Hollywood Kitchen is a Facebook Live show in which host Karie Bible cooks recipes used by stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Bible researches and preps every episode down to the smallest detail, inviting historians, archivists and relatives of the stars as guests. She’s a one-woman crew too, setting up lights and decorations in the kitchen of her 1920s bungalow apartment, and writing about each episode on the Hollywood Kitchen blog.
Sofia Fernandez sat in on a taping of an Ava Gardner-themed episode featuring Lora Stocker of the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, North Carolina.
KARIE BIBLE: My name is Karie Bible and I’m the host of Hollywood Kitchen. I started collecting these cookbooks just for fun, these classic Hollywood recipes. I wanted to do a project around them, like a little YouTube show. And then the pandemic happened. I just decided that instead of putting the whole project on hold, I would just do it over Zoom. And I would just kind of find a kind of guerrilla way to make it happen.
NIGHT OF THE IGUANA FILM CLIP
BIBLE: “A lot of these stars didn’t technically make some of these things. Vincent Price definitely did, Joan Crawford definitely did.”
VINCENT PRICE ON TONIGHT SHOW: Yes, I do almost all the cooking at home. I really love it.
BIBLE: Even if they didn’t at all, it’s still a fun jumping off point to talk about that star. Every episode there’s always a challenge. There’s always an issue. One episode, the power went out. One episode, right before I went on camera, my light knocked over and shattered into a thousand pieces. Like there’s always something.
I’ve got a hot plate. I’ve got my mixing bowls all ordered here, which I need to get filled quickly. OK, we have about 8 minutes to kind of get ready here at least.
Sometimes people ask me, ‘How do you pick what you’re going to make? Do I know a collector? Do I know an expert who is willing to come on camera and talk? Part of it is seasonal, part of it is, is this going to require me to use a stove in the summer? Do I know a collector? Do I know an expert who is willing to come on camera and talk? And the main requirement, one of them is, would I eat this?
Lora [Stocker] is going to be the guest today on Hollywood Kitchen. She is on the board of the Ava Gardner Museum.
LORA STOCKER: “Nice to join you today, Karie.”
BIBLE: This is the third episode I’ve done on Ava Gardner. There are a zillion Ava Gardner recipes, and they’re really good.
BAREFOOT CONTESSA FILM CLIP
BIBLE: I’ve got my Ava Gardner biography. I was trying to either have a book and, or like a framed photo of the star on my table. I’m very lucky to know a lot of authors and historians who’ve been my guests and it’s really been fun. I’m just having a good time doing this stuff. I’m also learning to cook as I do it like a lot of these episodes, this is like my first time ever making some of these items.
COMPUTER VOICE: Recording in progress
BIBLE: Ken Johnson from England, Benjamin from Germany, all right. The crew is here. I’m so excited. Welcome to yet another episode of Hollywood Kitchen. We decided that Ava Gardner’s Southern Pecan Pie would be just the perfect kickoff. I have got the recipe courtesy of the Ava Gardner Museum. So we’re going to get this, get this pie party started.
One thing that I always try to do in film history is kind of peel back the layer and show these people as real human beings. Because I think with a lot of stars, there’s the person the world thinks they know. And then there’s the real human being.
STOCKER: Ava did enjoy cooking. She had a large collection of cookbooks, several of them are now housed at the Ava Gardner museum.
BIBLE: Yes, Ava Gardner was a complete glamorous goddess of the silver screen.
STOCKER: 1946 she was loaned out to make the noir Whistle Stop with George Raft. People started realizing ‘Hey, she’s pretty good, she’s got something here.’ And she really fit that femme fetale role quite well. MGM loaned her out a second time that year, ‘46, to Universal, to make The Killers That is certainly one of most iconic roles today.”
THE KILLERS FILM CLIP
BIBLE: Lora, you’ve been so generous once again in giving me your time and your expertise.
Stay tuned because there’s definitely going to be more Ava Gardner episodes in the future. I hope you make the pie. Again, send us your photos, tag us in your photos and stay tuned for more food, fun and film history from Hollywood Kitchen. [Sigh] I got through it, yay.
NIGHT OF THE IGUANA FILM CLIP