When Steven Gdula was growing up in western Pennsylvania, gobs were everywhere-at church bake sales and birthday parties, and even stacked by convenience store cash registers, sparkling in cellophane. Transplanted to California, Steven found himself dreaming of gobs: two rounds of moist cake joined by sweet, fluffy icing. The only way to satisfy his craving was to start baking them himself-but with a local spin, using seasonal ingredients and grown-up flavors. Once he perfected his recipes, Steven started selling his gobs from a cart on the streets of San Francisco. Calling his enterprise Gobba Gobba Hey (a nod to the Ramones), he was soon on his way to becoming something of a local food rock star. In Gobba Gobba Hey, Steven introduces readers, bakers, and eaters to the gob. These fifty-two recipes-one for every week of the year, from old-school chocolate and vanilla to matcha green tea with lemongrass ginger frosting-make it deliciously evident why gobs couldn't be kept a regional secret for long.
Praise for The Warmest Room in the House (a Chicago Tribune Favorite Book of the Year)
"[Gdula] serves up … a delight, rich but restrained."-Atlantic
"Literary comfort food-Very Short List
"Vivid, funny and absorbing …Warmhearted."-Dominique Browning, New York Times Book Review
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"These aren't your grandmother's gobs" - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Word is the latest confection to enter the sweets fray is the gob, a western Pennsylvania favorite that San Francisco transplant Steve Gdula is now taking worldwide." - Modern Tonic
"[Gdula] has moved far beyond the typical chocolate-vanilla pairing... Half the fun of the book lies in Gdula's chatty, witty descriptions." - Bay Area News Group
About the Author
Steven Gdula was born in Cambria Country, Pennsylvania, and raised on gobs. His writing has appeared in Details, the Washington Post, Time Out, the Advocate, Cooking Light, and elsewhere, and he is the author of The Warmest Room in the House, an American social history of the kitchen. He is the proprietor of the Gobba Gobba Hey food cart in San Francisco, and he blogs at thewarmestroominthehouse.blogspot.com and gobbagobbahey.com.
Bio Steven Gdula was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1963. He grew up eating gobs and great Hungarian food in a house that was always filled with music. He's written a lot of magazine and web articles over the last 20 odd years. Many of those were about food, but most of them were about music. He's also written three books. Two of those were about eating, cooking, baking, and kitchen history. And one of them included 52 recipes and tales from selling gobs on the street. The other book was about a collection of T shirts he found archived away in a museum. He currently lives in San Francisco where he eats, drinks, bakes, blogs and occasionally plays bass for both Gunfighter Nation and Rau Ram.
Media You can follow Steven on Twitter at @stevengdula. You can also read the latest updates about his cook book by following @gobbagobbahey on Twitter. If you want to read more, you can check out his web sites - www.gobbagobbahey.com and thewarmestroominthehouse.blogspot.com. If you'd like to see more of the work of the excellent photographer, Jun Belen, who took that fantastic photo of the three gobs on a dish posted here (as well as the back jacket cover of the Gobba Gobba Hey cook book) you can go to junbelen.com.
Recents Recently read: Currently savoring every word of Nigel Slater's "Appetite." Likewise taking my time with Murakami's "1Q84." I never want his books to end. Recently listened to: "Tin Drum" by Japan, Complete History Volume 9" by Red Die Number Nine, "Days" by Real Estate and "The Love That Whirls" by Bill Nelson. Recently cooked: Currently have my go-to-Moroccan chicken in the oven, roasting some cauliflower and broccoli to go with it. Recently drank: Waiting to open up a bottle of Cigare Blanc 2004 from Bonny Doon Vineyards. Recently craved: The chicken pot pie from Martha Stewart's Comfort Foods cook book. Recently Ate: Had a swoon-worthy Pork Belly Slider, with red onion and tomato jam, from Chef Dontaye Ball of Good Foods Catering. Equally good was the gumbo and fried chicken. For dessert I had a Snickerdoodle Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Sandwich from those baking magicians over at Sweet Constructions.
We have been buying -- and savoring -- Steve's gobs since he started Gobba Gobba Hey! So I put out an APB for his cookbook and bought it as soon as it was humanly possible. His recipes are as lovable as his personality (both in-person and in print) -- heartfelt, whimsical, delicious, and just generally wonderful. I'm especially excited that I can now give this book as a gift to my non-San Francisco-based friends who've been wondering what the heck we've been making such a fuss about. Soon we will ALL be gobsters! ;-)
My first gob was off Steven's tray on a trip to San Francisco. Since then, we've had them shipped to us cross-country whenever they are available. Now, I can make my own! The recipes are delicious and fun. Sourcing some of the ingredients is a little harder on the East Coast, but the rewards are so worth it. And beyond the great recipes, the stories and inspiration behind them are the true high point of this book. We love it!
First time that I've read a cookbook cover-to-cover, this well-assembled volume not only offers some tantalizing and inventive recipes, but its writing is pretty tasty too. Can't wait to try some of these confections in my own kitchen!
