Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell (Josh Kilmer-Purcell)
How time flies when you’re getting more fabulous.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, better known as the Fabulous Beekman Boys, have gone from reality stars to the forces behind one of the fastest growing international lifestyle brands. And we’re utterly obsessed with their every new soap, cheese and the baby goat added to the family.
Even though they have a new furniture and bedding line launching on November 5 at Bloomingdales (with a sneak peak starting Thursday — today — at Beekman1802.com), Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge took time out of their hectic schedules for a a few days of local Central Market appearances and cooking classes.
They’re in D-FW today (October 30) and tomorrow (October 31) to promote their newest cookbook, The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook, and sample their Mortgage Lifter sauces. I caught up with Kilmer-Purcell to answer all my burning questions for He Said Magazine.
He Said Magazine: We’re so happy to have you in Texas! Ever consider starting a satellite ranch here? We need more handsome gay cowboys.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell: Happy to be here! We’ve got enough on our plates with the 130 goats we already have. Maybe we could start some sort of farm franchise model: We’ll provide the logo, you do all the hard work.
Yeah, no. Not into hard work. Have any must-eats, must-sees or must-dos while you’re in Texas? Dallas specifically?
We make it a point to visit farmers markets in most every city we visit, and we’ve heard that newly reopened Dallas Farmers Market is one of the best. And we love getting farm-to-table restaurant recommendations on our Facebook page.
You should check out Asador at the Renaissance. Great farm-to-table food. Speaking of, your new vegetable cookbook looks wonderful. Glad that many of the recipes are the way most Texans approach veggies — accompanied by lots of meat.
Yes … meat is a great side for vegetables. During the height of summer and autumn harvest seasons, we plan our meals around the amazing things coming in from the garden. Meat is the secondary thought. We organized this cookbook by season to help people take advantage of the freshest harvests as they come into their farmers markets, CSAs or gardens.
Your cooking class in Dallas is sold out, so for the unlucky souls reading this who aren’t attending, can you offer up one quick cooking tip that’ll make the heartbreak a little easier?
For those who didn’t get a ticket, we decided to show up to Central Market early — from 3 to 4 p.m. (ed. note: and tomorrow in Fort Worth from 2 to 3 p.m.) — to sign books and hand out samples of our pasta sauce. Anyone can come down and get their books signed and gossip with us. As for a cooking tip: always break your eggs on a flat surface. You won’t get bits of eggs shells in your bowl that way.
Our omelets thank you. So, your cookbook raises a serious question: Is there really a difference in salad dressings for young lettuce vs., oh, senior citizen lettuce?
We’re not salad-tossing ageists.
If you had to eat one dish from the cookbook every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Probably the bacon popcorn-topped mac and cheese. But only because you’re forcing us to.
Do you all ever log on to farmersonly.com to see what the bucolic dating scene is like in upstate New York?
We’ll suggest to Farmer John. He’s single and looking right now. Hint, hint.
Catch the Fabulous Beekman Boys in person October 30 in Dallas and October 31 in Fort Worth.
Thursday, October 30
DALLAS – Central Market Store
5750 Lovers Lane
3-4 p.m. Free Mortgage Lifter Sampling Demo with Josh & Brent
6:30-9 p.m. Cooking Class, click here for details
Friday, October 31
FORT WORTH – Central Market Store
4651 West Freeway
2-3 p.m. Free Mortgage Lifter Sampling Demo with Josh & Brent
6:30-9 p.m. Cooking Class, click here for details
Keep up with the latest from Josh & Brent at www.beekman1802.com
A version of this interview originally appeared in the Dallas edition of He Said Magazine.
Steven Lindsey is a Dallas editor, freelance writer and obsessed lover of the written word, especially when relaying stories of travel, food and cocktails. Currently he is contributing editor and head writer of the national and Dallas editions of He Said Magazine (formerly Gay List Daily).