INTERVIEW: Courtney McBroom, Lessons in Chemistry’s Food Consultant, Talks Vintage Recipes, Cookbooks, and Cooking for the Screen
by guest journalist Mary Kay McBrayer
Lessons in Chemistry follows chemist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) as she navigates the boys’ club of chemical development in 1950s California, as well as her inclusion of chemistry into her hit cooking TV show.
I had the privilege of talking with Courtney McBroom, the show’s food consultant, about how her favorite vintage recipes, collecting antique cookbooks, and how to cook for visual appeal overall.
MARY KAY MCBRAYER: I know conceptually what a consultant is but can you talk about what that looks like practically?
COURTNEY: Basically, I worked really closely with the writers, producers, and with Brie specifically—who's also a producer to figure out what the vibe of the food was going to be… how we wanted it to look, how it was going to help facilitate the storytelling of the show. And then, I helped bring it to life by working with an amazing team of food stylists, cooking the food, being on set, being there for Brie on set for the cooking scenes to help guide her through it. Also, and this isn't technically part of the food consulting job, it’s a separate job, but I was also the hand double for Brie. So, anytime there's close-ups of cooking, it's actually my hands.
MARY KAY: Cool! That sounds really fun, and also potentially very high stress, like if one thing went wrong, it could cascade….
COURTNEY: Yes, very high stress. Thank God I had a team.
MARY KAY: Like Elizabeth says in the show, “everyone burns the lasagna sometimes,” right? Did that ever happen? I mean, obviously, it turned out beautifully, but is there is there a moment you can tell us about where something didn't go right?
COURTNEY: Oh, yeah. It was full of tiny moments like that. What you see on screen for moments, took days and hours of work and stress and fun to get to that point. The one that sticks out to me the most is, there's a strawberry shortcake in the show. For some reason, the tops of the strawberry shortcake and the bottoms like didn't look right together, so we had to switch them out, but it was very last-second. We were in the back with strawberries and whipped cream everywhere, trying to fit the tops and bottom together. Oh! It was because they were slicing into it. It was quite a scenario. It was so fun. When you’re in the trenches, you just have to laugh at it. Keep going. I mean, Elizabeth didn’t necessarily laugh at it, but she kept going. And she did the things that she had to do to get it done.
MARY KAY: I love that she ended the episode with, “Your mother needs a minute,” which felt really authentic, even if it’s kind of sucky in the moment. I've heard this where you when you photograph food, you have to use weird substitutions sometimes, because the real ingredients won't hold up—like whipped cream under hot lights might collapse. Is making food to eat a lot different than making food to be seen on a camera? Did you have to use any weird substitutions?
COURTNEY: For me, for my cooking, it's not different. We used the real foods, the real recipes. We wanted it to look as authentic as possible. At the very last second, if we wanted something to shine or glisten, we might brush it with some oil or some water to make it glisten, but no tricks. It was the real deal.
MARY KAY: So, speaking of styling for authenticity and for film, Lessons in Chemistry is set in the ‘50s but from a chemist’s perspective, so she’s not using any weird preservatives—she could have easily looked at a package and seen an ingredient that’s not something you should eat. We even Elizabeth her throw away cans of soup in the opening scenes. Was there a moment where you as a food consultant looked at something and had an extreme reaction like, “If you put this recipe onscreen, I'm gonna burn the building down.” Or maybe a lesser version of that?
COURTNEY: Luckily, I didn't have to do that because I was the one choosing the recipes. We made the decision early on that, yes, Elizabeth is a woman of her time. She's a woman of the ‘50s, but she's also a woman ahead of her time, so she makes everything from scratch. She uses the freshest ingredients possible, so it's not necessarily typical food of the 50s with all the canned goods. That felt the most representative of who she was as a person, a chemist making the most nourishing food that she possibly could. Without any of that extra.
MARY KAY: She’s doing everything the best. The best ingredients and the best production. Like when she’s brewing coffee in the beaker, or carrying her lunch to work in the Pyrex in the lunchbox… when you were plating it, or presenting it, how did you arrange or present the recipes with the candy pink, bubble gum, almost all vibrant pastel palette of the ‘50s? How did you reconcile the color schemes?
COURTNEY: We wanted the food to pop off the screen. We want people to watch it and be really hungry. I've worked in the food business for long enough to know which foods look pretty on camera, and color is always something I think about, for sure. One of the dishes is a pot roast, which is beautiful, but it's also very like monochromatic. Elizabeth would also want to have some freshness and add nutrients, so we’d have fresh lettuces that pop green underneath it. It's also all stuff that I would want to eat, too. A lot of the recipes I've just been sitting on. I cooked them for myself and then realized, this is actually perfect. And look, it’s already written. I’ve been perfecting this lasagna for years.
MARY KAY: Nice! The 1950s were the time of the cooking show, right? Did you have any touchstones or inspiration for doing this period piece both with food but differently?
COURTNEY: There's definitely a nod to Julia Child when Elizabeth flambees the bananas foster. There's that behind-the-scenes photo of her doing the flambé, and there's two assistants hiding behind like the counter hold fire extinguishers. We did that we did that same thing to show homage to her because Julie child like the queen of that time period, so we definitely wanted to give a shout out to her.
MARY KAY: I love that photo. I remember you talking about Brie Larson doing the flambé perfectly in character in one take, and I was thinking, “Flames in my face!? She is a real professional.”
COURTNEY: She is. She's incredible.
MARY KAY: You also mentioned that you collect vintage cookbooks... do you have a favorite that you'll recommend to readers—or who people who want to be just like you?
COURTNEY: The recipes that I love the most are not even really in a cookbook. They’re the Betty Crocker recipe card collection. The one that I have is a pea green color, and when you open it up, it's like, hundreds of recipe cards. And the names are so funny and weird. Like, “Ways with shrimp.” That's just weird shrimp recipes. And they're divided into different little themes. It's incredible.
MARY KAY: I can see the box. I wonder if one of my grandmothers had it.
COURTNEY: I'm sure she did. It was so huge. Also, the Better Homes & Gardens one is really good.
MARY KAY: Where do you find your sources?
COURTNEY: A lot of times I'll find them on eBay. Occasionally, there's some really cool book shops that will have vintage books from time to time. Sometimes people send them to me because they know I love them.
MARY KAY: What else are you working on right now?
COURTNEY: I'm working on Ruined Table, which is my brand. I throw dinner parties with fun themes.
MARY KAY: Like The Craft!
COURTNEY: Yeah! “Calling the Corners” is the one I'm doing right now. I throw the parties, and I write about them in my newsletter, and then I release the recipes. There's a playlist and games and decorations, with the hope to inspire people to throw their own dinner parties at home to “ruin a table” so to speak, because that's the symbol of a good night, right? A huge mess. So I’m building that up.
MARY KAY: Is Ruined Table the best place to find you and your work?
COURTNEY: Yeah, you can find me on that, or my also my personal Instagram, @Courtney_McBroom.
MARY KAY: Last question: how did you make that beautiful tart?
COURTNEY: The recipe is coming out so very soon. If not today. We're doing cute, digital recipe cards, like printed recipe cards. Sort of vintage, like how they used to do it back in the day.
MARY KAY: Perfect.
Lessons in Chemistry releases new episodes on Friday on AppleTV+.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, the comedy podcast that analyzes your favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.
I had the privilege of talking with Courtney McBroom, the show’s food consultant, about how her favorite vintage recipes, collecting antique cookbooks, and how to cook for visual appeal overall.
MARY KAY MCBRAYER: I know conceptually what a consultant is but can you talk about what that looks like practically?
COURTNEY: Basically, I worked really closely with the writers, producers, and with Brie specifically—who's also a producer to figure out what the vibe of the food was going to be… how we wanted it to look, how it was going to help facilitate the storytelling of the show. And then, I helped bring it to life by working with an amazing team of food stylists, cooking the food, being on set, being there for Brie on set for the cooking scenes to help guide her through it. Also, and this isn't technically part of the food consulting job, it’s a separate job, but I was also the hand double for Brie. So, anytime there's close-ups of cooking, it's actually my hands.
MARY KAY: Cool! That sounds really fun, and also potentially very high stress, like if one thing went wrong, it could cascade….
COURTNEY: Yes, very high stress. Thank God I had a team.
COURTNEY: Oh, yeah. It was full of tiny moments like that. What you see on screen for moments, took days and hours of work and stress and fun to get to that point. The one that sticks out to me the most is, there's a strawberry shortcake in the show. For some reason, the tops of the strawberry shortcake and the bottoms like didn't look right together, so we had to switch them out, but it was very last-second. We were in the back with strawberries and whipped cream everywhere, trying to fit the tops and bottom together. Oh! It was because they were slicing into it. It was quite a scenario. It was so fun. When you’re in the trenches, you just have to laugh at it. Keep going. I mean, Elizabeth didn’t necessarily laugh at it, but she kept going. And she did the things that she had to do to get it done.
MARY KAY: I love that she ended the episode with, “Your mother needs a minute,” which felt really authentic, even if it’s kind of sucky in the moment. I've heard this where you when you photograph food, you have to use weird substitutions sometimes, because the real ingredients won't hold up—like whipped cream under hot lights might collapse. Is making food to eat a lot different than making food to be seen on a camera? Did you have to use any weird substitutions?
COURTNEY: For me, for my cooking, it's not different. We used the real foods, the real recipes. We wanted it to look as authentic as possible. At the very last second, if we wanted something to shine or glisten, we might brush it with some oil or some water to make it glisten, but no tricks. It was the real deal.
MARY KAY: So, speaking of styling for authenticity and for film, Lessons in Chemistry is set in the ‘50s but from a chemist’s perspective, so she’s not using any weird preservatives—she could have easily looked at a package and seen an ingredient that’s not something you should eat. We even Elizabeth her throw away cans of soup in the opening scenes. Was there a moment where you as a food consultant looked at something and had an extreme reaction like, “If you put this recipe onscreen, I'm gonna burn the building down.” Or maybe a lesser version of that?
MARY KAY: She’s doing everything the best. The best ingredients and the best production. Like when she’s brewing coffee in the beaker, or carrying her lunch to work in the Pyrex in the lunchbox… when you were plating it, or presenting it, how did you arrange or present the recipes with the candy pink, bubble gum, almost all vibrant pastel palette of the ‘50s? How did you reconcile the color schemes?
COURTNEY: We wanted the food to pop off the screen. We want people to watch it and be really hungry. I've worked in the food business for long enough to know which foods look pretty on camera, and color is always something I think about, for sure. One of the dishes is a pot roast, which is beautiful, but it's also very like monochromatic. Elizabeth would also want to have some freshness and add nutrients, so we’d have fresh lettuces that pop green underneath it. It's also all stuff that I would want to eat, too. A lot of the recipes I've just been sitting on. I cooked them for myself and then realized, this is actually perfect. And look, it’s already written. I’ve been perfecting this lasagna for years.
MARY KAY: Nice! The 1950s were the time of the cooking show, right? Did you have any touchstones or inspiration for doing this period piece both with food but differently?
COURTNEY: There's definitely a nod to Julia Child when Elizabeth flambees the bananas foster. There's that behind-the-scenes photo of her doing the flambé, and there's two assistants hiding behind like the counter hold fire extinguishers. We did that we did that same thing to show homage to her because Julie child like the queen of that time period, so we definitely wanted to give a shout out to her.
MARY KAY: I love that photo. I remember you talking about Brie Larson doing the flambé perfectly in character in one take, and I was thinking, “Flames in my face!? She is a real professional.”
COURTNEY: She is. She's incredible.
MARY KAY: You also mentioned that you collect vintage cookbooks... do you have a favorite that you'll recommend to readers—or who people who want to be just like you?
COURTNEY: The recipes that I love the most are not even really in a cookbook. They’re the Betty Crocker recipe card collection. The one that I have is a pea green color, and when you open it up, it's like, hundreds of recipe cards. And the names are so funny and weird. Like, “Ways with shrimp.” That's just weird shrimp recipes. And they're divided into different little themes. It's incredible.
MARY KAY: I can see the box. I wonder if one of my grandmothers had it.
COURTNEY: I'm sure she did. It was so huge. Also, the Better Homes & Gardens one is really good.
MARY KAY: Where do you find your sources?
COURTNEY: A lot of times I'll find them on eBay. Occasionally, there's some really cool book shops that will have vintage books from time to time. Sometimes people send them to me because they know I love them.
MARY KAY: What else are you working on right now?
COURTNEY: I'm working on Ruined Table, which is my brand. I throw dinner parties with fun themes.
MARY KAY: Like The Craft!
COURTNEY: Yeah! “Calling the Corners” is the one I'm doing right now. I throw the parties, and I write about them in my newsletter, and then I release the recipes. There's a playlist and games and decorations, with the hope to inspire people to throw their own dinner parties at home to “ruin a table” so to speak, because that's the symbol of a good night, right? A huge mess. So I’m building that up.
MARY KAY: Is Ruined Table the best place to find you and your work?
COURTNEY: Yeah, you can find me on that, or my also my personal Instagram, @Courtney_McBroom.
MARY KAY: Last question: how did you make that beautiful tart?
COURTNEY: The recipe is coming out so very soon. If not today. We're doing cute, digital recipe cards, like printed recipe cards. Sort of vintage, like how they used to do it back in the day.
MARY KAY: Perfect.
Lessons in Chemistry releases new episodes on Friday on AppleTV+.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, the comedy podcast that analyzes your favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.
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