If you’re a foodie, and have an interest in France (and French cooking), you’d likely enjoy reading Patricia & Walter Wells’ new memoir, We’ve Always Had Paris . . . and Provence: A Scrapbook of our Life in France. Now in their 60’s, the Wells have lead a charmed life, in my opinion. Not without a lot of hard work, however. They’ve now been there for over 30 years. Both from journalistic backgrounds (New York Times), they decided to take a risk and move to Paris. Their story doesn’t quite fit the romanticized vision of such a move – I assumed they lived high, in the toniest of digs. But, the reality was a small rented apartment, with minimal space and furniture. However, they managed that way for years and years. Meanwhile, Walter worked hard at the IHT (Int’l Herald Tribune) and Patricia was eventually hired by the New York Times to write a column about Paris/France from a food point of view. Both of them are “driven,” to keep working, to improve, to learn, to grow, but it’s all fueled by their utter love of life.

When exactly Patricia arrived on my foodie radar, I don’t recall, but it was a long time ago. She used to free lance articles in Gourmet, I believe, so I knew Patricia was linked to Paris somehow. I read her first Bistro Cooking cookbook, published after she’d lived in Paris for some years. Last year I bought Vegetable Harvest, a lovely book of every imaginable vegetable recipe. With this newest book, though, Patricia and Walter trade off telling the story of their lives, their jobs, learning French, cooking in their small Parisian apartment kitchen, their neighbors, the telephone system, and a lot about restaurants. The difference with them vs. us, the average joe, is that Patricia WAS on an expense account much of the time, so they were able to eat at some of the finest restaurants in that city, night after night, for free. I suppose, given those circumstances, when I might cook at home it would likely be simple food.

Eventually they bought an apartment and there were interesting tidbits about the renovation, which took nearly a year. Then they bought a farmhouse in Provence, and began going from one to the other place nearly every weekend. The Wells know/knew some very impressive people, (like Paul Bocuse, Joel Rubichon, Julia Child, even James Beard), but entertained them with relatively simple food when they visited in Provence. Patricia has a real willingness (and a competitive nature) to learn and make some very difficult food (more than I do, for sure). They raise a varied garden at their Provencal home. Eventually Patricia rented a Paris loft too and outfitted it as an office and cooking school. I’ve always thought it would be great fun to take a class from her. However, her Provence classes are $5,000 for 3 ½ days, not including lodging. Her entire cooking classes schedule for 2009 is full, as of this writing anyway.

With each chapter there are one or two recipes. Sometimes they were related to the chapter subject, or a recipe received from a local chef. The recipes are not particularly complicated except for the ones around foix gras. A few looked interesting: peach wine (homemade), dried cranberry and apricot bread, lemon chicken and scrambled eggs with black truffles. I didn’t buy the book for her recipes, though, but for the charming stories of their lives in France. They love it there and it shows. Highly recommended read.

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I‘ve already posted the recipe for the Crumbled Asparagus (see link at bottom); I’m just using the photo as a way to introduce talking about asparagus. And by the way, I’ve had any number of people email me about how luscious this recipe is, in case  you haven’t tried it (see link at bottom).

This is the beginning of a series I’m going to write about fruits and vegetables. Most of the fact type information comes from Russ Parsons’ book titled How to Pick a Peach. I know, the season for asparagus is mostly over, but I wanted to start with it, since it’s probably my favorite vegetable. 80% of all asparagus in the U.S. is grown is California, mostly in the Sacramento – Stockton area (that’s about 75-100 miles east of San Francisco).

What I Learned:

• That a single asparagus plant produces both thinner and fatter stalks – the fatter ones toward the center (the first to grow) and the thinner ones around the outside of the same plant.
• That there are asparagus fanatics out there who swear their thinner, peeled ones are better than the fatter, that the best flavor is in the bases, plus those who just quibble over peeling or no. [Sometimes I do; sometimes I don’t. If they’re bigger ones, often I do. And just because you need to be reminded, don’t ever put asparagus bases or peels in a garbage disposal.]
• In Parson’s opinion, buy big fat ones when you’re making a “vegetable statement.” When you want a big platter of them to be a significant part of the meal. If the asparagus will be used in another dish – say – in a risotto or pasta dish – then for the mixtures, use the thinner ones. The thinner ones are a little crisper and have a brighter color.
• As for white asparagus, we rarely see it here in the U.S. [It’s far more common in Europe where we once saw a guard with a gun patrolling fields of them to prevent poaching.] In season, white asparagus – in Europe – looms large on menus in restaurants. They’re white because the stalks have never seen the light of day – they’re carefully covered over with soil to prevent the sun from reaching them, the sun would create chlorophyll, thus turning the asparagus green.
• That some people are actually interested in the aroma of their urine after eating asparagus. Even Marcel Proust credited asparagus with “transforming my chamber pot into a vase of aromatic perfume.” [Hmmm. Really? I must have missed that when I read Proust. Or else I thought “ew!”]
• After some research on the matter, scientists have determined that the unique odor in canned asparagus is caused by a chemical called methoxypryrazine, which incidentally, is also an aroma associated with Sauvignon Blanc. [Yes, really.]

How to Choose & Store:

• Check that the tips are tightly furled (whether fat or thin spears) – remember, this is a fern. The tips are the first part of the plant to break down after cutting.
• Check the bases – they should be moist. The best storage is sitting in a pan of water (so the bases can stay wet). Do the same when you get them home – sitting upright in a little water with a plastic bag over the top to create a moisture trap.

Recipes: In the book, Parsons included a recipe for Asparagus Wrapped in Crisp Prosciutto, Asparagus & Shrimp Risotto (and a 3-page in-depth explanation about how to make perfect risotto), and Asparagus with Sauce Mimosa. If and when I make any of these, I’ll post them. Here are my favorite asparagus recipes that I’ve posted:
Asparagus & Ham Frittata

Crumbled Asparagus

Roasted Asparagus with Chile Citrus Butter

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It’s been six months or so ago that somebody, on another blog, mentioned Russ Parsons’ most recent book, “How to Pick a Peach:.” I always enjoy reading his columns in the Los Angeles Times, but hadn’t looked at the book. Visiting the library recently, it was there and I checked it out. This isn’t a memoir. It isn’t exactly a cookbook, either. It is, however, an excellent guide and history about the most popular/common of the produce we eat on a day-to-day basis. I really expected to be bored to tears. Wrong. I started reading at the beginning and read it all the way through.
Parsons has included recipes with every chapter, his favorites for that particular vegetable or fruit.

The history and story parts about each one are fascinating. Now, I’ll admit, this isn’t exactly like reading Robert Ludlum, but if you’re a foodie, and you enjoy choosing and EATING better tasting produce, you might want to read this book.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time – sometimes – choosing the best produce. Even celery, for goodness’ sake. What IS it with celery lately – seems like I keep choosing heads that are air and hollow within the stalks. Heavy with strings. Seems like more than ever. Even lettuce – every 3-4 heads I buy, once I cut into it, it’s got rust inside. And tomatoes. I adore tomatoes, but rarely do I buy anything except vine-ripened anymore, or the little tiny ones. And then there’s apricots. I’ve been so disappointed the last couple of summers with really poor tasting apricots – mealy flesh and not good to eat. Even peaches and nectarines are spotty at best. So, that’s why I picked up the book in the first place. I hoped to find answers. Only time will tell whether the advice is useful for shopping in a traditional grocery store. Farmers’ markets usually offer better choices and fresh ones too, but it’s not always convenient.

So after finishing the book I got to thinking about how I could possibly remember all the advice offered in the book. I can’t exactly carry the book around with me every time I shop. I thought about using a big yellow pad and writing down the crux of each one (refrigerate, not refrigerate, picking large vs. small, the coloring of fruits, why to buy one variety over another). You know, that kind of thing. But I realized this written thing was going to be quite long and detailed. Not something I’d haul around with me in my purse when I go to the grocery story or farmer’s market. What to do, what to do? I could put it into my Palm pilot which goes with me most places. That actually might work; I’d just have to navigate to that file and then find the right section describing the produce I’m pondering. And I may just do that. Or, I could try to write just the barest of details onto 3×5 cards that could live in my purse. I already carry around 3 such cards with slaps of paint on them with the wall colors in our home, so adding 2-3 more would not be a big deal.

So what did I do? Well, I haven’t written it up for my Palm yet, but I will. Nor have I written up the 3×5 cards, either. But first I went out and bought the paperback edition of this book so I can mark up the pages however I wish. There were 8-10 recipes in the book that I wanted to keep anyway of the 100 in the entire book.

What I did decide to do, though, is share some of the information with you. And in the process, I’ll synopsize each chapter with the shortest of details you and I will need to buy the best stuff. And I’ll include some of the interesting facts about the different fruits and vegetables in Parsons’ book. You’ll learn something, and I’ll maybe retain more of the information in my brain if I have to write it up! That’s my plan. I’ll need to take my camera with me to the grocery store next time to take photos of lots of different kinds of vegetables and fruits. Especially the summer fruits that we only see some months of the year anyway. So, stay tuned.

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For many of you, who don’t reside in the U.S., the name Alice Waters may not hold much meaning. She’s been an icon of the foodie world for about 40 years, emanating from her ubiquitous restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. 

Thomas McNamee has written a definitive biography of Alice Waters, and the history of the restaurant along with it, that gives interested readers a glimpse into the complete timeline and inner-workings of the famous restaurant and kitchen.

Alice Waters’ claim to fame, is her absolute dedication to using farm fresh (Slow Food) produce and products. She’s probably credited with bringing this movement to the U.S. long before anyone else was interested. After visiting France when she was newly graduated from college, and enjoying the fresh untainted bounty of the countryside, she and her then boyfriend, returned home to open a restaurant near her Alma Mater, University of California, Berkeley. Chez Panisse is literally about 10-15 blocks north of the campus, and has remained much the same as when it opened back in 1971. A 2-story stucco house, transformed into a very busy, very VERY busy restaurant. After reading the book, I’ll just say that it has morphed over the years, and Alice remains in some kind of role, still seeking out the “stage,” if you can call a restaurant as such.

Having eaten there twice, I’ll say that I enjoyed the food tremendously both times. But I didn’t realize the significant difference between eating upstairs vs. downstairs. Upstairs is the casual cafe, with a small, open kitchen, and an a la carte menu (where I’ve eaten both times). Downstairs is the more formal set menu dining room, where you eat what is placed in front of you. No choices except what wine you’d like to have (extra). The varied chefs (Jeremiah Towers, Mark Miller, and the current chef, Jean-Pierre Moulle) over the years, have made and remade the reputation, but with Alice’s touch, always. The notable chefs have ebbed and flowed. Some with fiery temperaments. Some who had to take a back seat to Alice’s name as chef, when in fact, she rarely cooks. Over the years she’s had to wield a frying pan many a night, but you learn that it’s not her strength. She’d rather be adding a sprig of chervil on the green beans, or glad-handing the guests in the dining room. She also had the wizardry of Lindsey Shere, certainly a well-known name now in pastry stardom. Alice gave Lindsey her own tiny shack on the property, little more than a lean-to, and it’s from there the famous Chez Panisse desserts emanated. Lindsey was given almost complete autonomy, as long as she abided by Alice’s desire for local and seasonal products, the freshest, etc.

The first time my DH and I had dinner there, Alice was present in the upstairs dining room. We actually sat in the next booth to where she’d joined a small family (Chez Panisse purveyors) who had come to the restaurant for the first time. Alice was making certain they were appreciated. And now having read the book, I’m certain Alice was spreading “the word,” her philosophy, about how the Slow Food movement was progressing and how important their contribution was.

What’s interesting is that over the 35+ years of its existence, Chez Panisse has only been making money for about the last 10. Alice has a vision, always, about everything in her life, but particularly the restaurant. Nothing could sway her from her goal of providing the very best, the most expensive, but the freshest seasonal ingredients. But her management style? She virtually has none. She always left and still leaves the supervision, guidance, firing, to underlings. She didn’t dirty her hands with the day to day management. She prides herself, however, on the feeling of “family” that exists to this day, amongst the staff. In the early years she accommodated everyone’s needs – for vacations, days off mostly whenever they said they needed it, breast feeding in between shifts in a back room, or loans when someone was in financial difficulty. Rather amazing in a way.

But the staff, for probably 30 of those years, took gross advantage of their positions. The waiters and waitresses comped food to lots of guests (their friends, or?), delivered wine to tables that never paid for it, which naturally, affected the bottom line every single night. And, it was commonplace that after a shift was over with, the staff would get roaring drunk (on highly expensive bottles of wine in the wine cellar, for which they didn’t pay), got high on drugs sometimes, and drinking on the job was almost encouraged. It took Alice’s father’s strong hand and arm some years ago to bring some kind of order to the chaos. And a modicum of profit to the books. There were many others who helped with this – not just her father – but for every step forward, she’d fall a half step back. However, she never faltered in her vision, and it would seem, she still maintains the vision.

It’s one thing to have an idea in your head about what you dream or see for a business. And it’s another to make it work and make it profitable. Alice has never seemed to have the guts to step up to the plate and make that happen. Making the restaurant profitable was not a goal for her. And part of that was laudable, actually, since she funded hefty profit sharing to the employees over the years, and always provided health care insurance for them when it was an unknown in the restaurant business.

According to the book, Alice is rarely in the restaurant anymore. She has finally left it (mostly) to the able hands of chefs and managers she’s finally recognized as good and reliable. Instead, she flits around the world promoting her myriad of sustainable food projects (including one at Yale University). Alice has a loyal following of friends, and because of her notoriety is sought out by more celebrities. She’s a particular fan of Bill Clinton. But Alice still lives in the tiny home near the restaurant (when she’s home), and drops in the restaurant to say hello to old friends and to taste a sauce.

It was an interesting read. More so because I’ve been to the restaurant more than once, and because I’ve known of Alice Waters since the 1980’s. Although I certainly gained an enormous respect for Alice Waters from reading the book, I’m left with a feeling of unfinished business somehow. How she managed to run a business all these years is beyond my ken. Really what happened is that it barely ran itself. It was close to bankruptcy several times. I guess I’m disappointed in Alice for that reason, that she couldn’t learn how to manage. Fortunately she has strong, talented help who now do know how to run a restaurant.

Where do I go from here? (1) next time I go to Chez Panisse, I’m planning ahead and definitely going to the downstairs restaurant. That’s where the haut food is, where innovation takes place; and (2) I’m going to do some research about Lindsey Shere. Next time I’m in a used bookstore I’m going to look for her 1994 Chez Panisse Desserts, which is still in print.

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These aren’t all “new” books. Well, they’re all new to me. Some were received as Christmas gifts (the top four, all from my Amazon wish list) and the remaining ones I bought myself at a used bookstore in Placerville, California. Every time we go to Placerville to visit our daughter and family, I try to pop in to this great little shop called The Bookery on the old Goldrush-era main street. I always pause to pet the gray-haired dog who curls up on the dog bed near the front door, sometimes talk to the resident cat who lives on a shelf behind the cash register, then I make a beeline for the cookbook section. I’ve always been amazed at the quality of the books in this store – the cookbooks that is. For a small used bookstore, it’s always busy, and they have a convenient low stool in the cookbook area, which I use as I peruse the books.

Actually, my stack of books was higher than shown in the photo. Out in front of the store they had a table and a trolley heaped with Christmas books, all half off the marked price, which usually is 50% of the list price. It was the day before Christmas and they wanted to get rid of them! So I got those for 25% of the list price, the flyleaf price. There were some very cute books in that section, including some children’s books I’ll give to our newest grandson next year. They’ve been relegated to my Christmas stash way upstairs.

But, back to the bookstore. Sorry, I digress. This time I was there I was told, as I was checking out, that one of the owners (who wasn’t there) has a huge, I mean HUGE, cookbook collection. Numbering in the thousands, they told me. No WONDER the bookstore has a large cookbook collection. I suppose she passes on her discards to the store shelves. I wish I knew her. Maybe more of her discards would grace my shelves.

Although I already have a serious cookbook problem, as I’ve divulged here before. I already have bulging cookbook shelves. Now with these new books, I have no room. This stack, pictured above, is sitting on a piece of furniture at the moment in the kitchen/family room area. The Alice Waters biography has been removed and is sitting by my kitchen placemat. Always available for a little look-see if I have a spare moment while I’m eating a meal.

Two of the stack are novels (with one of those a food mystery). Actually both have disappeared to the upstairs library, where I keep all of my fiction. I have much more library storage in the upstairs office, where I spend several hours every day, mostly on my desktop computer. But for now, I’m enjoying just looking at this stack, getting ready for more pleasurable minutes of cookbook reading.

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Do you run out of oven space on holidays? Especially Thanksgiving? Fortunately, I have 2 regular ovens AND a microwave/convection oven too. When we remodeled our kitchen a year ago we put in 2 ovens. They are just 27″ wide, so the two turkeys took up both regular ovens with no room to spare for side dishes. We baked yeast bread in the small convection oven an hour or so before dinner, and heated up one of the vegetable dishes in the microwave.

Making mashed potatoes at the last minute is not my idea of fun cooking on Thanksgiving. Recently a friend mentioned that she keeps mashed potatoes in her crockpot for holiday dinners. What a great idea, I thought. She said, as long as your potato recipe has a goodly amount of fat (butter, sour cream or something), the potatoes will hold for hours. I’m here to tell you the technique works like a charm. I’ll be doing this year after year after year.

Again, I turned to Rick Rodgers’ book, Thanksgiving 101, and he has a “Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole” in the 1998 edition. His are baked, but I used the recipe with just one substitution, then piled the 10 pounds of mashed potato mixture into the large crockpot. [I made a double batch.] The recipe below is for 5 pounds of potatoes. I have a very old crockpot – with a ceramic insert. It has the high, low and auto settings, but it’s big. Good thing since we filled the pot to the brim with potatoes. These can’t be called healthy in any way, but this was Thanksgiving, after all. I didn’t skimp – I used full fat cream cheese, and full fat sour cream. Were they good? Abso-posi-tutely, as my dad used to say. I’m looking forward to all the leftovers for tonight’s dinner. The pumpkin pie is gone and the broccoli with Hollandaise is gone, but we have lots of the other stuff: the super-moist kosher turkey, dressing, green beans, broccoli/leek puree, gravy AND mashed potatoes!
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Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click link to open MC – 14 contains photo)

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These are all cookbooks. And I have another 5-8 more books sitting around in different places in my kitchen too. Once upon a time I was able to decoratively arrange my cookbooks – some standing up, a few short piles in strategic places lying flat. That was a long time ago. I haven’t counted all my cookbooks, but they surely number over 100. And I have no more room in the cabinet. None whatsoever. Some years ago I did perform a necessary purge. I simply had to get rid of some of them. It was agonizingly difficult. Even though there are many of these that I never refer to anymore, one just never knows. Maybe tomorrow would be the day I need that very book I just gave away.

But then, I’m that way about all books. Not wanting to get rid of them. With my non-cook book collections, my desire is to keep them all. Tattered paperback or brand new hardbacks. No matter. I like them all surrounding me. My biographies collection resides in our downstairs guest room. I always know where to find them. Non-fiction fills another book case in my office upstairs. And the fiction, the largest by far, fills all of the other bookshelves in the office. I like to gaze at those spines now and then and recollect how much I enjoyed reading the pages in between. I like looking at the multiple books I own by a few authors, like Anita Brookner, Ludlum, Rutherford. I do loan them out now and then. Sometimes I get them back. Not always, even though I tell the borrower I want them back. I don’t keep a log, so don’t remember who I gave them to. But that’s okay, as long as somebody is reading them. A friend once asked me why I kept my novels. She, a librarian, doesn’t keep any. I marveled at her ability to give them away, or just borrow them from the library. She asked me, do you ever read them a second time? Well, no I don’t. Why keep them, then? Why indeed. But I do.

But cookbooks. I DO refer to them. I have a 12-volume cookbook encyclopedia – the Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery. It was given to me back in the 1960’s by my former father-in-law. He had an in with the publisher. I still refer to those books time and time again. I don’t much use the recipes, but I look up information. It’s full of advice about how long you can keep things, calorie counts, methods of cooking and really basic information about the origin of foods, spices, ingredients. And of course, it contains lots of recipes. The books, although published in 1966, are worth a bit if you have the whole set (I do). A whopping $74.99. But I can’t part with them. Even at that price.

I have cookbooks that reflect a bygone era – like Vincent & Mary Price’s large volume about cooking, A Treasury of Great Recipes. Published back in the late 1960’s the mostly French recipes are heavy with butter and cream and sauces. I could sell it for $20 on ebay. But no, I’ll hold onto it, thank you. Why? I really don’t know. Likely I’ll never make a single one of the recipes in it. I don’t know that I ever have. But I choose to keep it. I like it’s large shape. Heavy, padded cover, even. And it contains lots of photographs of Vincent Price’s home and kitchen. Not that I was a fan of his acting. I wasn’t. But, I just like glancing at the book now and then.

Then, as with most cooks of my generation, I have a copy of the Joy of Cooking. It was by far the most popular cookbook of the 1960’s. I still have my copy, food spattered and all. I rarely refer to it anymore, but I don’t want to give it away, either. A couple of years ago I read the biography of Irma S. Rombauer, Stand Facing the Stove. In it you learn about her life, of course, but many interesting stories about how the publisher of Joy took such unfair advantage of Irma in the publishing of the cookbook. But it was revealing too, because Irma Rombauer really didn’t have much of an interest in cooking, certainly no love for it, but she saw a need and thought she could, with a great deal of work, create a cookbook that would be useful and sale-able. She was a single mother (her husband committed suicide) who had never worked, and needed to provide a living for her family. Unfortunately, she saw very little of the earnings from the printing and reprinting of her book and the multitude of other books Bobbs-Merrill printed using the names of Irma and her daughter. The publisher took grave and unfair advantage of her naivete. Versions written after 1976 were compiled by the publisher and the Rombauer family was not consulted.

In 2006, however, the Rombauer family rewrote the original Joy in its new 75th Anniversary Edition. I have a hankering to get that version, although I don’t know that I’ll be willing to forgo my old spattered copy. Numerous famous chefs were consulted and wrote some parts of this new book, bringing it fully up to date.

One of the things some food bloggers do is present a list of favorite cookbooks. I have several, but I must tell you that when I’m searching for something new to cook, I may consult 10-20 of my cookbooks before I decide. Or I may combine two or three recipes from different books. So what I will give you is a list of the books that I seem to refer to more often than others. Maybe I’ll create a sidebar box for this list too.

The Silver Palate Cookbook (the original one, 1982), Lukins & Rosso. The original book that I have is out of print, but click on the title and you’ll get to the 25th anniversary edition.

Thrill of the Grill, Chris Schlesinger. Available at a bargain price at Amazon, through their used book resellers.

Barefoot Contessa at Home, Ina Garten. You may still be able to buy this at Costco. It’s been out for several years, but she’s very popular and they’ve done umpteen reprintings.

Weir Cooking in the City, Joanne Weir. She’s one of my favorite cooking class instructors, but rarely comes to Southern California. She has a cooking show on PBS that I Tivo whenever it’s on. She’s much more out-there and fun in person than she is on the show. She says the producers make her tone down her crazy, vivacious personality. One day, Cherrie and I are going to take one of her week-long classes in Tuscany. She has her own website.

A Cook’s Tour of Sonoma, Michelle Anna Jordan. A smallish paperback book from a former caterer in Sonoma. I have several recipes from this book that are favorites. There is a new edition – if you click on the book title link, you’ll get to it.

Slow Mediterranean Kitchen, Paula Wolfert. More a wintertime kind of reference, but everything I’ve cooked from this book has been wonderful. She’s a well known writer and author who lives in Europe, although she’s American.

Barbecue! Bible (new), Steve Raichlen. I bought this at Costco recently for $11.99, and have referred to it many times, so I think this will become a favorite.

Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan. I think I’ve written about Dorie before. She’s quite a globetrotter, but a baker extraordinaire. She has her own blog, and I love reading her stories. If I want to bake something, this is my go-to book now.

Another day I’m going to write up my favorite food writing books (enjoyed more for the reading than for the recipes). I have a bunch of those too. But if you know me, you know that already! I’m one of Amazon’s best friend!

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Earlier this month my friend Cherrie and I visited the CIA-Greystone (the Culinary Institute of America) in St. Helena, in the Napa Valley. It’s an imposing and impressive building and contains a restaurant open to the public for some meals. There were no classes offered that day, but guess what? The CIA store was OPEN. We must have spent at least an hour wandering all the little nooks and crannies, and left a hefty amount of money in their coffers. But stuck back in a corner was a discount/sale table of cookbooks. I leafed through a few that I don’t have, saw some that already reside on my own shelves, but this book just jumped out in my hands. Ever had that happen?

I’ve read most of Pat Conroy’s fiction – Beach Music, The Water is Wide, The Prince of Tides and others. Most are set in various places in the South and conjure up scenes of towns and harbors that, at the time I read them, I’d never been. He calls Beaufort, South Carolina his home, although now he lives near Atlanta most of the year. He’s had several wives, but seems to care about all of them (surprising). Thumbing through this cookbook/memoir I saw lots of recipes, typical Southern fare (shrimp salad, beaten biscuits, grits, etc.) but I also saw stories. Here’s the Amazon link for the book. It’s only available in hardback, but used copies through Amazon start at $2.92. If you’re a Pat Conroy fan – and you love to cook – you’ll thoroughly enjoy this read.

Conroy is a lyrical writer – he’s generous with the adjectives and adverbs wrapping every thought. I admire his choice of phrases sprinkled throughout. Each chapter is about a food subject – like oysters, Vidalia onions or a mentor in his life, of which there were many. Conroy was an Army brat, and has very few words for his fighter-pilot father, who wasn’t much of a parent to him. It’s surprising that he became such an avid cook since his mother didn’t really enjoy cooking, but he does credit her with his love of writing. She encouraged him every inch of the way. He’d never had fish (except fish sticks on Friday nights) until he was an older teen because it was never served at home. But an accomplished cook he did become, and he obviously thoroughly enjoys sharing recipes and the unique flavors of the Low Country.

He writes, in effect, his autobiography through the course of the book. Each chapter begins with a very descriptive section about food, or how a specific person opened his mind and palate to new experiences. Then he follows up each chapter with a series of recipes relating to the story. You follow him through his junior high and high school years, college, then early marriage, and so forth. And he gives lots of praise to those people who steered him down a particular path.

I just loved reading this cookbook. His stories are magical, in a way. Several of the chapters brought tears to my eyes as he described some of the loving, giving people who helped him chisel a life for himself. He failed, so the speak, as a teacher, but finally began to write when there seemed nothing else he could do, with no source of income and a wife and several hungry children at home. Thank goodness he did take the risk, because he writes a very entertaining story, whether it be fiction or cookbooks.

I read on somebody else’s blog that there probably should be a 12-step program for people like me who have a cookbook obsession. Ever heard of one in your neighborhood? If so let me know when and where it meets, ‘cuz I probably ought to be attending.

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I can hardly say enough good things about this book. I either heard or read an interview with the author, who was the White House main chef for 8 years – 4 years with the Clintons and 4 years with the Bushes. In the interview, he was very well spoken, and extremely entertaining, and I knew I needed – had to have – coveted – this book. Amazon loves me because this kind of thing happens to me often. Here’s the link on Amazon for The White House Chef, by Walter Scheib. Prior, he’d been the chef at the Greenbrier, that exquisite country hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, which gave him lots of credentials to fill the chef shoes at the White House. He already knew how to serve private parties of 8 and dinners for 1000. That place has always been on my want-to-go list, but it’s pricey. Very pricey.

So, now we go to last night. Since my dear hubby is sailing on the East Coast with our friends Jerry & Judy (I get seasick, so I don’t do small boats in the ocean; I rarely do big boats in the ocean), I made a vegetable dinner for myself and started reading. I kept reading. Did the dishes. Kept reading. Made myself some ginger-gensing tea and kept reading. Yes! This morning I made breakfast and started reading again. But then I got anxious to share this with you. So I haven’t finished it yet. I need to put flags in the book on interesting recipes to try.

Maybe this book wouldn’t appeal to just everyone. I enjoy reading about the behind-the-scenes stories of chefs. And what more interesting than at the White House, I ask? I have read Bourdain (eh, not so thrilled with his tyrannical nature), and recently read Heat, by Bill Buford (I liked this one a lot – it was almost a page turner). Then I saw an interview with Julia Child’s nephew, regarding the book about his aunt’s early years in France, My Life in France. I just loved that book. So much so that I bought one of her cookbooks because of it. (See, I told you I have a problem.)

So having gotten the White House Chef, here are my comments. It isn’t gossipy in the least. He’s very ethical and respectful of his position, and it didn’t go to his head, either. He honors the friendships with the First Families to not tell tales. But he does tell interesting stories – like the cooking lessons he gave Chelsea, teaching her to cook before she went off to Stanford, for instance. The most engrossing were the details of his job interviews and the luncheon for 10 people that was his interview with Hillary. Apparently he clinched the deal with lamb, which Hillary loves, but he didn’t know that little fact! Sadly, one small story – he arrived his first day of work with 25 knives, in his knife case, all personally monogrammed, and within two months all but two of them had disappeared. Amazingly hard to believe. Reading about the White House kitchen was also interesting, about the table settings, the flowers, the protocol issues, the food allergy issues for big dinners. All fascinating to me.

His recipes are do-able. They’re not pretentious or all that complicated. They’re not 30-minute meals, however. For the book he adjusted the recipes for the home cook, which is helpful. Hillary Clinton had a plan – she wanted him to showcase American homegrown products, and he celebrates them throughout the book. I like that. What better place than at the White House with State Dinners and hundreds of fancy events, to highlight America’s bountiful harvests.

I expect I’ll try some of the recipes soon. And I’ll post them when I do. The book is at least half stories and the remainder recipes, some photographs, and facts about the White House and staff. So if you have someone who loves reading these kinds of things (maybe you?), I highly recommend this book. Would make a lovely Christmas or birthday present too. It’s $16.47 at Amazon. But if you order several books the shipping is free. See how my logic goes?*
*My secret is that I keep a wish list on Amazon, so when I have enough there to qualify for free shipping, my wish list books can easily be dropped into my shopping cart. Yippee.

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