I’ve been steeped in working on the pho cookbook but I’ve also been moonlighting on another project that’s dear to my heart – a Kickstarter to publish a biographical cookbook about Paula Wolfert. She’s a culinary legend, a food hero to me in many ways. Do you know her? Paula is an adventurer, renegade and anthologist. If you’re familiar with duck confit, cassoulet and Aleppo pepper, you have Paula Wolfert to thank. She introduced and championed those ingredients and foods long before they were trendy. I’ve cooked many of Paula’s recipes and they are head turners, brilliant in offering up wonderful flavors, cooking techniques, and cultural insights.
Paula is the Queen of Mediterranean Cooking but she also works to bridge global cuisines. That’s because she examines a lot of traditional foodways and conveys them to modern cooks. She identifies patterns. In her cookbooks (she’s written nine), she’ll call for using a wok to make a Spanish dish because that tool best approximates what she experienced on the ground when she tasted the dish.
Paula has made space at the American table for new ideas and ingredients. Her work, in part, has made my career possible.
Several years ago Paula was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. My friend Emily Thelin (formerly an editor at Food & Wine) wanted to write a biography about Paula. I offered to help.
Starting in late 2014, Emily and I began huddling with photographer Eric Wolfinger and designer Toni Tajima to realize this unusual and important project. We’re all experts in our fields and cookbook production. Emily describes our gang of four as a cookbook dream team.
Why are we doing this? We want to honor Paula by telling her inimitable life story and presenting a collection of her amazing and accessible recipes. We also want to help her fight the stigma against Alzheimer’s by exploring the relationship between memory and food. From engaging with Paula, I've gained insight into the disease and how to better relate to its sufferers such as my aunt Bac Thoa, who I wrote about in April.
Crowdfunding the publication stays true to Paula's renegade spirit, as does the book title, Unforgettable: Bold Flavors from Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life. This project is chock full of the smart, quirky things that we all cherish about food and culture. It’s also pioneering quality, small-batch cookbook publishing.
The Unforgettable campaign just launched. Thus far, we’ve received amazing online support from Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Food52, Los Angeles Times, Rachel Ray magazine, Washington Post, Saveur, and Eater. Alice Waters and Michael Pollan have tweeted the project.
Such response is incredibly validating but we also critically need individuals backing the project. Check out the Unforgettable Kickstarter. The $30 early-bird offer is going quickest!
This is an important project and I encourage you to join us. You will fuel our forward momentum by backing the project today and/or sharing it with your community. Whatever you do, choose to support Unforgettable in a manner that’s meaningful to you.
Thanks in advance for the heartfelt boost!
