Joan Nathan: New American Cooking

By JULIETTE ROSSANT What is the relationship between Celebrity Chef cookery and home cooking? They are both here. Joan Nathan, who (among other achievements) served as guest curator of Food Culture USA at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival that took place last year on the Mall in Washington (see previous article), researched American food as the foundation for The New American Cooking (Random House/Knopf 2005). Joan is well known for her insightful cookbooks on Jewish food like Jewish Cooking in America and Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook, as well as her PBS series: this is a book that explores a personal voyage through the unexpected recipes and characters that make up America's broad spectrum of jumbled cuisines. Joan writes on the introduction's first page: I felt compelled to discover how and why the transformation in American food came about, to seek out the people, both known and unknown, who were responsible for the new openness in our tastes. Joan writes about undiscovered cooks as well as the justly famous. Her introduction is a concise history of the past fifty years. She covers the important Immigration Act of 1965 which allowed immigrants from the Middle East, the Far East and Asia into America in large numbers. She chronicles health food and the change in status of chefs in the US Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational Titles from "domestics" to "professionals" and the introduction of artisanal cheeses and breads. She also makes the point that the Civil Rights movement "enhanced the dignity of black culture and cuisine... (p. 4)" Leafing through, you can find a great number of recipes from black chefs, unfortunately uncommon in many books about American Cuisine. Complimenting the history, The New American Cooking as a cookbook explores American food by offering what Joan considers the best of restaurant and home cooking. In the Breakfast and Brunch Chapter (p. 11) there is a fun head note on Richard Campbell, the Mango Man, who oversees the "250 varieties of mangoes from around the world at Fairchild Gardens in Coral Gables" that goes with a recipe for Mango Lassi (p. 18) a simple but refreshing drink. This is typical of the book, great stories from Joan's travels around the country plus lots of boxes on how to use or prepare ingredients like mangoes, salt or tofu. Joan juxtaposes recipes like Bluefish with Ginger, Garlic, and Basil (p. 264), based on Camaroon cuisine, next to a recipe for Fish Casserole with Green Plantains, Peanut Butter, and Cilantro (p. 265) from Ecuador. Clearly, she means to demonstrate that as America has grown more diverse and that cuisine from distant lands can be tasted in restaurants or homes next to each other in many American cities. There are plenty of recipes from celebrity chefs, including fellow Washingtonians like Jose Andres' Orange and Endive Salad with Goat Cheese and Garlic Dressing, and Almonds (pp. 161-2) from Jaleo. There is also a light Snapper with Shitake Mushrooms, Ginger and Cilantro (p.187) from Alan Wong, and a classic California salad inspired by Alice Waters, Salad Greens with Goat Cheese, Pears, and Walnuts (p. 159). Joan writes about Alice's discovery of Laura Chenel's Chevre, Inc. which so increased demand, Laura had to borrow goat's milk. She also shares a fun story about Julia Child and Monkfish (p. 280). The book is crammed with snap shots of the folk that Joan has met on her culinary adventure, many taken by her son. There are great shots of Roberto Donna, Wolfgang Puck, and the late Jean-Louis Palladin (p. 124 -- to whom the book is dedicated). There is Alice at her edible schoolyard (p. 124). There are snaps of the chef at the Cozy Corner, a Memphis Ribs Place (p. 340), and a farmer's market in Oxford, Mississippi (p. 172). There is scarcely a single stylized photograph of a dish to be seen. In sum, The New American Cooking is filled with chatty, straitforward writing about the wonders of American food. It is a scrapbook-cum-treasury of Joan Nathan's wanderings and choice of recipes that celebrate of how much American food has evolved in the last 50 years. Book details: Publisher Amazon.com Book Tour Schedule Previous articles: Alice Waters: Ms. Smith Goes to Washington Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Food Culture USA [complete Cookbook Reviews] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, cookbooks --> back to superchefblog