7 Questions for Baking Guru Alice Medrich

Cookbook author, Alice Medrich

Oh, Alice. I've got big love for you!

Dubbed "The First Lady of Chocolate," Alice Medrich is an award-winning baker with deep understanding of ingredients, and how to coax the very best out of them. Her clear, thoughtful recipes yield memorable desserts. Pros-in-the know point to Alice as a guiding influence in their work. More than an author, she is a mentor...of the very best kind.

The launch of Alice's new blog traveled like wildfire and no wonder. This post on her creative process still resonates with me.

On a personal note, Alice was my very first interview. Over the phone, she patiently guided me through art of tasting chocolate. Before long, our conversation touched on everything from molecular gastronomy to sources of inspiration and artisan foods in Europe.

Alice has a new book coming out this fall, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunch Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies, which is organized by texture. Got a love for chewy cafe cookies? Or do you like your cookies on the crispy side? This brilliant book has it all.

In preparation for my upcoming interview, I asked folks on my favorite chat forum..."Got any questions for Alice Medrich?" Responses ran the gamut--from tweaking a favorite recipe to swapping out chocolates with different cocoa fats. Alice surprised me with a lightening fast response, so here goes:


1. (Sandi in Hawaii) Sometimes, when I make a brownie with melted butter, the batter seems to separate during baking, as if the butter is oozing out, and pooling around the edges of the pan. The brownie ends up being dry and crumbly, instead of fudgy and chewy. What causes this?

This "butter leakage" also happens sometimes when baking cookies. The cookies start to spread like crazy, and end up being flat and greasy, instead of buttery and crunchy. It happened with a cookie recipe that called for melted butter, but it's also happened to other recipes that don't call for melted butter.

I can't predict when it happens - most times it doesn't. It only happens when I'm short on time, and have to take something somewhere!

I know the problem well, Sandi. Brownies batters (and cookie batters too) that have loads of chocolate and melted butter but not too much flour in them must be mixed vigorouly enough to emulsify the batter in the first place, before you pour it into the pan--otherwise the butter weeps out, exactly as you described. I have a couple of tricks to help the emulsification process, first, when making brownies, I usually add my eggs cold. Don't worry if the chocolate and butter mixture is hot; after you stir in the sugar, it's safe to add the eggs, stirring vigorously after each one. But, the most important tip is about mixing: after you add the flour, stir vigorously until the batter comes together into a smooth mass and actually pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If you are not strong enough to stir a heavy batter by hand, use a mixer. I write all about this problem in the new book...I hope you'll have a look.


2. (Sandi in Hawaii) How do you create a "new" recipe? Or are they all variations on old ones?

Someone once said that there is nothing new under the sun. The implication is that everything new had probably been done somewhere by someone...so it is quite possible that a bright new idea you might wake up with one morning, or even something you "discover" in the kitchen might have been thought of or dicovered by someone else as well. That being said, why worry about it? For me, sometimes new recipes are simple or elaborate variations on other recipes and sometimes they seem like brand new ideas discovered through experimenting or even (sometimes) by making a mistake. Voila! Something new and interesting.

For, example, in the new book, "Chewy Gooey Crispy"......., I include a recipe for Coconut Sticks, which I invented several years ago, but I've added several fantastic flavor variations, one with sesame seeds, one with coffee, one with hazelnuts. A great recipe deserves to be used as inspiration. Similar, I experimented with adding peanut butter to meringue and the result was so divine that I created several more "new" recipes by riffing on the concept, substituting almond butter, or tahini for the the pnb. That lead me to think about adding other flavors to meringue, such as pulverized freeze dried bananas....I even got a great recipe for fruit filled cookies called Meneinas, from a Facebook friend. I loved it so much that I created some brand new fruit fillings for it. They are in the book as well. One thing leads to another. New recipes are born...I hope you'll check out the book,


3. (MarilynFL) How do I adjust a recipe based on chocolate percentage? Say I want to make a recipe that calls for unsweetened chocolate. That recipe calls for "x" amount of unsweetened chocolate and "y" amount of sugar.

If I only have 55% semisweet chocolate or 70% bittersweet chocolate, how do I adjust the amount of chocolate AND sugar to make the recipe? I know the sugar amount has to go down. Does the fat (butter) amount change? Is there a basic rule of thumb?

Honestly Marilyn, and I don't mean to be self serving, the only book with this kind of information, charts, and discussion about percentages is my book "Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales From a Life in Chocolate". Check out the back of the book and the section on brownies where I address the very thing you are talking about...It's exciting information and once you get the hang of it you will love being able to switch from one percentage chocolate to another....

Just to give you a clue: 70% bittersweet contains 30% sugar, about 40% fat (this varies from brand to brand) and thus 30 percent dry cocoa solids. 55% semisweet chocolate contains 45% sugar, maybe 35% fat (again it varies) and only 20% dry cocoa solids. Unsweetened baking chocolate is approximately 50% fat and 50% dry cocoa solids and not sugar. If you are good at math, you can make some calculations about how to modify the sugar and butter in the recipe....! Otherwise, check out my book!


4. (MarylinFL) I actually ran into this problem [substituting chocolates] when I wanted to make chocolate fudge; the result was Dyslexic Chocolate Sauce. I had looked in both Alice's "Cocolat" and Fran Bigelow's "Pure Chocolate" books first to see if there was a chocolate conversion table.

"Cocolat" came out at a time before we had percentage chocolate in this country...most all of the bittersweet and semisweet chocolate available to us was contained only 50%-60% cacao, except of course for unsweetened baking chocolate. So, while "Cocolat" is still a great book and great reference, you shouldn't try making the recipes with chocolate that exceeds 60% cacao (or sometimes 62% ) without making some adjustments, or your results may not be quite what they should be. Some of the Cocolat recipes are updated in my book, "Bittersweet" and there is tons of info about making adjustments for chocolate in that book as well.


5. (Sandi in Hawaii) Will you start adding weight measurements in your cookbooks? I just love my scale, and wish more books had weights.

Some of my books already have weights in them, but I assure you that any new book that comes out from me will definitely include weights! Thanks for asking; I hope you'll encourage every baker you know to get a scale!!!


6. (Sandi in Hawaii -- obviously a big fan!) Any chance you'll reprint "Chocolat"?

No chance! I'd rather do new work. But I will give you a tip: many of the recipes from "Cocolat"appear again in "Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from A Life in Chocolate", updated to reflect new chocolates and percentage chocolates, and new information. I suggest you check it out.


7. (cheezz) Why do these (otherwise yummy) macaroons 'weep'? They are oozing even before going into the oven and often make very unsightly looking bottoms.

You'll see Alice recommends:
- Amount of coconut is now cups
- Lower the amount of sweetened condensed milk
- Let the batter sit for an hour before baking
- Mound your batter in 2 tblsp portions
- Notes about the chocolate (a double boiler works, and it's likely you'll have some left over)


Original recipe + Alice's adjustments:

Jumbo Black Bottom Coconut Macaroons
From Big Fat Cookies by Elinor Klivans
Makes 16 small cookies or 10 large cookies


Cookies:
One 7-ounce bag (2 2/3 cups) shredded sweetened coconut
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk [use 1/3 cup]
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg white
Pinch of cream of tartar

Chocolate Coating:
9 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and butter the paper.

Make the cookies. In a large bowl, use a fork to stir the coconut, condensed milk, salt, almond extract and vanilla together. Set aside. [note: let this sit for about 1 hour to meld well]

In an impeccably clean medium bowl, use a whisk or a hand-held mixer on low speed to beat the egg white with the cream of tartar until they are foamy and the cream of tartar dissolves. Whisking vigorously or beating on medium-high speed, beat until soft peaks form. Whisk or beat in the sugar. Use a rubber spatula to fold half of the whipped egg white in the coconut mixture, then fold in the remaining white.

Scoop mounds of the coconut batter (about 2 tbl. size) onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing the macaroons 2 inches apart.

Bake until the bottoms of the cookies and the tips of the coconut shreds are light brown, about 20 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then slide a metal spatula under the macaroons to loosen them from the parchment and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the chocolate coating. Put the chocolate in a heatproof container or the top of a double boiler and place it over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water (or the bottom of the double boiler) - or heat in microwave oven for about 1 min. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from water and let cool to thicken slightly, about 10 min.

Scrape the chocolate coating into a small bowl. Dip the bottom of each macaroon in the chocolate and place the cookies, chocolate bottoms up or on the sides, on a wire rack. (You will have some chocolate coating left over for another use or to pour over ice cream. It's easier to dip using a larger amount of coating.) Let the macaroons sit at room temperature until the chocolate coating is firm, about 1 hour. Or, to speed the firming of the chocolate, refrigerate the macaroons on the rack for about 15 minutes. Serve cold or at room temperature.

The cookies can be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Interview with Documentary Photographer Ivan Lo

Random link?

A Twitter follow?

I can't tell you how I first met Ivan Lo, but his documentary photography moved me from the beginning. His searing images, captured in the world's most dangerous hot spots, have resonated with me for days. (View his portfolio here.)

Ivan identifies himself as a humanitarian, travel, and street photographer. From arid hill top towns in Afghanistan to monsoon-flooded plains in Cambodia, his work reveals the human side of complex issues. Battles are fought and won over precious resources, geographical boundaries shift, and ethnic rivals clash, but what remains--no matter what the conflict--are the citizens who must carry on. In spite of their circumstances, Ivan's subjects reflect candor and grace.

an elderly couple waits as a new well is drilled in their slum - Patna, India

[November, 2009]

Traca: Tell me about your career. Did you study photography in college?

Ivan: I started out as a business major, but then I realized I didn't want to live my life that way. My university's sister school had a photojournalism program but unfortunately, I didn't get in. So I stayed at my school (University of Illinois, Chicago) and switched my major to fine art photography. I thought it wouldn't be that far off from photojournalism, which was obviously a big mistake on my part. I finished the program in about 3 years.

Traca: Technique in fine art photography vs. photojournalism is totally different. No elaborate light set ups in photojournalism!

Ivan: The only thing I really learned was how to process my own b/w film, which is something I could have just looked up. The rest of my classes were basically bullshit. They would put up a photograph of something silly like a dog on a table and the class would discuss it. Somebody with thin jeans and a bad haircut would say things like, "This is a commentary on communism in America during the Cold War."

Traca: Seriously?

Ivan: Yeah, it was absolutely brutal. I frequently butted heads with my professors because I thought their classes were a waste of time.

children at play outside the royal tomb - Kabul, Afghanistan

Ivan: I began my career while still in college, shooting during summer break.

Traca: For newspapers?

Ivan: No, just on my own. By the time I graduated--1 year late--in 2007, I had already worked in the Dominican Republic and Afghanistan.

Traca: Summer break in Afghanistan?

Ivan: I worked for several NGOs there.

Traca: I bet your parents were thrilled.

Ivan: My mother was convinced that I would be kidnapped.

Traca: Did you make money or do it for the experience?

Ivan: For the experience. Humanitarian photography doesn't really pay, although I did get to travel for free.

children walking through the bazaar - Kabul, Afghanistan

Traca: Did you approach NGO's before leaving the U.S....or line something up when you hit the ground?

Ivan: I established connections with the NGOs beforehand and they covered my expenses. For Afghanistan, I worked with a team of friends that I met in college. We offered our professional expertise to NGOs. Most of the other guys were software developers.

So for instance, one of our biggest clients in Afghanistan was an airline that flew aid workers around the country. They were running flight operations out of Excel spreadsheets, which is about as primitive as it gets without pen and paper. So we stepped in and wrote flight scheduling/tracking/booking software for them from scratch.

While the rest of the guys were in an office writing code, I went into the field and took photos.

Traca: And you were able to move around the country because you were working with the airline?

Ivan: Precisely. Basically, my clients would line things up for me. For instance, if I was working for NGO X one day, they'd take me around to visit their project sites...and then the next day, I'd be working with NGO Y.

Traca: Got it. So they took care of your on the ground expenses?

Ivan: Yes, that and we established our own NGO. Fundraising pays for the expenses our clients don't cover.

Maasai women at a village meeting - Maasailand, Kenya

Traca: What kind of fundraising?

Ivan: We don't hold fundraising events, per se. We basically get on our hands and knees and beg people we know for money. We tell them it's for a good cause, that our work is helping to rebuild Afghanistan's infrastructure, etc. Things will become much more official once we really get our NGO off the ground. Right now it's a very small operation.

Traca: So you want to go back to Afghanistan?

Ivan: Definitely. I've been there three times already. I was supposed to go back again this year but the Taliban really stepped things up. Most of our clients fled the country, so if all goes well, I'll be there again sometime next year.

Traca: What are you doing now?

Ivan: Looking for work, as always. I was in Cambodia for the month of September shooting for another NGO. Now that I'm back, there's not much going on.

children play as a new well is drilled in their slum - Patna, India

Traca: Can you talk about making the shift from fine art photography to documentary work?

Ivan: There wasn't much of a shift, actually. I was never really a 'fine art photographer'. I've taken some abstract photos here and there, but most of my serious stuff is documentary.

Traca: I chatted with another documentary photographer and they talked about the importance of "being in the moment and out of the moment at the same time." And after watching The War Photographer, I'm curious about that. How to you approach the situation and get people to relax? I'm looking at your 'Life in Kabul' image with the vendor crouched on top of his street cart. Was that shot at a long distance?

Ivan: No, I was right next to him. I guess the trick is to not look suspicious. People tend to relax when they see that you're not hiding anything. I don't think about much when I'm taking photos. Overthinking kills it for me. For instance, if I'm shooting something, I'll typically take more than one shot...sometimes even more than a few, but the first images are almost always the best out of the bunch.

Traca: I think I need a faster lens. I just have the kit lens that came with my camera.

Ivan: I don't think it's absolutely necessary. Most of my best shots were made with pretty slow lenses (3.5-5.6).

Traca: Chase Jarvis says the best camera is the one you have...and learning how to use it properly.

Ivan: I'm definitely with him on that. A lot of people pay far too much attention to their equipment and they end up wasting time that could've been spent actually taking photographs.

A lot of people call themselves photographers when they're actually just camera collectors, you know?

Traca: I'm frustrated because I spend a lot of time delving into the big picture--conceptual stuff when I really should focus on the technical side of things.

Ivan: Having a good grasp on the technical side of things in definitely important. As long as it doesn't get in the way of actual photography. Cameras these days are pretty intelligent. I usually just leave my camera on full auto, and let it do the grunt work for me.

Traca: Really?

Ivan: When I first started out, I used my dad's old camera, a heavy Nikon from the 70's. manual everything.

Traca: I was in a photo seminar recently and learned how to shoot manual. I'm thinking, for quick shots--like documentary work--manual is a pain in the ass!

Ivan: It definitely is. When I finally got my first DSLR, I spent the first year or so shooting it on full manual until I realized that it was a bit silly. I spent so much money on an intelligent camera. Why not let it do what it was designed to do?

two brothers outside their father's shop - Kabul, Afghanistan

Traca: Your brother is a photographer too?

Ivan: Yeah, my brother is a motorsport photographer. My father used to be a photographer as well, as a young man in Hong Kong, but he gave it up when us kids came along.

Traca: So, do you talk about photography together?

Ivan: My brother and I do sometimes. I tag along with him to a race every once in a while. I borrow one of his enormous lenses and try to do what he does, but it never turns out nearly as good.

Traca: I hosted Scott Bourne for a lecture recently. He shoots nature with those big lenses.
Scott says most people never really learn how to press the button to shoot. You should roll your finger across the button vs. pressing it directly--because with a long focal length, every movement makes a difference.

He also talked about studying all the factors of nature. He used an example of wanting to shoot an image in the mist. Scott said, "Wouldn't it make sense if you actually knew what conditions created mist?"

Ivan: I really admire nature photographers. It takes a lot of patience to do what they do.

a mother waits patiently for her husband - Kabul, Afghanistan

Traca: You mentioned admiring James Nachtwey's work. Who else do you admire?

Ivan: It may come as a bit of a surprise but I don't spend very much time looking at photos--other than my own, that is.

So far, James Nachtwey has been the only photographer whose work has really got me going--and not just his photographs but his attitude toward his work. I really admire that.

Traca: He strikes me as a man who's singularly dedicated. I get the feeling that he lives for his work.

Ivan: I get that impression of him as well.

children play as a new well is drilled in their slum - Patna, India

Ivan: Actually, there is another photographer that has been catching my interest recently http://vivianmaier.blogspot..com/. Her work was only discovered after her death.

Traca: What about her work resonates with you?

Ivan: Her street photography is extraordinary. There's a depth of feeling, of connection in her photographs even though most of her subjects might have been complete strangers to her. Plus, it's Chicago, which strikes a very personal chord with me.

Traca: Can you tell me...how does your illness affect your work?

Ivan: Currently, I'm suffering from avascular necrosis, which is a byproduct of the leukemia. In other words, my left hip is dead. There's partial bone collapse and I usually have to use crutches to get around. This is a pretty new development--it set in only within the past year or so.

When I was in Cambodia, I was on painkillers pretty much the entire time because the only thing more annoying than walking with crutches, is trying to shoot with crutches. So yeah, my medical condition really does get in the way, but I try my best not to let it affect me.

Traca: I really admire people who do it anyway.

Ivan: The way I see it, I'm living on borrowed time. Two years ago, when I was first being treated, I faced death on a daily basis. I wasn't sure how much longer I had to live. They put me on medication to help control my blood cell counts, but it ended up wiping out my immune system. I was in medical quarantine for about a month because I was totally vulnerable to even the most common of germs. I had to have my temperature taken constantly to make sure I wasn't running a fever.

Traca: Is that why you graduated a year later?

Ivan: No, this happened after I finished school. In fact, it happened right after I spent 3 months abroad shooting. I was out there, you know? I was having afternoon tea with security forces out in the mountains of and then I came back to Chicago only to be hit with this illness. My life completely flipped upside down. From intense travel to medical quarantine in a matter of weeks.

Maasai children at their newly built school - Massailand, Kenya

Traca: And how are you dealing with it?

Ivan: My confidence was completely shattered. I became very depressed until things became stable and I was able to resume my life. That was when I realized that I was living on borrowed time and that, really, I should be dead right now. So why not take the chance and try to do some good.

Traca: What's the long term outlook? Do they know?

Ivan: I have an extremely rare form of leukemia (chronic eosinophilic). The drug that helps control it was only introduced in 2001 so absolutely nobody has had the chance to live with this disease until now. Long term outlook is a complete unknown. Me and the 25 other people in the US that have CEL are writing history, so to speak. Doctors will most likely be keeping a very close eye on me for the rest of my life.


Traca: We talked about my Life List. What's on your "life list" now?

Ivan: I used to have a life list before I was diagnosed but I've discarded it now.

Traca: Time to write a new one?

Ivan: I've already made my peace with God. I'm ready to die anytime. My only goal is to use the rest of my life to help people (hopefully through photography) which is why i'm still doing humanitarian work despite it paying next to nothing.

***
Interview update: At the time of this post, Ivan was on crutches with a collapsing, degenerative hip bone. He just returned from assignment in India.

Interview with Sur La Table's Renee Behnke

I was raised in a small Midwestern town – an unfortunate spot smack in the middle of America, bordered by the murky Illinois River and corn fields as far as you can see. Like the Sears catalog for turn-of-the-century farmers, the Sur La Table catalog was our lifeline to the rest of the world.

Delivered with the mid-afternoon mail, the arrival of our Sur La Table catalog was steeped in ritual. Everything came to a halt. Mom would brew a fresh pot of coffee, grab a pack of Marlbrow Lights, and while away for hours, dog-earring nearly every page. While she never actually made a purchase, in a way, it didn’t matter.

“Dreaming,” she would say, “Is more fun than owing.”

Situated on a steep slope in Seattle’s bustling Pike Place Market, is the original Sur La Table. When I first visited Seattle, the Sur La Table catalog had such a hold me, I couldn’t imagine an actual store! It was like visiting Never Neverland. Merchandise towered to the ceiling, and gleamed with stainless steel racks. I stopped in a momentary blindness, as the sun glinted amongst a crock of wire wisks. Tagines from Morocco, pasta machines from Italy, Le Cruset and dainty financier molds from France! I was in heaven…

*****

Renee Behnke (right) and her neighbor


Armed with a savvy retail background and a passion for cooking, Renee Behnke purchased Sur La Table in 1995. Seventy-four stores –and counting—she is transitioning into her new role as president emeritus. Cooking, entertaining, and her massive garden are at the heart of who she is. Travel, as always, figures prominently.

Renee is engaging and extremely generous, and what follows is a discussion about her life in food. While shorter pieces prevail in online media, I hope you will indulge me. This is our conversation, in its entirety.

Traca: Your book “Memorable Recipes” was named by NPR as one of the 10 Best New Cookbooks for summer. And it’s up for another award this week. Congratuations!

Renee: It’s exciting. Attention for the book is coming from a lot of different directions. When you think about writing a cookbook, you never know. There’s so many that come out.

I tried to appeal to a broad cross-section of people. I also talk a lot about my garden and how it plays such a big role in the food that I cook and eat. In the back of the book, there’s a section with party notes. I outline how to plan parties, and tie it together with recipes in the book. I think it gives the book a different twist.

Traca: Gardening is a big element in your life. Tell me a more about your garden.

Renee: It’s over the top! We have three full city lots. The front of the house is an herb garden. And one lot is my working garden with vegetables. It’s all raised beds. We planted 37 tomato plants and last year, I canned over 50 quarts of tomato sauce--half roasted and the other half we made on the stove-top.

When I travel, I bring back seeds. I have seeds from Europe and I planted Spanish beans, brought fig trees in from Italy. We’ve got corn, peas, lovage, lots of lettuce, and a large variety of garlic. It’s an amazing garden for someone who lives in the city.

Traca: What motivates you to grow such a large garden? Do you manage to consume all the food?

Renee: We give a lot of it away. We have neighbors who are East Indian (pictured above), so I grew a variety of peppers for her. She pickled the peppers for different Indian dishes. We use a lot of the produce, and give the surplus to friends.

We entertain a lot and a good deal of that food is from my garden. I host four to five major dinner parties a month, with more than 10 people attending each party.

Traca: Tell me about your dinner parties. I can’t imagine hosting five dinner parties a month!

Renee: The number of parties vary, but I have two fabulous women who help clean up.

I have a lot of famous chefs that come to town and they’ll cook with me. When Marcella Hazaan or Alice Waters visit, we’ll cook a meal together. And then I have a lot of friends. We enjoy cooking dinners together.

For years I did Sunday night dinners with family and friends. When I was working, I didn’t have much time to do big dinners, except on Sundays. So we would invite different couples with their kids. I think one of the things that happens is that you know your friends, but you often don’t know their children. I’d make a big dinner and there’d always be something the kids would never eat. Some kids only ate hot dogs and Cheerios, but everyone had to sit at the table together. After dinner, sometimes we’d have a talent show. It was great because we got to know everyone’s kids better, and their kids got to know everybody else.

Traca: You’ve been hosting Sunday dinners for over 30 years. Where did the inspiration for that come from? Are you part of a big family?

Renee: I am part of a big family, but only my sister lives here. The rest of my family lives in Oregon.

When I was married before and went through a divorce, we had a lot of kids. Then when I married my current husband Karl, he had two young kids. Sunday dinner was a way to get families together. At the time, I was also on the road a lot and Sunday was a great time to bring everybody together.

When I was on the road, I’d travel to different countries and cook with people in their homes. And then, when I came back, I’d want to practice cooking what I’d learned. So I was able to test recipes and try new techniques. I’d let everyone know, “I was just in Vietnam for a week…and we’re going to make a new dish.” They’d come over. I’d make the dish and we’d try it together.

I also rent houses and invite friends to travel with me. We’ll split the cost and rent a house for a week. We hire a chef… and cook together. It really raises your awareness about sharing food with friends.

Traca: Your passport gets a workout! What is it about travel that fuels your passion?

Renee: I’ve always been fascinated with world cultures.

Traca: Ethnic food in America is another thing entirely.

Renee: If you’re in Italy, you eat Italian. If you’re in Vietnam, you eat Vietnamese food.

We live in a multi-cultural country. All these people have come to the U.S. and just because they’ve moved here—for whatever reason—they didn’t quit eating the foods they grew up with.

In the United States, you and I could have great Vietnamese food for lunch. For dinner, we could go to a great Mexican restaurant. Tomorrow morning, we may have French pancakes. You can go anywhere in the U.S. and eat cuisine from around the world. That doesn’t happen in other countries. That is only in the United States.

Immigrants in the U.S. immerse themselves in foods their homeland.

Traca: And that’s reflected at Sur La Table?

Renee: When we bought Sur La Table, it was a French cooking store and it was modeled after stores in France. I traveled extensively, and was fascinated by the food of each country. So we changed the original concept to reflect a broader, multi-cultural appeal.

Traca: You took a hands-on approach, exploring foods from other cultures. But cooking those foods in America has its own set of challenges. What was your experience?

Renee: I researched and cooked in all these different countries.

The more I traveled, the more I was overwhelmed by their love of their cuisine. People that live in Greece or Morocco – unless they’ve traveled a lot – have never experience cuisines outside their country. Their passion for local food is unmistakable. And when the food travels back to America? It’s not the same.

Very seldom do you find authentic ethnic food in America. For example, when you go to Mexico, our thought of Mexican food is tacos and quesadillas. But when you go to Mexico, like Oxaca, those people spend days making their family’s recipe for mole. Nobody here is going to make mole! And half the people don’t know what it is.

There are very few restaurants in America that make truly authentic Mexican food. That’s true of every country, actually.

When I cook in another country, and you attempt to translate it back to the American table, it becomes a very different thing.

Traca: For example?

Renee: Cooking in Morocco…it’s important to understand the concept of the tagine, which is the basis of most of their cooking. But when you come back and you want to enjoy a lamb tagine in America, finding an authentic recipe is difficult. You either buy a book by an author based in that country, or you go online and try to find a recipe. But most of the recipes online are not tested. Even in cookbooks, there’s an element of risk. Only about 20 percent of the recipes in cookbooks have been tested by somebody else. So they’re not proven recipes.

If someone wants to make a chicken and apricot tagine, the first thing they do is go to Costco and buy a big bag of apricots. Those apricots have all been pumped up with sugar! And then the recipe says to add 1/3 of a cup of honey. The finished dish ends up being syrupy…and it’s not the real deal.

The way a recipe translates…is not always correct. So my mission was to help people understand the difference, and make it the best it can be.

Traca: Creating that authentic experience can be a challenge, especially since cookbooks have changed so much over the years.

Renee: The old recipes from Julia Chilld, Paul Bocuse, and Marcella Hazaan…those recipes were all tested by experts. Now, you’ve got people who just pump out cookbooks. The recipes are not necessarily good. It’s frustrating because people spend time and money to create a recipe, and it’s not always the best.

In a modern sense, Ina Garten has proven recipes that are easy to prepare. Your results are always good. But you can’t say that about a lot of the new cookbooks.

Traca: Food in America is quite different now. What changes have you seen over the years?

Renee: A lot has changed. The Food Network came into play, and along with that, the rise in celebrity chefs. Some of the celebrity chefs cook amazing food and others…just don’t. It also became very expensive to eat in a restaurant that has quality ingredients.

I was reading an article in the LA Times about chickens. Have you seen it?

When we were growing up, we got chicken from a guy that raised them. And then the grocery store phenomena exploded. Today there are so many rules about raising chickens and selling them in a grocery store, that chickens are soaked in a chlorine solution. If you buy chicken at the grocery store and it has that thing that looks like a diaper under it to collect water? That’s horrible! 20% of a chicken’s weight is water that’s been pumped into it.

Today, people are focusing much more on what they are eating.

When we were young, nobody ever talked about cholesterol, or roughage. We just ate really good food! There was no fast food. McDonalds came into the west coast around 1963. And if you went out to lunch and ordered a “diet plate”, you had a hamburger patty, a scoop of cottage cheese, a slice of tomato and a piece of lettuce. You’d get two rye crisps and then they’d put a big basket of bread in the middle of the table. That was your diet plate!

For the next forty years, people went sideways because what they were eating was terrible.

Now, if you order fettucini alfredo, everybody at the table looks at you like you’ve lost your mind! It’s important to eat everything in moderation.

Traca: What about the plethora of cooking shows on TV? It’s helped promote cooking again, yes?

Renee: People are cooking more at home. But too many young people today rely on mixes. They don’t know how to bake a cake from scratch. Baking is a science.

Traca: True. When I moved to Seattle, I started taking classes at Sur La Table. That’s how I learned how to cook. When did you start cooking in earnest?

Renee: I started cooking in New York, in Little Italy when I was in my mid-twenties.

I worked with a man in the garment industry and we went to dinner in Little Italy. I started talking with this old guy, asking how they made the various dishes. He said, “If you want to come when you get off work, you can cook in the back with me. “ This guy was in his 80’s. So I started doing that when I was in New York. I was there about 10 days a month and I’d cook with him in Little Italy. I never wanted to work in a restaurant, but I was so fascinated, learning from this old guy.

Traca: And from there, you expanded into other cultures?

Renee: I was a buyer for Nordstrom and left because I was hired away by Bon Marche (department stores). I went on buying trips to Europe, going four times a year.

Then when I went to Israel and I met this woman who worked with our Asian buyers. She gave cooking classes in her home. This woman was born and raised in China, and left. I took classes from her for three years. We cooked food from every province in China.

I was fascinated by authentic Chinese food; it was so different from the food we had in Chinatown. For three weeks a month we’d go to her house for cooking classes and one week a month we’d visit one of her friend’s restaurants and eat whatever she ordered for us. Then we’d learn how to cook those dishes the following week. I got so fascinated by it!

So then, whenever I would travel and meet different people on business, I’d say “How did you make this?” They’d invite me to their house…and I’d get to cook with them.

In my 30’s, there were cooking stores near my home and I started giving classes. It was a growth progression. I was totally fascinated by what you could do with food.

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