In Food Heroes, Georgia Pellegrini introduces readers to the lively stories of artisanal food devotees such as New York mushroom forager Marion Burroughs, French fig collector Francis Honore, fish missionary Jon Rowley in Washington State, and Ugo Buzzio in New York City, one of the last makers of traditional dry-cured sausages in the United States. Filled with colorful anecdotes, photographs, and recipes, this book offers an accessible introduction to the artisanal food movement, and vicarious living for armchair travelers, food lovers, and others who might wonder what it would be like to drop everything and start an olive farm, or who yearn to make and sell their own clotted cream butter. Thirty-two fantastic recipes follow the profiles, and encourage readers to find their own local suppliers.
My passion for good food, for simple food, began at an early age, on a boulder by the side of a creek as I caught my trout for breakfast. I grew up on the same land my great-grandfather owned and worked. This place was called Tulipwood, and there my great-aunt could name every photosynthetic organism on the land; my grandmother made meatloaf, balsamic vinaigrette and egg dip with an intoxicating savoir-faire; and my father raised honeybees and quince trees with the care typically devoted to a newborn. This connection to the land and the deep satisfaction one gets from manual labor stayed with me through college and even during the years that I strayed onto the path of least resistance and into the world of finance.
After a bit of soul searching I decided to leave the cubicle world behind and enrolled in culinary school. I soon began to work in farm to table restaurants in the U.S. and France, driving heavy farm equipment, and harvesting both meat and plants for dinner. I found that I was most interested in the foragers and fig collectors and salami makers that arrived to the restaurants with their goods, and soon befriended them and went on journeys with them, through the woods, into curing rooms, and over the rolling hills of olive oil vineyards. They took me under their wing and shared their stories about what it is like to step off the grid and devote one's life to doing things the slow way, the traditional way, simply because it is what you love to do. I call them "Food Heroes," and their stories are now a book.
Next I took my adventure one step further and into the wild. I rolled up my sleeves myself and got to the heart of where my ingredients as a chef really come from. My next book "Girl Hunter," is my wild journey over field and stream in search of the main course. It is full of stories and delicious recipes, offering inspiration on how to be a more self sufficient eater.
I continue to chronicle my adventures every day at: www.georgiapellegrini.com.
