Leslie Karst
Show Notes
On this episode, we take a small break from mysteries and talk with an old friend, Leslie Karst,
about her book “Justice is Served: A Tale of Scallops, The Law, and Cooking For RBG”
When Leslie Karst learned that her offer to cook dinner for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg and her renowned tax law professor husband, Marty, had been accepted, she was
thrilled—and terrified. A small-town lawyer who hated her job and had taken up cooking as a
way to add a bit of spice to the daily grind of pumping out billable hours, Karst had never before
thrown such a high-stakes dinner party. Could she really pull this off?
Justice Is Served is Karst’s light-hearted, earnest account of the journey this unexpected
challenge launched her on—starting with a trip to Paris for culinary inspiration, and ending with
the dinner itself. Along the way, she imparts details of Ginsburg’s transformation from a young
Jewish girl from Flatbush, Brooklyn, to one of the most celebrated Supreme Court justices in our
nation’s history, and shares recipes for the mouthwatering dishes she came up with as she
prepared for the big night. But this memoir isn’t simply a tale of prepping for and cooking dinner
for the famous RBG; it’s also about how this event, and all the planning and preparation that
went into it, created a new sort of connection between Karst, her partner, and her parents, and
also inspired Karst to make life changes that would reverberate far beyond one dinner party.
A heartfelt story of simultaneously searching for delicious recipes and purpose in life, Justice Is
Served is an inspiring reminder that it’s never too late to discover—and follow—your deepest
passion.
We announced that we will be on vacation for 3 weeks in July. During that time, we have
decided to record short stories that have been submitted. Each of us will have an episode and
we will return on July 28 with regular episodes.
TRIVIA:
Other than a prolific mystery writer, what is Susan Wittig Albert's other claim to fame?
a. she writes for a gardening magazine
b. She is a professor of English
c. She writes self-help books for women
d. She was appointed the first female vice president of a university
The answer is all of them. She earned a degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana–
Champaign and a Ph.D.in English from the University of California, Berkeley. She became a
professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin and was a university administrator at
Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans and was the first female vice president for academic
affairs at Southwest Texas State University. She also writes a column for Country Living
Gardener magazine.
There will be no new trivia for this week since we will be away on vacation until July 28 when we
will resume with full episodes and new trivia.