There’s been a hole in the hearts of avid fans of “Pop-Up Magazine” since 2023, when the 10-year-old, Pulitzer Prize-winning storytelling show had its farewell tour. The live-performance magazine brought reporting, photography, videography, music, and more to the stage. Then the pandemic put a stake in it, as it did with so much live theater.
Well, we have a Good News Alert: Two of Pop-Up’s founders, Chas Edwards and Derek Fagerstrom, are back and producing a new San Francisco show. The good friends, who are based in Bernal Heights and Petaluma, respectively, have previously worked with TED, National Geographic, the Atlantic Festival, and the Aspen Ideas Festival.
This time, the duo will serve forth “Headnotes Live,” a dramatic recreation of cookbook storytelling, on April 24 at the Presidio Theatre. Serving as the culmination of San Francisco’s inaugural Cookbook Week and featuring appearances from some of the country’s most celebrated cookbook authors, the show will be hosted by Michele Norris, formerly of NPR’s “All Things Considered” and host of the podcast “Your Mama’s Kitchen. (opens in new tab)” “We are living in a moment that feels heavy and fractured,” said Norris. “Gathering around stories about food feels like the tonic we could all use right now.”
Though most Pop-Up shows were general-interest, a 2015 production turned its focus to food for a themed edition called “Dinner,” which included a 150-person dinner party.
“It’s important that the show feels complete, like a well-balanced meal — not too much broccoli, not too much ice cream.”
Chas Edwards
There will be stories of cooking and queer identity, thoughts on a redefinition of California cuisine, and even be a preshow cocktail hour, hosted by Omnivore Books, at which attendees can meet their favorite authors.
Just like with cooking, the mix of the evening is critical. “It’s important that the show feels complete, like a well-balanced meal — not too much broccoli, not too much ice cream,” Edwards laughed. “An ideal evening is going to have some moments of tenderness and pathos or sadness. There also should be moments of laughter and fun. There should be moments of inspiration.”
As for the name: A headnote is the paragraph that kicks off the recipe in a cookbook — the part that tells the story behind the dish. “This paragraph gives context and narrative and personalizes a recipe, whether it’s an anecdote or a clue about an ingredient,” said Jonath, Cookbook Week’s creative director and a longtime cookbook editor.
“Even though we can get all our recipes online now, I think the reason cookbooks have stayed around is because people form an attachment to not just the recipes but to the storyteller.” And “Headnotes Live” is planning to run with that.
Headnotes LiveDate and timeApril 24, 7-10 p.m.
The San Francisco Standard is the official media partner of Cookbook Week. Coverage of the event is produced independently by our editorial team.