My Kitchen Wars

Can you turn out a perfect pate en croute? Do you know how to whip up homemade mayonnaise? You will learn these techniques, as well as some valuable life lessons, in My Kitchen Wars. This stunning one-woman play is based on the memoirs of renowned food writer and chef Betty Fussell.

Superb actress/playwright Dorothy Lyman (as Fussell) invites you into her kitchen to share some "fresh coffee with the taste of bittersweet chocolate." At once, you are enthralled with her portrayal of a woman who has lost and then found herself again through the art of cooking. During the 95-minute play, Lyman prepares a lobster bisque, a lobster salad with lime mayonnaise, and a Grand Marnier souffle. (These food preparations, as well as the many allusions to eating, will leave you quite hungry. Therefore, I recommend dining beforehand! To put yourself in the mood, you might pay a pre-theatre visit to at Bouley to feast on the "Maine Day-Boat Lobster Prepared in an Exotic Manner with Lychee Sugar Snap Peas, Asparagus and Blood Orange" ).

Fussell's life experiences are poignantly described through metaphors about food. She tries to "make a bisque out of the carcass of her marriage." A mayonnaise, the temporary emulsion of oil and lemon juice, is the "momentary truce" of a tenuous relationship. A dockside cafe in Calais serves "real bread and real butter," and is the beginning of Fussell's gradual awakening to the new possibilities in her life.

Watching Lyman at work in the kitchen, I was impressed by her ability to captivate the audience while preparing a three-course meal! Aside from being a great cook, Lyman is an accomplished television actress and director. She will be performing in My Kitchen Wars through May (or beyond), as well as in the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival on May 21.

Singer Melissa Sweeney spices up the production with jazzy interludes, some of them food-related as well. (Salmon and backgammon, anyone?)

My Kitchen Wars: 78th Street Theatre Lab, 236 W. 78th St., (212) 391-1547.