Best day ever? Cook it, eat it, write about it. I sold my restaurant, Nora’s Table, in 2015, and now I can be possessed by anything in the long day that I choose: creating the next menu for Husum Riverside Supper Club, teaching a cooking class at Jacob Williams Winery, or tromping through the fields with farmer Laurel Bouret. A rainy afternoon with a foundational cookbook, such as Marlene Mater’s fabulous “Allepo Cookbook” or Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s “Charcuterie” can feed my spirit and spark my creative power.
I started life as a home cook, and so my heart is always tuned to the needs of men and women who have to put dinner on the table each night, or scramble to fill hungry bellies at breakfast, or pack lunches for that long time in between.
We make food both too simple and too complicated, expecting home cooks to merely follow recipes without a brain in their head, and no comprehension for why, let alone how. I’m all about the why and the how.