Diana Page Jordan | Book Reviews and Inspiration

Gourmet Today

Edited By Ruth Reichl

Published September 22, 2009 (Hardcover) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

More Info:  Ruth Reichl

I lugged the five-pound Gourmet Today cookbook — seriously! Five pounds! I lugged it to an exquisite new Portland hotel, The Nines, where I met Ruth Reichl.  The cooking goddess – dressed in an emerald green silk brocade tunic, black leggings, and her trademark wild black hair silky and straight — greeted me in the massive ballroom, as her right hand madly signed a few hundred pounds of books.

This isn’t your garden variety cookbook.  For one thing, it’s got more than one-thousand original recipes!  And the spark for the book was her son Nick, who refused eating anything but five white foods for most of his childhood.  Somehow he absorbed his mother’s love for cooking, and stressed by horrible campus food, he moved to an apartment near his east coast college and began cooking, and calling Ruth for advice.

That stayed in my mind after the interview, and I called my younger son, Justin, a recent college grad.  By some miracle, he answered.  I realized  we’ve had tons of  “how-to-get-your-career-started” conversations, but none about how he actually lives.

Ruth had said she was astonished on her book tour how many parents would buy a cookbook for their kitchen, and one for their child — and 80-percent of those children were sons!  She said “It’s becoming clear to me that this is a generation that doesn’t believe cooking is women’s work.  Young men are cooking out of joy, passion, in community.  This bodes well for this generation.”

I asked Justin, “Do you cook?”

“Yes, I made a roast yesterday, and a coq au vin a few days ago.”  And he mentioned something about sauce reduction, and my mind went back to cooking class I had to take when I was in seventh grade.  Back then, it pissed me off that I couldn’t take shop, so I didn’t pay much attention in the all-girl cooking class.

My mom was a good cook — if you could stay up till midnight or so when she was done, and didn’t mind that the kitchen was littered with empty bottles of Gallo wine and liters of Scotch.  She loved Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book – a favorite of Ruth’s mom’s, as well.    My mother’s mother dabbled in a bit of Sherry, but her specialty was overcooked liver, I kid you not. My older son commented just today that I only cook one thing – lasagna at Christmas.  It’s not entirely true, but it’s close — I haven’t relished cooking just for one adult, myself, and while I was married, my husband worked during the dinner shift.

Over the last few weeks, I have been noticing a growing desire to cook – really cook – which is a prime reason why I wanted to interview Ruth.  I’ve been mentally taking notes on how foods are prepared, and what I really love to eat, and, because of the diabetes, what I can’t eat.  During the interview, I asked Ruth about the diabetes epidemic, and why she didn’t have breakdowns of carbs, fats, calories, etc, beneath each recipe.  She says Gourmet magazine readers responded negatively to the need for that information, in a survey.  While diabetics might have to skip the rice and pasta sections, she reminded me that there are hundreds of recipes for appetizers, meat, fish, and beans, among other foods.  Here’s a Kemp’s Black Beans recipe that a Gourmet cook created after Ruth challenged her to come up with a creative dish with beans:

1 pound dried black beans, picked over and rinsed

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

8 cups water

salt

1/4 cup cream sherry or medium-dry sherry

1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Combine black beans, onion, oil, water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a 6 to 8 quart heavy pot and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until beans are tender, up to two hours.  Thin to desired consistency, and add water, if necessary.  Stir in sherry and 1 teaspoon salt, then stir in soy sauce and vinegar to taste, and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for five minutes to blend flavors.

Ruth says this recipe is one of her favorites , especially since there are Italian, Asian, and French influences.  She says in America, “we want the whole world on our plates.”

As for Justin, he loves cooking, and even has a chart on his refrigerator showing which fish not to eat for environmental or health reasons.

I am becoming entranced with the culinary arts — I’ve been thinking of taking a cooking class, and have attended a few cooking events through Dinner Grrls, a social group.  But this conversation today with Ruth Reichl today ups the ante.  She put a challenge out there: “Americans are the bravest eaters in the world.”