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15 Minutes with Patricia Wells
Patricia Wells is known all over the world for her famous cookbooks and legendary cooking classes. Her most recent cookbook, Salad as a Meal (William Morrow Cookbooks, 368 pp.), was just released and is already global attention. After appearing on a slew of highly publicized news programs, including The Today Show, Ms. Wells will visit the New Canaan Library on April 14 at 7:30 pm to discuss her latest endeavor — maybe even sign a few books.
Interview By Connor Ryan
Connor Ryan: How long did it take you to write Salad as a Meal?
Patricia Wells: Actually, I signed the contract in 2006. In between my husband and I wrote our memoirs, We’ve Always Have Paris...and Provence. Salad as a Meal was a pleasure to work on over time and through the seasons, and watch it grow.
CR: What inspired you to write the book?
PW: The title of the book was inspired by the menu at Brasserie Lipp in Paris, where in big bold red letters it says “No Salad as a Meal.” That always made me laugh and made me think, why not salad as a meal? I hope more people will move towards light, healthy, protein-rich salads as meals.
CR: This will be your tenth cookbook, how is this one different from your others?
PW:It shares many of the qualities of the others: light, bright, healthy, modern fare. In Salad as a Meal I work to weave in many of easy everyday ingredients we all love — chicken, beef, duck, crab, lobster, all manner of fish and shellfish — into tempting and satisfying salads.
CR: What’s your cooking style?
PW: I love it when I can take two or three ingredients (such as zucchini carpaccio with avocado, pistachios and pistachio oil, p. 110) and make 2 plus 2 taste like 10! Or, make some uncommon combinations of ingredients (such as broccoli soup with mint, p. 31 or zucchini and ginger velouté, p 43) and make an intense statement.
CR: What do you love about teaching?
PW: The teaching began out of dinners where friends would ask me to tell them “all about sea salt” or “all about olive oil,” and it seemed to me that this might be my calling. We began classes in 1995 and never looked back. It is exhilarating, hard work, and I learn something new with each class. It is also an ideal way to weave my recipes, recipe testing and the books in with the classes. I get to see student response to recipes long before the book is published.
CR: How do you choose recipes to be in your books?
PW: Many of my ideas come from the outdoor markets and from restaurants. I come up with many more ideas than I ever have time to test. I love cooking with the seasons and also love coming home from a restaurant and trying out an idea while the flavors and images are still fresh.
CR: What is your favorite grocery store to visit?
PW: In Paris, we live near La Grande Epicierie, the luxury grocery store run by the Bon Marché department store. I could go every day and find something new and different.
CR: What is your favorite restaurant?
PW: That’s a very hard question. My current favorite is Astrance in Paris. Chef Pascal Barbot presents some of the most original, colorful, unique food that I know. I have been three times in the past few months and he never repeats a dish. Like many chefs now he presents a “surprise” menu. There are no choices and each course a surprise. He has a classic background but like a fine artist puts his stamp on each dish, playing with colors, lots of Asian ingredients, and textures. I always leave the restaurant uplifted.
CR: What is like being a restaurant critic?
PW: I was global restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune for more than 25 years. I never tired of it. It is a world of discovery as well as trying to make sure than you never have a bad meal!
CR: What do you most want your readers to get out of your cookbooks?
PW: To get them into the kitchen to cook, to love cooking, to be inspired, satisfied and to love sharing it with family and friends.
To hear Patricia Wells speak at the New Canaan Library click here.
To learn more about or to order her latest book, Salad as a Meal, click here.