The Ghostbusters actor, writer and comedian on his perfect clambakes, eating with John Belushi – and alien appetites
I was at [New York restaurant] Elaine’s with Paul Simon, Lorne Michaels and Chevy Chase when I came up with the sketch for Saturday Night Live in which I demonstrated the Bass-O-Matic, a blender to grind up whole fish. The inspiration came from my aunt, Helen Gougeon, who was the Julia Child of Canada and had her own TV cookery shows. I was at her house when I was 13 and saw her force a whole bass into her Cuisinart to make a fish stew. I said: “Aunt Helen, aren’t you supposed to de-bone, de-scale and wash the fish first?” She replied: “It’s a bouillabaisse, Daniel, a bouillabaisse!”
Helen taught my mother to cook all sophisticated in clay pot dishes and Dad couldn’t compete. He’d say: “We’re going to have quail on toast tonight” and he’d take white bread and pour a can of peas on. This was partly his jokey way of saying we didn’t have money for quails, but for a long time I assumed that quails were peas.
Related: Laura Mvula: ‘I can’t make music when I’ve got a dirty kitchen’
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