Onion In My Pocket - Book

FROM KIRKUS REVIEWS--

A Renowned vegetarian chef and cookbook author returns with a menu of memories about her life, profession, and passions.

In her youth, Madison, a member of the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Hall of Fame, became deeply involved in the Zen movement in the Bay Area, a 20-year association that involved not just meditation, but cooking and running a restaurant. She tells us about her parents’ lives, her childhood fondness for Twinkies, her growing passion for fresh vegetables and fruit, and her decisions to devote herself to cooking, restaurant managing, and, eventually, writing cookbooks. We also learn about her two marriages and her move to the Southwest (first Flagstaff, then Santa Fe). The author does not observe a rigid organization. As if her writing were a meal, she moves from topic to topic like a diner enjoying her segue from course to course. Readers will enjoy her amiability and learn much from her ruminations, including the advice to “break your plans in the face of something wonderful and unexpected, like [discovering] morels. Let this food rule take over and push you here and there as it will.” Madison offers detailed accounts of her Zen life, her decision to focus on vegetarian food (though she confesses that she occasionally eats—and likes—meat), her involvement in the founding of Greens Restaurant (which, 40 years later, still stands with its dazzling view of the Golden Gate Bridge), and her trips abroad. Madison also shares some lessons she’s learned about cooking and restaurant work—e.g., “Be Forever Gracious,” “Eat Like a Guest,” “Treat Everyone the Same,” “Salt As You Go.” She ends with details about her writing, book tours (including some of her gaffes), memorable meals (including “that first meal at Chez Panisse”), and affecting thoughts about “nourishment and sustenance.”

A savory journey through

kitchens, ingredients, meals, cookbooks, family, and colleagues—all

composing the author’s heart.