Who I Am, And What You Think

As I flip through the card file of topics in my mind, I realize that I’m not sure I know what people would like to hear on a chef’s blog. For Home Cuisine, motivation for weight loss and fitness is a given—young, old, skinny, fat, we all want to improve our physical condition. But is there anything in particular? I’m asking for your thoughts.

To help target suggestions (since I don’t want anyone to think I’m a medical expert or an exercise specialist), here’s a little background on my career—actually, my love affair with food and the role it plays in our lives.

I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, with no special appreciation for great cooking and little interest in the relationship between food, exercise and the state of my body. When I was a kid, weight problems (let alone obesity) were not the issues they are for children now. Even though I was so short that you’d think pounds would seek me out, they didn’t; my friends and I were all active and we knew to stop eating when we were full. For the most part, our stay-at-home mothers were pretty good cooks and we ate decent food, but there were few celebrity chefs, and little attention was paid to things like fresh herbs or exotic ingredients. In retrospect, I realize that Julia Child was beginning to inspire chefs at that time, but French cuisine was a bit remote for our family.

Then, in the early 1970s, I got married and moved to San Francisco. By a simple stroke of luck, that was right when a woman named Alice Waters was turning the city on to fresh, locally-grown foods and creative cooking. Before long, she and her followers would be exciting the whole country, but back then, she was a local phenomenon. At Waters’ Chez Panisse, you could get a three-course meal for $7 (that price alone makes it sound like this must have been pre-historic, but really, it wasn’t that long ago).

At any rate, everyone was getting on the bandwagon. Young couples formed gourmet clubs, and we planted gardens in our backyards that included vegetables and greens we’d never had back here. We cooked new dishes, met for dinner, and tried the new wines coming out of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. It was life-changing. Fresh ingredients! In-season food from local growers! Cheeses we’d sometimes never heard of, many artisanal. And above all, the creativity that was in the air. Novelists have readers and composers have listeners; cooks have those people around the table who suddenly start to radiate when they enjoy a great combination of flavors.

I never got over the rush of that experience—I had found what I wanted to do in life, and that was to please palates. That’s a challenge that never disappears, whether at the three restaurants I’ve owned over the years, or now, when my first priority is to create meals within the parameters of weight loss and health.

When I returned to Louisville late in the 1970s, it was disheartening to find that the coastal revolution in food had not really taken hold here. If you asked for fresh herbs in the supermarket, the produce man looked at you in bewilderment. The list of available cheeses was limited, and not enough people cared if the produce was fresh and recently picked. No one seemed to take responsibility for his or her own health.

Since then, I am happy to say, most of that has changed. Local products are stocked, organic items are plentiful and getting more so, fresh is the name of the game, and more and more diners are learning to value tastes based on additive-free ingredients. That’s where I come in. It is my mission to produce flavorful, healthy meals that are as enticing as their calorie-laden forerunners, and infinitely better for you.

I love food, and I can talk forever about how it fits in our lives . . . so, is there anything you’d like to hear?