and I could never slow down. I could never ... It's almost like I had so many amazing things happen to me, like I have a cookbook. I have this column in House Beautiful, I've cooked for three presidents by now, and I don't think I ever enjoyed it.
Johanna Almstead:
Really? You were so caught up in the game, in the rat race.
Lulu Powers:
I was too busy [inaudible 00:32:37] now what's next?
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Lulu Powers:
So yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Are you enjoying it now? Are you calmer now?
Lulu Powers:
I am calmer now. You asked me what my favorite thing was before, but I had to bring that up because you mentioned stroke.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, that's wild.
Lulu Powers:
[inaudible 00:32:53] I had to heal.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. And did it put things in perspective for you? I mean, did it switch the way you think about work and think about your health?
Lulu Powers:
Even doing this line and stuff being wild-crazy, I'm like, this can't be the death of me, if you know what I mean.
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Lulu Powers:
I have a new thing, which my husband got me into, is six o'clock, turn off everything, no matter what. Just forget it.
Johanna Almstead:
So good.
Lulu Powers:
Your brain doesn't work. And come on, I had a brain injury. You can't get more and more and more and more done.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes. I agree with that 100%, and that took me a really long time to learn, too. I feel like I just read this about some sort of big ... He was a tech kind of billionaire person, but he was like, "I don't even take meetings after 3:00M because I don't do any hard thinking after 3:00PM because it doesn't work." And the stopping and shutting everything down and recalibrating, I think you have to because you can't sustain it forever. All these founders and entrepreneurs and all these women who are doing so many things, they're burning out. They're having crazy things like a stroke happen.
Lulu Powers:
Well, by the way-
Johanna Almstead:
I'm so sorry that that happened to you. That's so scary.
Lulu Powers:
You know what? It was a stroke of luck.
Johanna Almstead:
There you go.
Lulu Powers:
Okay?
Johanna Almstead:
There you go.
Lulu Powers:
Because I cry, but something more than that could have happened because that happens, too. So I'm very thankful. And I always acted after it like I was okay. Oh my God, I'd be like ... Even saying to my sisters, I looked fine, but I'm not fine at all, but I didn't really do that. It was like-
Johanna Almstead:
What made you feel like you had to just be fine? What made you feel like you couldn't allow yourself to really-
Lulu Powers:
You know what-
Johanna Almstead:
... deal with-
Lulu Powers:
... it's almost like I don't know because I think I was always there for people, and even I remember that somewhere I was taking care of my mom and I'm thinking to myself like, "Oh my God." And it was one of my friends in Nantucket, Jirdra, who was amazing, Jirdra and Amanda, she's like, "It's okay not to be okay." And that was very, very ... She was amazing in my healing journey. And then this other thing that happened, I had my mom with me at this farmer's market in Nantucket because that was the time I'd spent with my mom and she'd be on my watch. And I'm looking at this woman, Nantucket baskets and they had these handles, and I'm like, "Those are genius. They're out of the box." They look kind of modern. One had an Indian handle, one had this, that. And I lean over to her and I go, "Hey, would you ever teach how to make a basket?" And she goes, "Oh Lulu, yeah, we met last night. We talked for like an hour." I'm like this ...
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
Lulu Powers:
And I realized I had no short term memory, none.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God.
Lulu Powers:
So because I was around my family a lot, and so if I met someone new, I didn't ... It's not like I was going to see them again. It just so happened to her I saw the next day, and she goes, "You know what? Here's my card. I'll teach you how to make a Nantucket basket." And I went over to her house. And the brain doctor told me to do ... I got a group together to learn how to play Mahjong, but doing a basket is so good for your brain because you're doing something new, and I tried to use my other hand, like the doctor told me. And when I was sitting in that woman's house, remember she doesn't know me at all-
Johanna Almstead:
And she doesn't know what happened to you. She doesn't know that you'd had a stroke.
Lulu Powers:
Well, I told her when I didn't remember who she was.
Johanna Almstead:
Remember her name. Yeah. Okay.
Lulu Powers:
So a big side effect of the stroke was crying. I would cry like hours a day.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my goodness.
Lulu Powers:
But not just cry like heave cry. They say it's like grief. It kept on for five years after, but-
Johanna Almstead:
Holy moly.
Lulu Powers:
... the truth be matter is I was crying so much and she was trying to get it out of me what was wrong, and when I finally could speak, because I was so ... I said to her, "I'm going to need some help when I get back to LA. I need someone to talk to." And she goes, "Oh, I have just the person." And then I ended up turning out to be this amazing woman, Catherine Ford, who I started to work with three months later, and she totally changed my whole way. She helped me change paradigms. I would always beat myself up. She just helped me in so many facets of my life. She was amazing. And when you're trying to really stop ... For me stopping the paradigm of working, working, working, working, working, making myself crazy, I remember the third time she worked with me, she's like, "Well, you have to love yourself." And I'm like this, "Love yourself?" I didn't get that. I didn't know what that meant. That meant to say no, that meant to take a nap if you want or go on a walk, do something for yourself. I had to learn that, and I bet you a lot of people still don't, because I didn't. I'll be-
Johanna Almstead:
No, that comes up all the time on this podcast because it's women-
Lulu Powers:
Does it?
Johanna Almstead:
Yes, because women, in particular, are not raised to take good care of themselves. We're raised, most of the time, to make a lot of sacrifices for other people, including making our boundaries a little bit wigglier for somebody to make them comfortable, including working harder than the men so that we can prove ourselves. I mean, there's so many things. I mean, I try really hard. I have two daughters, so I try really hard to be like, "Hey, you got to take care of yourself. This is something ... You have to love yourself. You have to rest when you're tired. You have to nourish yourself when you're hungry. You have to-"
Lulu Powers:
See, I didn't learn any of that. And by the way, I've been-
Johanna Almstead:
I didn't learn it either.
Lulu Powers:
... drinking a coffee to get through the ... I would get so tired at three o'clock every day, it was like someone pulled the helium out of my balloon. And I literally, sometimes, would pull over on the side of the road if I was driving and sleep for 20 minutes. Oh, I would take a power nap and get a Coke and I'd be like, "Okay. Here we go again. I'll be up till 2:00 in the morning working." Crazy. But that's how I thought. It was almost like being a workaholic was, well, that's the way I was.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, it was probably also making up for your imposter syndrome, right? It's like a cycle, right? So you're like, "I have to work harder because then all the people that trained officially or got these prestigious degrees in culinary," or whatever. And then all of a sudden, you're like, "Wait a minute. Now, I'm killing myself."
Lulu Powers:
Why now?
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Lulu Powers:
But that also goes with ... I remember on the cover of PEOPLE Magazine, I played tennis, and Naomi Asaka was on the cover, and the line was, "It's okay not to be okay."
Johanna Almstead:
I remember that. And that was huge.
Lulu Powers:
And I remember reading that and being like, even though I had a stroke and went through all the same stuff during this healing point, I was like, yeah, I don't have to say to someone, "Oh, I'm great. Oh yeah, I'm about to break down right now and cry." Or if someone asked me to help them out, listen, I helped so many people out in my own way and try to and try to help people out. The one time someone emailed me this whole thing, wanted me to help this, it was my test. This is the first time I seriously was a definitive no. I'm like, "Hey, I'm so sorry. I wish I could. I have so much on my plate right now that I just can't help you."
Johanna Almstead:
Wow. How did that feel when you did that?
Lulu Powers:
Honestly, I walked around outside of my house for an hour. I was like, "Oh, I felt terrible." I felt terrible until I went back to my computer and she said, "No, Lulu, I realize you're so busy. That was just a pipe dream. But you know what? Thank you for getting back to me, and I really appreciate it. Good luck with everything." And I'm like-
Johanna Almstead:
Aww. There you go.
Lulu Powers:
... it's okay. People say no all the time.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes, they do. They do.
Lulu Powers:
I just, it wasn't in my repertoire.
Johanna Almstead:
No, I know. Me, too. Trust me. I was definitely raised to make sure that everyone was happy around me and that it didn't matter if I was. And I think it's some serious unlearning we have to do. Serious unlearning.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. Serious ... It's like middle child syndrome or any child syndrome. In the house we grew up, you don't say, "I feel like I'm depressed or [inaudible 00:41:33] or ..." "Oh my God, please. Chin up, smile, [inaudible 00:41:37] that puss off your face.
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Get on with it. Okay. So of all the achievements that you've had, because you've had many, even when you were faking and making it into those achievements, what's the one you're most proud of?
Lulu Powers:
Honestly?
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Tell me.
Lulu Powers:
Being a good person because I can always go to sleep.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. That's huge.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. To be kind and to be a good person. No one can take that away from me. I'm not a boaster. I mean, now that I look back and I got a book down, there's a better one, there's this, that, that was 15 years ago, but now if I look back, the thing is I don't know if I would have really relished in it then because I didn't know how to do that. And I felt like that was boastful if I was that way. So I am never that way. But when a friend says to me, "You should be so proud of yourself. I mean, not a lot of people just get into Bloomingdale's with a huge product line." And I kind of knew that, but I didn't really like out loud. I'm like, "Thank you. That means a lot." But it does when someone says that because your response can just be "Thank you. I appreciate it."
Johanna Almstead:
And you don't have to downplay it, and you don't have to apologize for it, and you don't have to fully accept it. You can accept it and accept the compliment and accept the fact that this is an accomplishment and you should be proud of yourself. That's huge.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
That's huge. Yeah.
Lulu Powers:
Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
You're welcome. What are you dreaming about these days? Do you have any dreams going on? I feel like you must live in a sort of dreamy state at the time.
Lulu Powers:
Because I'm always thinking.
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Lulu Powers:
My dream, have a sold-out product line.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. At Bloomingdale's. Everyone, if you're listening, go to Bloomingdale's and buy the Lulu Powers product line.
Lulu Powers:
I create a lot at Bloomingdale's with a lot of SKUs, but I also created other stuff that's up on my site, lulupowers.com. And my real thing that I love, I'm a good teacher. I taught cooking classes, and I was always a good teacher. I love telling people's tricks, tips, but because it took me so long just to get to the point of enjoying or joy, and it's even the little things. I've had some real tough days since November, but I had to get through those. I mean, my husband even said, "Sometimes I'd find her on the floor, just cry." It was so much. The pressure got to me. And even though people always say, "Don't worry, it's going to be okay." My husband is so great with trying to bring me down off the ledge or just tell me to stop working at six o'clock, or when I was reading the other day outside, he's like, "I'm so glad to see you just reading in the middle of the day," which is like, I would never do that.
Johanna Almstead:
I know. I know. Trust me. None of us did.
Lulu Powers:
I think you're right. You said something about that, like we have to unlearn all those things. So I would love to win the lottery, start a foundation, then I can help people with what they want to do because I have the ability to be able to open a lot of doors. I know a lot of random people in a lot of walks in life. I'm a huge connector. I like connecting people. I want to help other people.
Johanna Almstead:
Maybe you don't need to win the lottery. Maybe you just keep making beautiful products, and you just make yourself-
Lulu Powers:
Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
... a lot of money making those products.
Lulu Powers:
[inaudible 00:45:16] entertaining. Someone's like, "I like it that you laugh at yourself and you don't do stuff right all the time." And I'm like, "You really watch those videos, don't you, on Instagram?" And she goes, "Yeah, but that's the fun of it." It's not that you don't care, but I did have the best comment I got three weeks ago from my dear friend who said to me, "I wish I had that little piece of you that you've always had since I've known you." And I said, "What's that?" And she goes, "You don't care what people think. You're just your own person." I'm always worried, "Oh, did I do that right?" Or "Am I going to say the wrong thing?" It's not that you don't care, but you're like, whatever.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. You're not invested in pleasing people.
Lulu Powers:
I'm just going to keep going. And she's like, "I always feel like I should be backpedaling all the time or this, that." And you just like, go.
Johanna Almstead:
Go forward and be bold.
Lulu Powers:
Yes, that's good. That's good. Go forward and be bold. But I even have to tell myself that right now.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Lulu Powers:
Keep going forward and be ... I always say just if you can get out of bed, put one foot in front of the other. And there's all these things that come up on Instagram, simple, simple, simple. Cross off one thing you did today and that's enough or whatever. All those things help. I mean, that's what technology is great about. You can have constant reminders about things, but we're all evolving.
Johanna Almstead:
I think it's funny because you're saying this stuff like you think you're the only person in the world that goes through this, and I can tell you for a hundred percent that most of the women I talk to are dealing with the exact same thing. They're dealing with not knowing how to settle down, not knowing how to just allow themselves rest, not knowing how to allow themselves success and celebrating their success. You are so not alone in this. It is extraordinary how many people I talk to who feel the same way.
Lulu Powers:
So I got into a grief group after my friend committed suicide, and-
Johanna Almstead:
I'm so sorry.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm so sorry.
Lulu Powers:
And it was almost like two grief groups. One was for the stroke, and one was for the suicide. Now, the suicide, he was like my brother, my other husband, everything to me, and being in that group of people who I did not know. It was during COVID and I got ... This is crazy. The lady who did it was in Hawaii online, but you could sit there and cry on ... Heave cry or do whatever you want to say or say whatever you want to do, and that was okay because someone will say something to you or tell you a story, "You're not alone."
It goes with the stroke. I would start to find all these little things that I didn't know were so many side effects of the stroke and so many things that did happen, and this group, this amazing woman, Dana, who started these stroke grief groups, it was okay. That's another thing. I felt better when I would tune into those in a Zoom just to even hear or learn from someone else. "Oh, that's what that is. That happens whatever."
Johanna Almstead:
Just to know you're not alone. Now that you're learning how to do it, how do you nourish yourself? How do you nourish your soul? How do you nourish your heart? How do you nourish your brain?
Lulu Powers:
I nourish my soul because also during my stroke situation in those years, even years, I had a friend, Suze Yalof Schwartz, who started an Unplug app, and I was there with her from the beginning 10 years ago. For the first five years, I would do it, but I didn't really do it. But when I had a stroke, she would call me every morning and she would meditate with me. And she was really awesome. Meditation, what they say, and my mind is constantly going, going, going, so ADD, too, that meditation has really helped me. That nourishes me.
I think having that I say I'm going to play tennis on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and I played with this group, and they're mostly 80s on Tuesdays and Fridays for the last five years, I think. I'm a pretty good tennis player. I may be a bit better, but I don't care. It's the group. It's the consistency.
Johanna Almstead:
The community, right?
Lulu Powers:
I like those ladies. I learn things from them. And then on Thursdays, I play with a group of guys.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that.
Lulu Powers:
Having something is just ... I realize-
Johanna Almstead:
Just for fun. Just for joy and for connection and for-
Lulu Powers:
But I realize having those things those days, that's nurturing. Just going for a walk, even if it's for 20 minutes. And I don't listen to things on a walk. Sometimes, I call my sisters and talk to them or call someone. But just getting out, getting out of your own space and just going is amazing.
Or I'm a big Hallmark junkie now due to my mom. God bless her, she passed away a month ago. But we used to call-
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, sorry.
Lulu Powers:
... when we go see her, the black hole, Hallmark. We're in the black hole. We're on the fifth movie of the day or whatever it was, and I find I'll just turn on a Hallmark and I could go on ... But that, to me, is just relaxing. Even if I'm not paying attention, it's like-
Johanna Almstead:
Nourishing you somehow.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. It can calm your system down.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad you have those things.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. Learn about the vagus nerve in your body, too.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I know. Oh my gosh.
Lulu Powers:
That's something I didn't know about and then I learned in the last six years or whatever, and it can just calm your whole system down.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I just was watching something where they had someone, to try to heal neck pain, they were actually activating the vagus nerve by laying on their stomach and having this part of their head on a block, that was supposed to help calm everything that actually then releases stuff in the back of your head and all this stuff. And I was like, God, I need to learn. It's so funny. I get things on my Instagram that talk about my dog's vagus nerve. I'm like, maybe I should figure out mine before I get to my dogs.
Okay. So now we're at the lightning round of silly questions. Do not overthink these. I know you're very thoughtful. Favorite comfort food?
Lulu Powers:
Potato chips and caviar.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes.
Lulu Powers:
Together.
Johanna Almstead:
Do you put crème fraîche, too, or do you just do the chip and the caviar?
Lulu Powers:
I like putting crème fraîche out, but there are these really good chips. I also like salmon roe, too. But to me, I could just sit there with a spoon and eat it, too. I love caviar.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. What is something you are really good at, other than obviously we know you're amazing at entertaining, but what's something you're really good at?
Lulu Powers:
Backgammon. Tennis.
Johanna Almstead:
Backgammon, how chic. I got myself a backgammon set because I fell in love with the backgammon set because it was so pretty. And I'm such a poser. I don't actually know how to play. So you have to teach me. I need to come see you, and you have to teach me how to play backgammon.
Lulu Powers:
It's good. It's good game to play with people. We were never allowed to watch TV as kids. So we learned ... That was one of the games. My sister Julie started playing it when we were kids, and we all learned, and we would always play games and stuff, but backgammon.
Johanna Almstead:
All right. I'm going to put my backgammon set out on my table so that it's going to force me to learn because I feel like-
Lulu Powers:
Yeah, by the way, you can just go online. I'm telling you-
Johanna Almstead:
... I can learn.
Lulu Powers:
... it's going to be good.
Johanna Almstead:
I know. Okay. I'm going to get good. What is something you're really bad at?
Lulu Powers:
Technology, as you can tell.
Johanna Almstead:
Favorite word.
Lulu Powers:
Favorite word. A hoot. Hoot.
Johanna Almstead:
Hoot. I love hoot. I use hoot all the time.
Lulu Powers:
Or what other word I use all the time, because otherwise, I'd swear a lot, is sugar magnolia.
Johanna Almstead:
Sugar magnolia. [inaudible 00:53:20].
Lulu Powers:
I have a group now called Sugar Magnolia, who I used to play tennis with. We're all swearing so much. I'm like, "Okay. No. Sugar magnolia." So we call ourselves the Sugar Magnolias.
Johanna Almstead:
I love it. Okay. This will be interesting because you obviously are around food all the time. Least favorite food, what will you not eat?
Lulu Powers:
What I prefer not to eat would be rabbit.
Johanna Almstead:
Rabbit in any form? Okay. Yeah.
Lulu Powers:
I mean I see those little rabbits and I'm like, "Ugh."
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. No rabbits. Least favorite word.
Lulu Powers:
Cunt.
Johanna Almstead:
Love it. Okay. Best piece of advice you've ever received.
Lulu Powers:
Just be yourself.
Johanna Almstead:
Look at that. It seems to be working, isn't it? Oh, this is going to be such a good one. I'm so curious. If your personality were a flavor, what would it be?
Lulu Powers:
A flavor. Mint, basil, and strawberry.
Johanna Almstead:
Ooh, I like it. In any form.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah, because they go with a lot of things.
Johanna Almstead:
Sorbet, a cocktail, so many things.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Last supper, you're leaving this earth, but it's not sad. You're transcending to the next frontier. What would you be eating tonight? And you don't have to cook it. Someone else can cook it for you [inaudible 00:54:48].
Lulu Powers:
Baked potatoes, caviar, steamers, lobster with lots of butter on it.
Johanna Almstead:
Like a proper clam bake sort of situation. [inaudible 00:54:59]-
Lulu Powers:
And a passion fruit martini.
Johanna Almstead:
Ooh. Yeah. I love passion fruit. Okay. So your beverage of choice would be the passion fruit martini with that meal. Have you had a moment in your life where you've had to eat your words?
Lulu Powers:
I mean, so many. You finally have to learn like, "I'm wrong."
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Lulu Powers:
Own it.
Johanna Almstead:
Own it.
Lulu Powers:
It's better to own it than keep-
Johanna Almstead:
Digging yourself further.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. I'm like, "Oh, fuck. I fucked up." Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
I did learn that, too.
Johanna Almstead:
If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life all day, every day, you don't have to worry about it-
Lulu Powers:
Eggs.
Johanna Almstead:
Really?
Lulu Powers:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
How do you like your eggs?
Lulu Powers:
How I love eggs, and they can be made many different ways. I love them soft-boiled with little soldiers, bread and [inaudible 00:55:48]. I also love them lightly scrambled. I love them fried over ... I love eggs. That would be one thing.
Johanna Almstead:
You could do it all day, every day. Where is your happy place?
Lulu Powers:
Nantucket.
Johanna Almstead:
Mine, too.
Lulu Powers:
It's the only place where I feel really just everything. So-
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, I agree. What did you have for dinner last night?
Lulu Powers:
Okay, this is unusual for me. I went to sleep really early because I was so exhausted. Maybe because I just got back, but I was also on my computer all day, and it makes me so tired since my stroke. I didn't even feel like eating, but I poured myself some kefir. I took this almond butter, put that in it, and put blueberries on top, a half a cup. I ate it because I'm like, I don't want to wake up hungry. And then I just went to bed, and I just needed to sleep.
Johanna Almstead:
You just needed to sleep. Good for you.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. So I don't really have any ... I wish I had a better dinner than kefir.
Johanna Almstead:
No, this is why I love to ask the question though, because it's people especially who are in food and entertaining and everything, they'll be like, "I ate four almonds, a Cheeto, and a pickle." It's like-
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. Last blueberry that was in the container.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, exactly. Ooh, I kind of want to add to this one, but I'm going to first say most memorable meal you've ever eaten.
Lulu Powers:
There was this meal in ... I want to say it was in Bordeaux, in the wine country.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
And it was at one of my sisters. She worked in the wine business. One of her vineyards, she represented. I'd never seen so many glasses on the table. And we went for afternoon lunch, and at that time, my sister Sue lived in Paris. And we all were in the South of France, and that's why we went there, and I mean, it was amazing. One thing after ... And I'm not even a huge wine drinker. I'd much rather have a cocktail. But everything was just delicious. And I think also what makes sometimes things more delicious or seem more is because it was around a round table, and we sat there for four hours. I call it fellowshipping. So that's what I remember.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that. Fellowshipping. I'm going to use that. Okay. Now, I want to ask, because this one I don't usually ask, but what's the most memorable meal you've ever prepared or cooked for somebody, other than that first one that you made for Sigourney Weaver, because you remembered that exactly.
Lulu Powers:
Well, I cooked for the most iconic figure, besides my mother, Martha Stewart, last summer on Nantucket. It was-
Johanna Almstead:
On Nantucket, I saw that and oh man, was I jealous.
Lulu Powers:
I kind of felt like for me, because I don't really cater like I used to, but that dinner, I mean, for me, that was like that was it.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Can you tell us what was the menu? You have to tell us what you cooked for Martha.
Lulu Powers:
Oh, I mean, you can put up the whole menu, but the last thing I made was this blueberry ice cream in these little pots with these ginger snaps I made on top. Then we served them with these warm chocolate cookie recipe that was in one of my House Beautiful columns.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
And then we had cherries, and then we had some edible gold on the thing. And I went with my sisters and her friends who were staying during design week, and that morning, there are these two great farmers, Farmer Aiden and Farmer Dan, and they let me ... They just grow these wildflowers, and I went ... We needed 60 flowers to put in everybody's ice cream pot. And we went, and we cut them all, and everyone got-
Johanna Almstead:
Gorgeous. Had you ever met her before, or was that the first time you had ever met her?
Lulu Powers:
I met her briefly 15 years or so earlier at this thing at the Four Seasons in New York that someone brought me to, to do with food and wine as their guest, and I met her there. And then the fun thing about meeting her, too ... First of all, she was amazing. And I thought the party was going on for an hour. I had thought she was out there at the party. No. She came into the kitchen an hour after it started. She had just pulled up there. She had just gotten there.
Johanna Almstead:
She wanted to come to the kitchen first.
Lulu Powers:
She wanted to come to the kitchen, see what was going on. She talked to everyone who was in the kitchen. I mean, she was pretty remarkable. And I told her the story in the kitchen how, first of all, her mother and I had the same birthday, September 16th. Also, my father and her mother were dear friends from church.
Johanna Almstead:
No way.
Lulu Powers:
Yep. And at my dad's wake, I went early. I thought I could put up a bar at the wake, but I was wrong because you can't have those at wakes. I started to set it up inside, and I told, "Well, a lot of people are going to be coming," blah, blah, blah. And he's like, "You can't do this." So I ended up being a tailgate in the parking lot, but I was there a couple hours early, but there were these two women. One looked really familiar from church when I was a kid. Another one, I didn't know, but I came in and I said, "Hi." And before I even got my name, she said, "You must be one of Jim's girls. Which one are you?" And she goes, "Are you the one that lives in California?" I said, "Yeah, I'm the one who lives in California, the cater." And I sit down and she goes, "Oh, my daughter's a caterer." I said, "Oh," whatever.
I go. I kneeled, do little things, finally come back. And then I said, "Well, where does your daughter live?" "Oh, she used to live right around here, but then she moved." Now, I said, "Tell me your name again." And she goes, "Martha." And then I sit on that for 10 minutes. And then I'm like, "Are you Big Martha?" And she goes, "Yes." It was almost like ... My dad died 20 years ago. 20 years ago. She was a rockstar then.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, she was already a rockstar.
Lulu Powers:
The internet wasn't what it is today. She already had the magazines out. She already had so much going on, TV shows, whatever. It was almost like I don't know if she realized everyone knew who she was already.
Johanna Almstead:
I love it that you called her a caterer, not the owner of a billion-dollar media company at that point.
Lulu Powers:
Oh my god, I could never tell her ... No, she's a caterer, too. But you know what? God bless her because she was huge. So it was funny because I realized-
Johanna Almstead:
Adorable.
Lulu Powers:
... then, you're just reading the newspapers and a magazine. You have no idea really how world-famous she was.
Johanna Almstead:
That is hilarious. Okay. Since you've had many and been a part of many dream dinner parties, what would your dream dinner party guest list be? Who's coming?
Lulu Powers:
Oh, it's funny. Who did I say I would like to sit down with them yesterday? I would want one wild card who I don't even know who they are.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
Well, definitely someone who enjoys food. Julia Child.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, yes.
Lulu Powers:
I met her once, too. I have a picture with her.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God. Oh my God.
Lulu Powers:
It was before a party, and I ran behind the line at Bloomingdale's seriously. There's a 300-person line as I come up the escalator. I'm like, "Oh my God, I'm catering a job tonight." So I went around the racks, and she was just sitting there. So Julia.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Definitely.
Lulu Powers:
Stanley Tucci, because I'd just be interested how his old just putting up a drink or whatever got him into the whole food world.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. Did you watch the Julia Child show that he played the husband?
Lulu Powers:
Yeah, I loved it.
Johanna Almstead:
And that he was the ... Oh, I loved it. It was so good. Okay. So you have Julia and you have Stanley. That's like Twilight Zone-y. I love it. Okay.
Lulu Powers:
Then Coco Chanel. I would just want to know how she got there. I like to hear people's stories.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Lulu Powers:
My priest, Father Orion, who's now 96, but he always has these tidbits of wisdom, and he's still with it.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. I like that.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. Just someone like that who's more ... He's not going to have too much, but he always has these little tidbits, pointers. I've been surprised by him, really tells you what he thinks. And when I was going through my stroke, I told him I had so much depression, and I went to see him, and he told me to do this exercise, and it really worked. Write down everything you feel for 15 minutes, then go out for a walk, come back and rip up. Don't even read it, rip it up.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. And it worked?
Lulu Powers:
It worked. It really helped me. You have so many thoughts going on in your head, but just sometimes, you're scared to write things down, and then all of a sudden, you just have to. And then who else? Oh, that skater. I just think she's a hoot. The one who won the gold, the hair. And then this might sound like an odd one, Jerry Jones, the guy who owns the Dallas Cowboys.
Johanna Almstead:
Whoa. Okay. Tell me more about that. Why him?
Lulu Powers:
I watched a documentary on him on Netflix. He paved a way for a lot of things that happened today, from cheerleaders to advertising to players getting paid what they're due. I just think he would be an interesting add-on.
Johanna Almstead:
I like it. All right. That's a good party. I think this is a really good party. Okay. My last question is what is one thing you know for sure right now in this moment? You don't need to have known it yesterday, and you don't need to know it tomorrow. What do you know right now?
Lulu Powers:
That I'm happy.
Johanna Almstead:
Aww, I love that. Can you please tell the people who are listening where they can find your beautiful products?
Lulu Powers:
On Instagram, I'm @lulupowers, L-U-L-U-P-O-W-E-R-S. My products you can find at lulupowers.com under Shop. And if you really want to see them in person, Bloomingdale's, who are amazing, have the best displays in their stores of all my products. They did a phenomenal job.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes. If anyone needs a dog-shaped cocktail shaker, Lulu Powers is your person. They're so cute. They're so great.
Lulu Powers:
Or you can put ... I have another cocktail shaker which you can make 10 drinks in. [inaudible 01:06:22]-
Johanna Almstead:
I know. I need that one, that huge gorgeous brass one.
Lulu Powers:
That's really ... And you can put flours in it. You can put water in it. You can make fresh mint tea. I can use one product so many different ways, so I like to show people what they can do with things, too.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm such a sucker for brass, and when I saw that big huge one, I was like, "Oh, I need that in my life. I need it."
Lulu Powers:
You got to look at the Nantucket Negroni brass platter. And the Lemon Drop, it's an ode to Madonna.
Johanna Almstead:
Ooh, I love that. She taught you how to make a lemon drop, right?
Lulu Powers:
Yeah. She handed me the recipe.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that.
Lulu Powers:
It was only three things, but-
Johanna Almstead:
So good. Still such a good cocktail. I never think to order it, but they're delicious.
Lulu Powers:
Yeah, it's delicious.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, this has been such a delight. Thank you so much for taking so much time with me. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I know people are going to be so inspired by you and your creativity and your going forward and being bold and your authenticity and your joy. So I'm really, really grateful for this time. This has been a real gift to me.
Lulu Powers:
Thank you for having me.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. Now, I'm craving a lemon drop martini. I think I'm going to order one tonight. I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did. She is quite a force and such a fountain of creativity and joy. So I hope something was ignited in you or inspired in you, and hope you enjoyed it.
Thank you again as always for tuning in and listening to our stories. If you're not doing so already, please follow us on social media. We're @eatmywordsthepodcast on Instagram and TikTok. We are now also on YouTube. The most recent episodes are up. And if there's anyone you know who you think might be inspired by this story or get a kick out of this episode, please share it with them. You can copy and paste it from your media player, you can text it to someone, you can DM it to someone, you can email it to someone, all the things. Every time you guys share this with someone else, it really helps us, and we are so appreciative of you helping us build our community. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I will catch you on the next one.
This Eat My Words Podcast was created, produced, and directed by me, Johanna Almstead. Our sound editor is Isabel Robertson, and our social media manager is Isabella Boutros.