Four Inane Questions with The Electrified Cooks

Roxanne Wyss and Kathy Moore. // Courtesy The Electrified Cooks

Around these parts, Roxanne Wyss and Kathy Moore are known as The Electrified Cooks. To date, these prolific, local food writers have penned 17 cookbooks and created thousands of recipes and content for various publications. (Their most recent cookbook, you ask? The Best Cast Iron Baking Book.)

In addition to continuously honing their craft in the kitchen, the duo are often busy teaching others the art of cooking. If you haven’t tried one of their cooking classes, can you even call yourself a Kansas Citian?

Plus, in their 40+ years of culinary arts, they’ve probably tried every kitchen appliance out there and lived to tell the tale. Heck, the two met in a Crock Pot test kitchen. Slow cooking “still runs through our blood,” they say. (Find their popular food blog here.)

We caught up with the two culinary consultants to ask them our series of moronic questions. We made sure they put their knives away beforehand. 

The Pitch: Ketchup is off the table. What do you dip your fries in?

Roxanne: We all know that french fries are not French, but did you know they actually began in Belgium? It seems the fried fish-loving folks of Belgium had a rough winter when the rivers froze over, and in desperation for a fried treat, they created french fries. 

It makes perfect sense that my favorite fry dipping sauce is malt vinegar. I love my fish and chips with copious amounts of malt vinegar sprinkled on top, and now it is my go-to for fries—with or without fish. My food rationale believes it is the balance of the salty fries with the sweet flavor and the acid of the vinegar brings it all together. Divine, don’t you agree?

You’ve just been handed your own cooking show—what’s the premise?

Roxanne: Funny you should ask! We have the show already planned out, and season one is ready to go. Now if we could only find a sponsor!

Kathy: The show is Electrified Cooks—Plugged into Cooking. After more than 40 years of cooking together, developing recipes, and teaching cooking schools, we are ready. The show would be filled with tips better than you can find on TikTok or Insta and will make you a rockstar in the kitchen.

When it makes sense, we will use our appliance background to add a slow cooker tutorial. 

What’s the most complicated dish you could create sans recipe?

Roxanne Wyss and Kathy Moore. // Courtesy The Electrified Cooks

Roxanne: Baked Alaska! While chefs will know this recipe is not at all complicated, most folks believe that it is beyond impossible to prepare. It really is easy-peasy.

Julia Child is quoted as saying that she thinks every woman should have a blow torch. I couldn’t agree more. There is so much fanfare when the blow torch comes to the table and beautifully browns and crisps the sweet, willowy meringue.

The a-ha moment when you serve slices and reveal the ice cream-cake combination confirms that food is my love language.

Every chef has some sort of weird, recurring cooking dream/nightmare. What’s yours?

Kathy: We teach sold out cooking classes regularly. My nightmare is arriving to teach a class for 15 or 20 registered students, when suddenly 30 or 40 people show up. All are hungry and are ready to eat, learn, and have fun—but there are way too many people for the food that’s planned.

A grocery store is not close by, and the extra food cannot be quickly prepped. 

For us, this would be worse than trying to serve Thanksgiving dinner to a crowd of 20 when you planned a quiet dinner for six. I don’t want to even think about it for a second!

Bonus 5th Question: Swearing is forbidden. What words do you use in lieu of swearwords?

Kathy: Of course, there are times in the kitchen when I must scream because something did not go according to plan. Like, the moment I drop a pan, break a glass, or—Heaven forbid—spill expensive extra virgin olive oil I was carefully rationing out.

It creates havoc and I react! 

Under my breath, a cuss word or two may slip out, but what do I shout? “Darn it,” “Shoot,” and “Shucks,”—probably in rapid fire succession. I sure would not want my family and friends to think I was less than perfect, and I wouldn’t want to tarnish my image!