Blog@ contributor Tim O’Shea talks with Johnny Hiro creator Fred Chao about humor, character ethnicity, and food:

O’Shea: In the second issue, a lobster plays a major role. In the back of the issue, you have a diagram of a lobster as pin-up. Do you like to cook, or did you have to research that bit?

Chao: Let me just admit that I’m a Food Network junkie. I love all the cooking shows and they’ve really helped me get the most out of simple cooking. I’ve always liked cooking, it’s relaxing for me. And the shows have gotten me a lot more into it.

I always thought that, if I knew culinary school was really an option, I would have gone that route. I’m glad I didn’t though. I’ve spent my time working in restaurants, I know how it works, and cooking can be some of the hardest and unrewarded work in the world.

As for what is researched, well, I really don’t count food knowledge as research. It’s more of a past-time for me. One of my favorite shows is Good Eats, in which Alton Brown breaks down the science of food. Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential is a great book. And I’ve just started Mark Kurlansky’s The Big Oyster, a book about New York and its Oyster beds. This is all stuff I enjoy, so I hesitate to call it research. For anyone interested, I sometimes update food news on my blog, robotchao.wordpress.com. Yeah, I’m addicted to the NY Times Dining and Wine section.

Oh, how I love Anthony Bourdain. He needs a cameo in Johnny Hiro — possibly battling Rocco DiSpirito! Ahem. Anyway, more at the link, of course.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 10:42 am and is filed under Comic Books, Creators, Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.