Radio Homemakers : Queens of Call-In Cooking

It’s almost 10 a.m. and the temperature outside is working its way up to triple digits, but inside a tiny broadcasting room at KNX 1070 in Hollywood you could freeze meat. The faulty thermostat is no problem for Food News Hour host Melinda Lee and her sidekick Chris Lane. They can’t afford to get hot under the collar during the call-in talk show.

There are just too many other things to worry about on this sweltering Wednesday morning. First, there are 16 commercials to squeeze in. There’s the Food News festival and a Food News cruise to hype. Winners of a sponsor’s cooking contest have to be announced. And 71,000 listeners are waiting to learn how to poach a whole salmon.

“We try to sound calm but it’s a big rush-around,” says Lee, adjusting her headset. Lane, a long-time radio pro, glances at the clock as he flips through the day’s lineup. Part of his duties includes making sure the show stays on track.

Kevin Warendorp, who screens the calls from the control booth, tells Lee the first caller will be Paul. “This guy has called a million times. You know, the one with the deep voice? He wants the stir-fry chicken recipe.”

“Is it the ordinary stir-fry chicken?” asks Lee, reaching for a black, three-ring notebook crammed with the most frequently requested recipes, or “featured recipes” as they are referred to on the show.

Even though Lee mostly answers questions off the top of her head, within reach is a cabinet filled with reference books, including “The Joy of Cooking,” “The Fanny Farmer Cookbook,” “The New Doubleday Cookbook” and “The Von Welanetz Guide to Ethnic Ingredients.” On a computer screen conveniently set between the two hosts, Kevin has typed in the names of the next several callers waiting on hold and what they will be asking.

At the moment, Lee, who speaks in exclamation points, greets her audience and then enthusiastically tells them about a great idea she just heard: Fill an atomizer bottle with cold water and use it to mist the inside of a hot car !

Silver-haired Lane, dressed in a baby-blue sports jacket and navy shirt, rolls his eyes, then asks, “Doesn’t it mess up the leather on your seats?”

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Homemaking on the air may seem old-fashioned, a relic of another era and place, before television and before suburbs--a time when farm housewives sometimes were separated from their neighbors by dozens of miles and newly transplanted city dwellers, like the ones in Los Angeles, were separated from their families (and their family’s cooking advice) by hundreds of miles.

Back then, the broadcasts were as much a part of daily life as waiting for the milkman. And they were modern. Like cookbooks and newspaper food sections, radio cooking shows eased the transition as the family unit shifted from extended to nuclear. More and more, it was the reassuring voice on the airwaves, not her mother, that taught a newlywed how to make a Thanksgiving turkey.

These days, between TV cooking shows and CD-ROM “cookbooks,” there are enough competing media to make the entire AM band seem almost a forgotten frequency. But at radio station KNX 1070, radio homemakers still pitch products and dispense advice on everything from buying sweet corn to making deep-dish cobblers. They’re a comforting bit of Americana--sometimes more than a little corny--who provide the illusion, at least for an hour, that there’s still a little bit of small town left in Southern California.

Chef Mike Roy launched the Food News show on KNX in 1965 and hosted it until his death in 1976. After going through a series of guest hosts, KNX General Manager George Nicholaw offered the spot to Jackie Olden and Don Fitzgerald. Shortly after taking the job, Fitzgerald died of a heart attack and was replaced by Mel Baldwin.

In 1986, after eight years without a contract, Olden quit the station and moved her food show to rival KABC. Lee was chosen as the new host. But two years ago, Olden rejoined the station in a weekend spot after KGIL--where she ended up after a year at KABC--was sold and went off the air.

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Olden, an extremely well-tended 60, takes a sip of her large diet Coke on this Saturday morning as a prerecorded commercial airs. She has on one of those mid-calf flowered print dresses and is barefoot, having kicked off her shoes. She checks a recipe on the notebook computer she brought along on the two-hour drive from her home in Arrowhead. “The only person who knows me better than my husband is my gas station attendant,” she deadpans.

Born and raised in Nebraska, Olden earned her chef certification at Los Angeles Trade-Tech. For 10 years, she ran Just Ask Jackie, an Orange County catering company. She got to know chef Roy through KNX’s Fitzgerald and ended up testing recipes for Roy’s “Crock Cookery” cookbook. When she and Fitzgerald took over the show, they were the station’s first successful replacement for Roy.

The two often appeared at department and appliance stores, where Olden worked the audience. “I love doing appearances,” she says. “Like my husband says, if the refrigerator door opens, I’m on for 10 minutes.”

She is so high on life these days she often fantasizes about taking her show on the road. “If I had my way, I’d be the Charlie Kuralt of the food world,” says Olden. “I’d get into my motor home and travel around the country.”

For now, though, she has to be content playing second fiddle at KNX, hosting the weekend edition of the “Food News Hour.” “Melinda is a nice lady and she’s sweet,” says Olden, “but I don’t think she has the knowledge that I do. There are very few people in the country that do.”

Still, she is grateful to be back even if only for two days a week. After all, she knows it was her choice to leave in the first place. “I told George (Nicholaw) I wanted a contract,” says Olden. “He created me and he didn’t think I would leave, but I did. And here they were sold out on my show. He was angry with me and I think he probably still is. But I did warn him.”

When KGIL closed, Olden wrote Nicholaw and asked to come back. She knew her former slot was filled, but she wanted to work.

“I think George created this (weekend show) as an afterthought, maybe to teach me some humility,” she says. “But now he’s got an Achilles heel because I get more mail than anybody else in this station.”

“She wants the Monday through Friday spot and she’s not going to get it,” says Nicholaw. “She should be very grateful (I took her back). She dumped us. I gave her another opportunity and all she’s done is complain about it.”

While she dial-hopped, many of Olden’s fans remained loyal. “It amazes me,” she says. “I have a lot of older people who have been listening to me for years and I have a lot of young people whose mothers used to listen to me.”

One fan used to come to every one of Olden’s live appearances, each time in a different disguise. “She was a screwball,” says Olden. “She told me I was broadcasting through her teeth.”

Despite the devotion of her listeners, Olden feels unappreciated, partly because the two-day weekend show is often preempted for sports. “To be very honest, my feelings are hurt,” she says. “I would like a little more respect and I would like more time. I am very capable of doing food news, I don’t have to do this recipe roulette.”

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In her small back office at KNX, 49-year-old Lee applies fresh lipstick after doing her Wednesday morning show. She’s dressed in a two-piece, slate-blue washable silk outfit; her shoulder-length hair is frosted. At 11:30 a.m., she’s already been awake for eight hours. She gets up long before daybreak and works 16-hour days.

“It has been years since I’ve not felt overwhelmed,” she says. “But now I’m beginning to see daylight.”

Ambitious but unusually forbearing, Lee was an unlikely candidate to become successor to the KNX food throne. After Olden quit, the station used guest hosts to field listeners’ calls until a permanent replacement could be found.

Lee, a caterer at the time with no broadcasting experience, received a call from a friend of co-host Mel Baldwin, saying he thought she would be the perfect replacement for Olden, and gave her Baldwin’s number.

Baldwin agreed to meet with her and said that if they got along he would take her resume to the news director. The pair clicked. Lee quickly wrote a resume and waited for a call.

“And I waited and I waited,” she says. “I heard a million people had applied for the job. Then I started hearing them audition on the show.”

Exasperated, Lee finally called the news director to see what was going on. “I told him, ‘You haven’t called me. I know I can do the job and here’s why.’ I went blah, blah blah. I don’t even remember what I said. I only remember talking a mile a minute. I tried to be amusing, interesting, confident. When I finally got to the end of my speech, he said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll call you next week.’ ”

The call finally came and Lee, the long shot, auditioned. She was summoned back again. And again. “It seemed to take forever,” she says. “Finally they narrowed it down, and then they offered me the job, which I could have told them in the first place.”

Since Lee took over the Food News Hour, she’s hung on to its audience. (Recent Arbitron ratings for the 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. spot ranked “Food News Hour” in 15th place.) No mean feat, says news director Bob Sims, considering radio listening has changed dramatically since the days of Mike Roy, when there were no Books on Tape, no cellular phones, no FM radio.

In no time, Lee transformed the broadcast from a recipe exchange to a food entertainment show. “I became bored giving a laundry list of ingredients,” says Lee. “The greatest compliment I can get now is someone telling me, ‘I’m not interested in cooking but I listen anyway.’ ”

She says her knack for making callers feel special has been the key to her success. “I really like these people,” she says. “Even difficult people are interesting and intriguing. As a result of having loved some difficult people, I’ve come to understand them.”

Her advertisers adore her too. Advertising spots for the show are sold out for the next six months. Although products and markets often get a free plug, all those paid commercials (many of those same products and markets) are read as part of Lee’s and Lane’s anchor duties. Advertisers pay a premium for fact sheets, which are the commercials Lee actually writes, or makes up as she goes along. “They are the most powerful,” says Lee. “Some advertisers would kill for them.”

Endorsing products for which she and Lane do paid commercials might be viewed by some as conflict of interest, but Lee disagrees. She claims she only promotes products or services she believes in. “Our veracity and integrity is really important,” says Lee. “And the money helps to compensate for the amount of hours we spend touring some (advertiser’s) damn plant with a smock trying to get the concept.”

Last year, Lee began expanding her food horizons. First, she started a nationally syndicated call-in food show broadcast on the Global Satellite Network. So far, 90 stations across the country have picked it up. “We are huge in Cleveland,” she says. Then Lee and Lane came out with “Kitchen Notes,” two 60-minute cassettes featuring, as they put it, “answers, anecdotes and amazing ideas about food and cooking.” The subscription list of her bimonthly “Melinda Lee’s Food!” newsletter, now at 5,000 readers, grows daily. And she’s working on two cookbooks.

Still, the KNX job is her first love. “It’s only a fraction of my income,” she says, “and takes more than three-quarters of my time.” She and Lane receive about 50 calls a day, and between 600 and 700 pieces of mail weekly, mostly recipe requests. Lee also does Food News Notebooks, a 30-second daily spot on food-related topics. “I invented them,” she says, “and I do my own research.” She makes personal appearances, and she and Lane often do live remote broadcasts. (Just like celebs Madonna and Liz, Melinda even books private security for all appearances.) “When I came along, a really big audience was 75,” she says. “Now if fewer than 300 show up, it would be considered a disaster.”

Lee has built up such a loyal listening audience that last year she sold out a 850-passenger cruise cook-in. For three days, Lee and Food News groupies attended cooking seminars, sampled sponsors’ products and talked food. “I have trouble being out there for unending periods of time. I get worn out, nauseous,” Lee says. The passenger list on the next cruise, a weekend trip to Ensenada in January, has been trimmed to 600 max.

With success, of course, comes competition. But Lee has been around long enough not to let it bother her. When Olden wanted to come back, Nicholaw came to Lee and asked her what she thought of the idea. “I couldn’t think of any reason to object,” she says. “I think we are very different personalities. We just go about it in a completely different way.”

*

“Hi Joan, come on into the kitchen. What’s doin’?”

“Oh, Jackie. I’m so glad you found your dog that time. Can I have the recipe for Kyle’s corned beef casserole?”

“Kyle, you’re getting popular,” says Olden, nodding at Kyle Hunter, who is making faces at her from the control booth where he screens the calls.

“You take a can of Libby Corned Beef, cut it into bite-sized pieces. A half a pound of bow-tie pasta, cooked and drained. Half of a red pepper, chopped. One small bunch of green onions, chopped. A can of Campbell’s Crema de Chile Poblano. A cup of sour cream. And some salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Mix it up and put it into a two-quart greased casserole. Top it with some grated Parmesan cheese and some crushed potato chips. I would normally not use potato chips but dingbat here loves them,” says Olden, once again nodding at Hunter.

“Now if I don’t take a commercial, they’ll turn off the lights.”

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Lee recommends serving the shrimp on rinsed green leaves atop a black lacquer tray. Be sure to cook a few extra snow peas in case of a mistake or two.

MELINDA’S ORIENTAL SHRIMP HORS D’OEUVRE 1 cup olive oil 1/3 cup red wine vinegar 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 teaspoon dry mustard 2 tablespoons minced ginger root 1 large clove garlic, minced Grated zest 2 oranges 1/4 teaspoon sugar Salt, pepper 2 pounds medium shrimp 30 medium to large snow peas

In large mixing bowl combine olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce, mustard, ginger root, garlic, orange zest, sugar and salt and pepper to taste.

In large pan of simmering, lightly salted water gently poach shrimp, cooking just until shrimp turn pink, about 5 to 7 minutes. Drain and cool. Add shrimp to olive oil mixture, mix well and marinate 1/2 hour.

While shrimp is marinating, in large pan of boiling, salted water blanch snow peas about 1 minute, until peas turn bright green. Immediately remove from heat and rinse in cold water. With small scissors and wood pick, trim ends and split snow peas lengthwise. Remove tiny peas from interior and discard. Set pea shells aside on wax paper.

Remove shrimp from marinade. Wrap each with blanched snow pea half. Secure with wood pick. Makes 10 appetizer servings.

Each serving contains about:

302 calories; 559 mg sodium; 129 mg cholesterol; 23 grams fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 0.76 gram fiber.

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When listener Kathy from Tarzana called for a fudge frosting for a birthday cake, Olden offered her this recipe. “Is it the best one you know?” she asked. “Well,” laughed Olden. “It’s the most disgusting one I know.” “That’s the one, then,” said Kathy.

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JACKIE’S CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE 2 cups sugar 2 cups sifted flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup butter 1 cup water 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1/2 cup sour cream 2 eggs 1 teaspoon baking soda Cocoa Butter-Nut Frosting

In large mixing bowl combine sugar, flour and salt. Set aside.

In medium saucepan combine butter, water and cocoa. Bring to boil. Remove from heat.

Immediately add to flour combination. Add sour cream, eggs and baking soda. Mix until well blended. Batter will be very thin. Pour into greased, lightly floured 15x10-inch jellyroll pan. Bake at 375 degrees 20 to 25 minutes or until wood pick inserted in center comes out clean. Do not overbake. Ice while warm with Cocoa Butter-Nut Frosting. Makes 12 to 14 servings.

Each of 12 servings contains about:

601 calories; 355 mg sodium; 102 mg cholesterol; 33 grams fat; 76 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.72 gram fiber.

Cocoa Butter- Nut Frosting 6 tablespoons milk 1/2 cup butter 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1 cup chopped walnuts 1 (1-pound) box powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla

In large saucepan heat milk, butter and cocoa until bubbly. Add nuts, powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Spread over warm cake.

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Rather than pouring the rich Cumberland sauce over the chicken, Lee recommends serving it in sauce cups for dipping.

MELINDA’S SESAME CHICKEN WITH CUMBERLAND SAUCE 1 1/2 cups butter 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced 3 shallots, minced 2 cups dry bread crumbs 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 3/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted 12 skinless, boneless chicken breasts Cumberland Sauce

In medium saute pan melt butter. Add mustard, garlic and shallots. Mix well. In separate shallow dish combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and sesame seeds.

Dip chicken breasts in butter, then in bread crumb mixture, coating well. Place on baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees 10 minute on each side. Serve with Cumberland Sauce. Makes 12 servings.

Each serving contains about:

631 calories; 610 mg sodium; 145 mg cholesterol; 40 grams fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 32 grams protein; 0.71 gram fiber.

Cumberland Sauce 1 (10-ounce) jar currant jelly Grated zest 1 small orange 1 tablespoon orange juice 2 tablespoons Port wine

In small saucepan over medium heat melt currant jelly. Add orange zest, orange juice and wine. Serve hot in sauce cups for dipping.

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Next time you’re asked to bring something for Thanksgiving dinner, this is a good dish to consider: it travels well and can easily be doubled.

JACKIE’S MAKE-AHEAD POTATOES FOR THANKSGIVING 8 to 10 medium baking potatoes, peeled 1 cup sour cream 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened 6 tablespoons butter 1/3 cup chives, chopped Salt, pepper Paprika

In large saucepan cook potatoes in simmering water until tender. Remove from heat and drain.

In large bowl combine sour cream and cream cheese. Beat until smooth. Add hot potatoes and beat until smooth. Add 1/4 cup butter, chives and salt and pepper to taste. Place mixture in greased 2-quart baking dish. Dot with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Season to taste with paprika. Bake at 350 degrees 25 minutes. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Each serving contains about:

326 calories; 231 mg sodium; 67 mg cholesterol; 25 grams fat; 22 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams protein; 0.58 gram fiber.

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For a really simple dessert, use a frozen pie crust. Then just before serving, slide the tart out of the aluminum pie dish on to a serving platter, sift a little powdered sugar over the top, and complain about how hard you worked on it.

MELINDA’S RASPBERRY- ALMOND TART 1 1/2 cups blanched almonds 3/4 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon almond extract 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 tablespoon whipping cream 5 tablespoons raspberry jam 1 (9-inch) prebaked pie crust

In work bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade process almonds in until coarsely ground. Add sugar, eggs, almond extract, vanilla and cream. Process until blended.

Spread jam to cover bottom of pie crust. Cover with almond mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and set, about 35 minutes. Cool. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

633 calories; 127 mg sodium; 78 mg cholesterol; 40 grams fat; 60 grams carbohydrates; 13 grams protein; 1.18 grams fiber.

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This rich seafood pasta makes a perfect company entree served with a baby lettuce salad dressed with a lemony vinaigrette.

JACKIE’S SEAFOOD FETTUCCINE WITH GARLIC AND MUSHROOMS 1 pound fettuccine 1/2 cup minced garlic 1/4 cup chopped green onions Parsley 1/2 cup chopped basil 1/2 cup olive oil 1 pound mushrooms, sliced 1/2 cup vermouth 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce 1 cup chopped Roma tomatoes 1/2 tablespoon chicken bouillon powder 1/2 tablespoon beef bouillon powder 1 cup chopped cooked lobster 1 cup peeled, cooked shrimp 1 cup chopped cooked crab 1/2 cup butter

In large pot of rapidly boiling water cook fettuccine until al dente, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large skillet over medium heat saute garlic, green onions, 1/2 cup chopped parsley and basil in olive oil. Add mushrooms and saute 2 to 3 minutes more. Add vermouth, hot pepper sauce and tomatoes. Bring to boil. Add chicken and beef bouillons. Simmer gently. Add lobster, shrimp and crab. Cook only until heated through.

Drain fettuccine. Add butter and seafood mixture. Top with 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley. Serve immediately. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

516 calories; 508 mg sodium; 70 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 51 grams carbohydrates; 18 grams protein; 1.01 grams fiber.

*Cover design by TRACY CROWE