David Leite of “Leite’s Culinaria”

This week we are doing something a little different on Amuse Bouche. Renee Schettler wrote a fabulous article that appeared in Issue Two of the magazine. In fact, my favorite quote from the magazine comes from her feature:”When things get crazy, as they do under deadline, it’s a godsend to have some semblance of beauty to cling to amid the chaos.”. (Lovely, no?)

Renee is Deputy Editor and Food Writer for Leite’s Culinaria and when we put our heads together for the feature this week, we decided to give you a peek into the life of the man behind the website and introduce you to David Leite.

I adore David. I met him at BlogHer in NYC this summer and I simply fell in love with him and his site. How could you not love his use of glorious (and hilarious) adjectives in his scribblings about things like what food he serves on a cold winter day? Or how he writes about his love of food that can be prepared well ahead so”that way the kitchen’s spotless when guests arrive, and I can sit on the sofa, Donna Reed-like, phsawing comments about my preternatural ability to whip up such extravagances with seemingly no effort—and on a Sunday in the country, no less.”

His ability to create scrumptious victules will be evident when you see Wednesday’s recipe. (Make sure you tune in. It’s heaven in a forkful, people.)

Aside from singing a mean show tune, David is simply one of the hardest working and most talented people in food and I am both thrilled and honored to feature him here and call him a friend.

You are going to love this week, I promise.

David Leite (pronounced leet) is the author of The New Portuguese Table: Exciting Flavors from Europe’s Western Coast, which won the 2010 IACP First Book/Julia Child Award and for which he received the 2009 National Leadership Award from the Portuguese-American Leadership Council of the United States (PALCUS). When not agonizing over his next book, he writes about everything from champagne to Welsh food to high tea to being a super taster for publications including the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Pastry Art & Design, Food Arts, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, The Washington Post, Charlotte Observer, epicurious.com, and Ridgefield Magazine, where he was the food editor for three years. He’s also the resident food geek at The Morning News. David is a frequent guest on the Martha Stewart Living Radio program, Living Today, hosted by Mario Bosquez, and often reads his work on public radio’s food program The Splendid Table hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. He’s a regular guest on WTNH-TV, appears on The Today Show, and was profiled on Radical Sabbatical on Fine Living Network.

David won the 2008 James Beard Award for Newspaper Feature Writing Without Recipes for his article, “In a ’64 T-Bird, Chasing a Date with a Clam” and was nominated in 2009 for his article “Perfection? Hint: It’s Warm and Has a Secret,” both from the New York Times. He’s also a four-time nominee for the Bert Green Award for Food Journalism, which he won in 2006. In addition, he was a 2007 and 2006 winner of an Association of Food Journalists Award. His essays have been included in the Best Food Writing series in 2001, and from 2002 to 2010. Leite’s Culinaria, which David created in 1999, won the 2007 James Beard Award for Web Site Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurant, or Nutrition and the 2006 James Beard Award for Best Food Web Site, a 2006 Food Blog Award, the 2005 World Food Media Award for Best Food and/or Drink Web Site, and was named Best Writer’s Web Site for 2002 by Writer’s Digest.