From the Winery

James Beard and Simple Food

My friend Anne reminded me that yesterday was James Beard’s birthday.  It brought to mind my very favorite Beard quote.

“Last week the New York Times ran an article on how to clean an eel. I trust everyone clipped it and saved it to his files.”

I first read this when I was just getting into the wine business – some 25 years ago – and simultaneously beginning my long affair with food and cooking. At the time I was lucky enough to be pointed in the direction (thanks Debbie Poulin) of some great food literature.  James Beard, MFK Fisher, Laurie Colwin.  Ultimately these voices shaped my philosophy about food  - and life.

This was Chicago in the late eighties and Americans were just on the upswing of the “more is more” attitude about food, wine and, well, just about everything (look at the clothes – shoulder pads?). California Cabernet and Merlot reigned supreme in the wine world. Restaurant chefs were challenging each other to make the tallest dishes and the longest menu descriptions.

I can still remember sitting in the window seat of my apartment – even then a glass of Oregon Pinot in hand – reading MFK’s writing on why food matters and realizing she was articulating my budding philosophy exactly.  How it’s just as important as politics, religion or war – because food is the thing that brings us together. To celebrate, to mourn, to nourish and nurture. We fall in love over food and we raise our children over dinner. Really, what could be more important?

And then there was Beard’s tongue in cheek comment which so clearly summed up his attitude about food. From Beard, and the others, I learned that food doesn’t have to be contrived, it just has to be good. Beautiful ingredients lovingly prepared are what make great food. The kind that brings people together. Simple, beautiful, delicious.

We Oregonians like to claim Beard as our own, as he was born and raised here. His mother ran a boarding house and cooked for lots and lots of people, which obviously influenced his life profoundly. Of course Beard ended up in New York, where he and Julia Child became our first celebrity chefs – TV shows and all.  His life became very glamourous and apparently he was quite flamboyant and more than a little eccentric. But for all of that he was in a way a pioneer of the localvore movement.  Beard championed American food and American ingredients. And did it with such grace and humor, that influenced not just me, but an entire nation.

Thanks Mr. Beard, for lighting the way.

P.S. A couple of years ago we were honored to be invited to do a dinner at the James Beard House in New York.  Our friends Carmen Pierano and Eric Ferguson the chefs of our local Nick’s Italian Cafe did the food, paired with our wines.  It was the first time Rob and I had been there, and I was surprised to see that “The House” is really and truly his house.  Its a brownstone in Greenwich Village, four stories tall, with a tiny little kitchen and tables for dining now packed into every  room.

This is the Beard House wait staff, in the library, listening to Rob talk about our wines before the dinner.  We went on to have a glorious meal in this incredible place. It looks like we’ll be back again in September too. This time our wines will be poured alongside the stellar food of Custom House Tavern one of Chicago’s new gems.