Story Thomas J. - Kitchen Gypsy: Recipes and Stories from a Lifelong Romance with Food (Sunset)

KITCHEN
GYPSY

Recipes and Stories from a Lifelong
Romance with Food

by JOANNE WEIR

photographs by THOMAS J. STORY

foreword by ALICE WATERS

CHAPTER 1
Under the Maple Tree

CHAPTER 2
The Baking Soda Chronicles

CHAPTER 3
In Search of Cilantro and Saffron

CHAPTER 4
Theres a Fly in My Wine

CHAPTER 5
The Lunch That Changed My Life

CHAPTER 6
Three Grains of Salt

CHAPTER 7
My Chez Panisse Years

CHAPTER 8
Inspired by Ingredients

CHAPTER 9
Wanderlust

CHAPTER 10
The Agave Girls

Joanne and Alice in the Edible Schoolyard garden.

foreword

OVER THE YEARS , many people have come through the doors of Chez Panisse for internships, jobs, and stages in the kitchen. Most are enthusiastic and learn from the experience of working at the restaurant. But some of them take the ideas, values, and community of Chez Panisse to heart and truly thrive. Joanne, who first came to us in the mid-1980s and worked here for five years, is among the latter. It seemed as if each time I came to the restaurant during her stay, I would find her flourishing in a new position. There was Joanne helping to unload the delivery of vegetables from the farm and then rolling out pasta. There was Joanne at the salad station in the Caf. There she was assembling an apricot galette with Lindsey Shere in the pastry department.

From the start, it was apparent to all of us that Joanne had an endless curiosity about food and where it came from and was hungry to learn everything she could. What I learnedand what youll learn yourself through the stories in this bookis that Joannes maternal and paternal grandparents both ran their own farms and that her mother loved to cook. She grew up surrounded by family members who were growing, harvesting, and cooking their own food and passing on that essential knowledge to the next generation. Joanne is proof that when you get that kind of early edible education, it can last your whole life.

In the years since Joanne left Chez Panisse, I have loved hearing about her many projects: teaching, cooking, exploring, filming. She is an incredibly positive spirit. It is rare to find someone with such excitement and passion for whatever work she is pursuing. Joanne is also a true purist: she is always at the farmersmarket making friends with the farmers and ranchers, finding out which fruits and vegetables are the ripestthe most alive and vibrantand using those ingredients simply and beautifully.

We often joke that once people become part of la famille Panisse , they never truly leave the fold, even if they move on to other citiesor even other countriesand it is wonderful to have them come back and collaborate on projects. Early this spring I went to the restaurant during the preparations for our annual Parsi New Year celebration, and there was Joanne in the thick of it again, helping our pastry chef Mary Jo Thoresen put together jalebi and falooda . And not long ago, Joanne and I filmed her television show together here at the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, and it was a pleasure to see her deep appreciation for teaching children in the garden and in the kitchen.

Whats particularly lovely about this memoir is how brightly Joannes positiveness shines through in her stories and recipes. After just a few pages, you will understand what I mean. Joannes infectious enthusiasm for food, farming, and teaching draws readers effortlessly into a new and beautiful relationship to food. ALICE WATERS

introduction

I HAVE WRITTEN SEVENTEEN COOKBOOKS, plus countless recipes for my PBS television programs, my restaurant Copita, scores of cooking classes, numerous magazine spreads, and more. And although I feel as if a thousand recipes are swimming in my brain at any given time, I wasnt sure I was ready to write another recipe book. Yet I found myself sitting in the offices of Sunset magazine in Menlo Park, California, with the food editor, Margo True, and editor-in-chief, Peggy Northrop, discussing a possible new book project.

What do you think of California cooking? What does it mean to you? Margo asked.

I squirmed uncomfortably in my chair and began to fidget.

Since you were working at ground zero of the California food movement in its early days, how do you see it now? Peggy chimed in.

I knew from their questions that California cuisine was the subject that they were most interested in pursuing with me. Yes, its true I was cooking when the California food movement was just beginning. I had gotten my start at Chez Panisse, one of the restaurants that fueled the new style. But did I want that to be my next book? I wasnt sure.

I looked down at my hands and started twirling my ring, a nervous habit of mine since I was a kid. I was searching for the right answer, and I knew that that answer was not in my palms. I could feel my face reddening as I looked up blankly.

If you could write any cookbook at all, what would it be? Peggy asked, trying a different tack.

I smiled and relaxed a little. My chair suddenly felt much more comfortable. I didnt recall ever having been asked that question by a publisher. It was so basic, so elemental, that I was surprised to realize I had an answer ready. Thoughts and images swirled in my head. I knew in that moment that yes, I did have another cookbook inside me, and it was screaming to get out.

Food is my life! I exclaimed enthusiastically. I want to write a book about how everything Ive done in my life has gotten me to exactly where I am at this moment. I want to write about my path. And I want the recipes to show the way.

I continued, I want to write about the horrible blunder I made as a kid when I mixed 11/2 cups, instead of 11/2 teaspoons, of baking soda into a batch of oatmeal cookie dough, and how my mother used that and other mistakes to teach me valuable lessons about cooking and about life. With that story, I could share Moms recipe for the best oatmeal cookie you will ever eat. I want to write about my love of travel and about how my father anointed me his wandering gypsy.