As promised, here is the Fruitful GCC interview with Ann Marie Michaels, author of Cooking to Hook Up...

> --What was the seed of inspiration for this book?

One night when we were newlyweds, my ex-husband decided to cook dinner
for me. He made orange roughy. He said you would have thought he had
bought me a Mercedes. He had no idea cooking could impress a woman so
much. He said, "I wish I had known this when I was single!" (I also
taught him to wear product in his hair and not to wear the black socks
with the khaki trousers.)

We got to talking about it and I agreed -- women are impressed by a
man who can cook. But I explained to him that not all women are alike.
Granola Girls like tofu and organic vegetables; Uptown Girls like
filet mignon and Champagne. We got to thinking how fun it would be if
there was a cookbook to impart this information -- one that would
teach guys about the different types of girls (Granola Girl, Uptown
Girl, Indie Girl, etc.) and not only how to cook for them, but what
kind of shoes to wear, what CDs to play, and what magazines to put on
the coffee table.

> --My book Fruitflesh uses fruit as its central metaphor because I thought it
> captured the juicy fruitfulness of both women's bodies and the creative
> process. Could you talk a bit about any parallels you've found between the
> cooking process and the creative process (and/or between the cooking process
> and love/sex?)

Good question! The premise of Cooking to Hook Up is that if you want
to impress a woman, get to know her and find out what pleases her. To
quote the book, "Casanova, arguably the most successful seducer in
history, had a simple philosophy: Get to know the woman, find out what
she lacks, and provide it. Seduction through food is a time-tested
technique. However, and this is the big however, you must choose the
right food, the food that works for that particular girl."

Similarly, I find that what inspires me to write is RESEARCH. The more
I research a topic, the more I want to write about it. And I think the
more I research, the better the writing is.

If men would apply this to dating, I think they'd have much a better
success rate with women. "Cooking to Hook Up" is kinda like Cliff
Notes.

> --What do you think is the sexiest fruit, and why?

Well, the banana is an obvious choice. Hahaha! (Do I need to elaborate on why?)

> --What would be your ultimate hookup meal?

I'm a Gourmet/Indie girl hybrid, so anything with fancy ingredients
like heirloom tomatoes, fiddlehead ferns, blood oranges ... along with
good cheese, well-rated wines. Because I'm Indie, though, I would need
a guy to pay attention to the music he plays and maybe even rent an
independent film. As Nick Hornby wrote, in his book "High Fidelity",
"It's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your
record collections disagree violently or if your favorite films
wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party." Yeah, I'm
high-maintenance, but I'm worth it!

Thanks so much, Ann Marie! (I share your love for heirloom tomatoes and blood oranges!)