There's been somewhat of a rash of people lately asking me what happened in my career that I'm suddenly writing here. I was confused the first time or two, until I realized they thought I was Dave Lieberman, the Food Network star. I get random Facebook friend requests (don't, by the way–I look at who we have in common, and if we don't have anyone in common, you stay in limbo) from people who seem surprised to find out I'm not the Dave Lieberman they're looking for.
There are plenty of reasons to confuse us besides our name: we're both expat East Coasters (he's from Philadelphia; I'm from central New Jersey) living in the Greater Los Angeles Area; we're both foodies; we're both into not spending a lot of money on food. But we're not the same person.
I've actually only met my doppelgänger once–he was signing books at the L.A. Times Festival of Books several years ago–but he seems like a nice guy, and I don't want his reputation to be tarnished by the opinionated screeds I publish here. Forthwith, then, five ways to tell which Dave Lieberman is which.
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1. Look for evidence of cookbook publication.
Dave Lieberman, the celebrity chef, has two cookbooks (Young and Hungry: More than 100 Recipes for Cooking Fresh and Affordable Food For Everyone and Dave's Dinners) that have been published worldwide. My cookbook is a black Moleskine notebook full of handwritten recipes probably unintelligible to anyone else.
2. Examine the television history.
Dave Lieberman, the celebrity chef, did a cooking show for public access in New Haven, Connecticut, when he was a Yalie. He had two successful Food Network television shows. I starred in a brief news segment on KGAN Channel 2 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when the Wapsipinicon River flooded the town I lived in in 1999 and was briefly shown in a clip of college students building sandbag levees in Fargo, North Dakota in 1997. Look for the food. If you see food being handled, you've got the celebrity chef; if it's a natural disaster, it's probably me.
3. Examine the mileage log.
I
don't mean the age–though the celebrity chef is *ahem* several years
younger than I–I mean the actual mileage log. Dave Lieberman, the
celebrity chef, travels the country and reports on food trends for his
Food Network webcast, Eat This with Dave Lieberman. I travel the
county (no R), with occasional forays into Los Angeles or the 909 and
the occasional pleading article to please get over this irrational fear
of Tijuana, and tend to disdain food trends with a great deal of snark
for Stick A Fork In It.
4. Look for foreign languages.
I have no idea if Dave Lieberman, the celebrity chef, is multilingual, but if you're reading something that's shot through with italicized words of foreign origin, chances are you're reading something written by polyglot ol' me.
5. Look at the pictures.
Dave Lieberman, the celebrity chef, is young, blue-eyed and hungry. I resemble a strawberry shortcake in every cul-de-sac of the virtual city that is social media.
Dave Lieberman, the celebrity chef, has his own blog; find him at davecooks.net.
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