I LOVE Sam Sifton

And Florence Fabricant? You could hand her a Twix bar, three rutabagas and a carton of buttermilk and she’d come up with something good.

Where do you cook?

A. I cook at home, on a four-burner gas stove of no particular awesomeness. Food editors: They’re just like everybody else!

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Jeb Bush and President Obama, who declared that peas shouldn’t be in guacamole.

Our position: Put whatever you like in your guacamole, so long as it makes for a delicious feed.

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Q. Is there a Times palate?

A. We stand for the delicious in all forms, though you won’t see too much in the way of processed ingredients or pre-made shortcuts in our cooking, or in Cooking.

There are exceptions of course. There is a place for jarred mayonnaise in some recipes, and some of us believe strongly in the power of a peanut butter and pickle sandwich on white bread.

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Q. How could all this not involve constant cooking, constant eating? Isn’t it exhausting? Do you all weigh 300 pounds?

A. It’s not a good bet to complain about writing about food for a living. We’re doing what we love to do, in the service of readers. That’s pretty great. That the work occasionally involves having to eat duck confit again for dinner is not a reason to grumble.

Yes, sometimes we need to fly to Malibu to check in on these glam vegan people, or to bake a third or fourth pumpkin pie in advance of the Thanksgiving rush. There are trips to Ischia in order to figure out how to cook in hot sand. Sometimes Pete Wells needs a tablemate when he’s deciding if a restaurant deserves its fourth star. And then the next morning we need to test our recipe for béarnaise sauce before heading in to the office to write newsletters.

This is a trial? It’s an awesome living. I hit the gym in the afternoon to make sure I’m hungry for dinner, just as a conflict reporter might check her flak jacket in advance of a trip into a war zone.

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