Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sweet Moves: Dancer-turned-author coming to Vegas to promote holiday dessert cookbook

"Long before I hung up my pointe shoes I realized as much as I loved to dance, what I really lived for was to eat. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee enticed me out of bed in the morning and the thought of lunch pushed me through grand allegro combinations at the end of morning class.

"I must admit too, that more than once as I bowed to an audience after a performance I was thinking about what I was going to make for dinner."

-- Linda Hymes

You could say that, in a chocolate-candied caramelized nutshell, Linda Hymes has it all.

Her drive for perfection landed her a 15-year career with premier ballet companies. Her do-it-yourself attitude smashed any hindrance in attaining a successful culinary career.

Strong legs and a passion for flavor aside, Hymes' fierce work ethic dates to a childhood in Connecticut where she was, at age 8, whipping up eggs and creating breakfast menus, pricing and all.

It all comes together in her new cookbook, "The Nutcracker Sweet," printed by Lindergaff Books, the publishing company she started, featuring desserts inspired by the ballet in which she performed.

More than just a collection of recipes, the holiday-oriented cookbook uses photos from live productions of the ballet (including performances by Nevada Ballet Theatre), illustrations from a former dancer, and literary information about E.T.A. Hoffman's original fairy tale, "The Nutcracker and the King of Mice," which became a holiday standard in dance.

Then, of course, there are the luscious recipes: black forest crepe gateau, prince of almonds torte with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache, pear and hazelnut marzipan tart, nut brittle brigade and Spanish hot chocolate.

There are more than 60 desserts created by Hymes, who graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in London after a career in ballet.

While in town teaching at the Creative Cooking school Hymes will be signing copies of her book at Sur la Table in the Desert Passage mall at the Aladdin on Thursday.

Unlike her debut book, "The Dancing Gourmet," which features healthy and easy-to-prepare gourmet meals, "The Nutcracker Sweet" is full of sugary, sinful delights.

Basing them on the "The Nutcracker" ballet was not much of a leap.

"The original story, ironically, is all about desserts," said Hymes, a San Franciscan, who has performed in "The Nutcracker" about 200 times, as often as 35 shows a year.

In the ballet, Hymes said, "I was the marzipan shepherd. I was the snow queen, the sugarplum fairy. I was the angel, the Spanish hot chocolate. I was the Arabian coffee."

Yet with all these desserts on her mind, Hyman said, she never had to worry about keeping her weight down.

"I was dancing eight to 10 hours a day," she explained. "I never dieted. I was making sure I was eating enough. I had to stay strong.

"I haven't dieted since I was a student. One of the purposes of the first book ("The Dancing Gourmet") is to let people know that you don't need to diet to stay thin."

Whipping it up

"The Dancing Gourmet," published in 2002 (Lindergaff Books), features an assortment of appetizers, soups, salads, vegetarian and meat entrees, ending with a prelude to the next book: "Desserts from the Land of the Sweets."

Insisting on fresh ingredients, both books focus on preparation as the key to hassle-free cooking. Hymes' classic scallop ceviche, consisting of scallops, squeezed citrus, tomatoes and assorted onions and spices, requires a mere three-hour chilling.

Her sweet corn and coconut egg drop soup "cooks in under 15 minutes."

Her duck breast (skin-removed) salad with sesame orange oil is a breezy, step-by-step process. Her sea bass wrapped in pancetta is a four-ingredient dish.

Other tasty efforts include a Japanese noodle soup, udon with tiny gingered pork balls, which combines (among other items) ground pork, broccoli florets, asparagus spears and snap peas with chicken broth and minced fresh ginger root.

There's also rack of lamb with ginger mint chutney and grilled tuna with orange and thyme.

In the "Nutcracker Sweet," Hymes includes pudding variations, streusel, tiramisu, ice creams, cookies, cakes and sauces.

The book includes research on Hoffman's original story, a lengthy fairy tale that is, Hymes said, much more complicated and more involved than the ballet story, and "really quite gruesome" in a Grimms' fairy tale sort of way.

Both books include personal stories of traveling, backstage ballet preparation and Hymes' love of cooking.

"The kitchen was where my days began and ended, where I practiced my ronds de jambe a'terre while waiting for the kettle to boil," she writes in "The Dancing Gourmet."

She also refers to the love of food among fellow dancers:

"I was blessed to be employed among artists with similar passions, and discussions of the finer points of roasting chicken or baking Brie often took place while stretching at the barre or preparing for a pirouette."

Several courses

As a child Hymes began cooking on an electric stove as a way of adhering to her father's work ethic, and to avoid weeding the garden.

"Every morning I would make him breakfast and he would order from the menu," Hymes said. "Fifty cents for eggs. Seventy-five cents for pancakes because they require more preparation. He taught me everything. I learned very quickly. I think it started from that."

By age 12, Hymes was commuting to New York City to study ballet at the School of American Ballet. She graduated high school early and was dancing professionally by age 15. Like many young dancers, she had to learn how to keep her weight down, yet maintain physical strength.

"I was told to lose weight and grow," Hymes said, with a laugh.

So at 15 she'd skip breakfast and lunch and eat a couple of oatmeal cookies, thinking she could get through the day. She eventually learned that wasn't the way to achieve a good diet.

"Over the course of the years I started memorizing every calorie count and fat count I could," Hymes said. "But I loved gourmet food. I had to learn how to combine a love of food and a love of dance so that they could work together."

While a principal dancer with the Ohio Ballet, Hymes was known for her culinary pursuits, even catering different events where dancers would sample her meals.

When she retired from dancing in 1998, she left for England to study law at Bristol University. But, she said, "I had to do something much more creative."

That's when Hymes began writing a cookbook. Eventually she enrolled in, attended, then graduated from Le Cordon Bleu. She finished the book, then started her own publishing company. Her husband, photographer Derek Gaffney, shot the images.

"I didn't think I could make it work to be very successful at it," Hymes said, referring to a traditional career in the culinary industry. "People in the food business are notoriously poorly paid. I realized the best way to do it is to carve my own path."

She uses no recipes from Le Cordon Bleu, where the classic French cuisine often calls for "double creme and two pounds of butter."

"Everything is recipes I developed," Hymes said. "I try to focus on foods low in fat, that are naturally healthy that don't require a lot of butter. I have a nice balance of lots of flavor, little fat and exciting food.

"I like spicy, interesting, ethnic cuisine, Indian, Chinese, Japanese. I love cooking Moroccan food. Those foods are focused on flavor. Fat is secondary."

Regarding her Le Cordon Bleu education, Hymes said, "It was useful. It doesn't matter what you're cooking. If you learn the technique you can make anything. There is really nothing that is very difficult to make at home. It's just a matter of organizing and looking at recipes.

"The key to eating gourmet is knowing that there are so many things you can make as easily as going to get takeout."

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