FOOD & DRINK

What does your fridge say about you? Everything

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FOOD WRITER
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Refrigerators. We all have them. Humming quietly (or not so quietly, depending on your model) in our kitchens, they keep milk chilled and extend the lifespan of leftovers. Refrigerators are the center of our culinary universe.

On the most basic level, refrigerators keep our food cool, but when you dig deeper, you find secrets. A forgotten chunk of now moldy cheese left over from a holiday dinner party. Dozens of narrow-neck bottles that give away an obsession with hot sauce. Our conflicting habits: almond milk and Coca-Cola, fat-free cheese and chocolate bars, margarine and heavy cream.

Every week for more than a year, I've been digging inside the fridges of all kinds of Central Texans on my food blog, Relish Austin, in a feature I call "What's in Your Fridge Friday." (See box on page X3 about how to submit yours.)

Looking into strangers' fridges also gives us a chance to see how other people live. Those of us who go through a loaf of bread in less than a week might not understand why someone would refrigerate their bread. Honey pops up in refrigerators now and then, even though honey is the only food in existence that doesn't go bad.

Sam Gosling, a University of Texas psychology professor, wrote a whole book about learning about people by looking at their stuff, says that he keeps a fridge full of perfectly aligned beverages because it's a link to his past, when his grandmother kept an icebox that was always full of tonic water or bitter lemon. He dedicated the last chapter of "Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You" to figuring out this obsessive-compulsive fridge behavior: "Now as an adult, without quite realizing it, I have re-created my own bottomless mixer wellspring." Keeping his fridge the way his grandmother did fills his "deep-rooted need for abundance."

Notable Fridge Fridays have included TV gastronaut Andrew Zimmern, "Central Texas Gardener" Tom Spencer, Texas Monthly food editor Pat Sharpe, DJs Sandy McIlree of Mix 94.7 and Deb O'Keefe of 101X, musicians Ephraim Owens, Amy Cook, Guy Forsyth and Bavu Blakes and bloggers Lisa Fain (the Homesick Texan) and Stephanie Klein of Greek Tragedy.

Some people, like Ranch 616 chef-owner Kevin Williamson, have sent pictures of the outsides of their fridges, too. His is decorated with party pictures of smiling friends.

Chefs tend to have the most surprising fridges because the shelves are often so bare. They spend long hours in their kitchens at work, which is where many of their meals are consumed. Fino Restaurant Patio and Bar chef Jason Donoho says farm eggs and chocolate — and often not much else — are always in his fridge.

Nearly all the fridges I've featured are in Austin, so I've seen some weird things: Statesman movie critic and known rat-lover Chris Garcia photographed his rat, Tammy, in his fridge last year. The band No Show Ponies had an African spear, a "Twin Peaks" DVD collection and a photo of the musician Morrissey in the icebox in their rehearsal space. "(It's) a place where worlds collide. A steady diet of Morrissey and 'Twin Peaks' keeps the body limber," says band member Ben Brown.

The award for the kookiest fridge easily goes to the Biscuit Brothers, the kid-friendly stars of KLRU's Emmy-winning music show, in which we found a flute basket ("A diet full of fresh flutes and vegetables is very important," they wrote), a trumpet (so it can play cool jazz) and "farm-fresh, organic, homegrown melodies."

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504