Customer Reviews

My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family, and Big Sur

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have just finished feasting, and am still savoring tasteful images and recipes from the most breathtakingly beautiful "cook book" I've ever read. Perhaps it is because it is so much more than food that is displayed here. Romney Steele has preserved the unique legacy of precious photos, of long forgotten places and faces, of people I have known and loved personally, all bound together in an elegant treasure chest she calls, "My Nepenthe".

Romney (known as Nani) Steel has crafted a lovely monument of history, rendered in the simple language of reverie, that explores her family's roots, and how visionary people brought the gift of Nepenthe to Big Sur and the world. Nepenthe (no sorrow) is an architectural wonder of a restaurant with an unrivaled view of the coast that has become a world-class tourist must-see place during its 60 year history. People still come to look, to wonder, to drink deeply of the beauty, to dine and to dance on its moon-washed balcony overlooking the ocean. Visitors in the past might have been treated to a fashion parade from the Phoenix Boutique, or to an impromptu folk dance. There are those who would line the stone bleachers festooned with pillows, sipping martinis,watching from a distance the fire dancing in the huge fire pit, or the Fire dancers, and belly dancers who often came to grace the gleaming red-stained dance floor. In the sparkling summer days brightly colored umbrellas shade the diners as they enjoy a classic house specialty called "ambrosia" burgers served with homemade french fries, a bean salad, and fine local wines, creating a French Riviera atmosphere.
Last year Nepenthe withstood the most devastating fire ever to sweep through the Ventana wilderness area. Nani's cousin Kirk, Nepenthe's manager, and staff had to beat back the burning embers from the roof and outlying timbers for one whole night, as the blaze threatened to destroy the inheritance of his beloved grandparents. It remains a place deeply loved and revered by local residents, famed for the overarching hospitality of the owners, Bill and Lolly Fassett, Nani's grandparents. Their original home, called the "log cabin" still sits above the restaurant,and is now home to Erin Gafill and her husband Tom Birmingham.
Nani's book strikingly displays well-photographed food dishes, and their storied recipes right from her grandmother Lolly's table. She has learned one of the great secrets of any kitchen, that the presentation of food is as important as its flavor, and has skillfully woven the food, the fame and the fable that is Nepenthe into an artistic fabric. It is as complex and colorful as any of her Uncle Kaffe Fassett's tapestries, and as hauntingly beautiful as any of her cousin Erin's paintings. Nani's family have each contributed works of art to create a lovely window display, featuring her book, at the Phoenix Gift Shop just below Nepenthe.
She has lovingly traced her family's history and drawn a fascinating story of how these early bohemian, avante-garde pioneers in the art world helped to nurture Lolly's vision, and shape the dream of Nepenthe into a reality.
Nani has called this Kingdom, where she grew up under the loving eyes and smile of Lolly her grandmother, MY NEPENTHE. In a sense she has laid claim to it like no other descendant has, but not selfishly. She has put it on display, like the work of art that it is, for the delight of all her family and friends. Now we may all marvel and partake of its unique beauty.

This exceptionally entertaining and absorbing family biography is almost a time machine. It takes you back to the glory years of Nepenthe--the world-famous restaurant perched on the ocean cliffs off Highway 1 in California's rugged Big Sur region--and makes you feel as if you were actually there in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and all the decades up to the present day.

The restaurant, founded in 1949 and still operated by the amazing Fassett family, was an early center of coastal California Bohemian culture, visited by Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Richard Brautigan, Man Ray, Anais Nin, Dylan Thomas, Steve McQueen, Kim Novak, Clint Eastwood, and many other actors, authors, artists, and photographers. The book, presented as an annotated family scrapbook and recipe book, is copiously illustrated with photos of "ordinary" family life in Big Sur; of family weddings, fashion shows, art shows, and other events celebrated at Nepenthe; and of daily dining and dancing at the restaurant and its smaller cousin, Cafe Kevah.

One photo of Holly Fassett in a long Bill Gibb dress (on page 102) has been reprinted so often--in chronicles of the hippie culture, if memory serves me--that I was amazed to learn that the identity of the lovely young woman was actually known. The book also includes special sections devoted to the movie THE SANDPIPERS, which was filmed at Big Sur and Nepenthe.

There are many, many wonderful Nepenthe recipes included. They seem almost too simple to have come from such an expensive restaurant, but their very simplicity makes them practical and accessible to anyone who cooks. My favorite recipe is for a thick sandwich--one synonymous with California, in my mind--that is put together of black bread, a generous amount of cream cheese, raisins, and a layer of walnuts, with chopped dates tossed in if you happen to have some on hand. The food photos accompanying the recipes make your mouth water.

Knitters will enjoy this book because of the photos of adolescent Kaffe Fassett, who is the son of Nepenthe founders Bill and Lolly Fassett, and who grew up in Big Sur. Included are a few photos of Kaffe's knitting as displayed at Nepenthe; and there are scattered bits of inside family information on "Uncle Kaffe", as recalled by author/niece Romney Steele. The book reveals that it was Alice Russell, the manager of Nepenthe's Phoenix Shop, who actually taught Kaffe to knit on his historic train ride home from a Scottish woolen mill. Handknits from selected Kaffe Fassett designs are still sold at the Phoenix Shop today.

This is a sumptuous book, in every respect. It is beautiful to look at, and it succeeds in providing a truly intimate view of the Fassett family, Nepenthe, Big Sur, and the California coastal culture that existed in the second half of the last century.

The book is aptly titled. My Nepenthe is no balanced biography or institutional history. Rather, Romney Steele pulls together her considerable talents as a designer and a chef to compile what is mostly a tribute to her grandmother. Always using her own story of as a frame of reference, Steele does not pretend to make it anything else. I can see the book selling wildly at the Nepenthe gift store, but aside from that, its appeal is limited.

I was lucky enough to have visited Nepenthe in the 50s, in Lolly's glory days. My family, fresh from the Midwest, was awestruck as we drove up the road to the restaurant. We enjoyed the stunning views of the Big Sur coast as we sat on the deck freezing, and eating our hamburgers. And folk dancing! What a wild Bohemian life! Even in my twelve year old consciousness, I was captivated, and the Nepenthe myth has stayed with me all these 50+ years.

Subsequent visits have been disappointing, and now I know that everything changed when Lolly passed away, though Steele discretely left too, too many questions unanswered about Nepenthe today.

That said, the book was a delight and I read it through in two sittings. I know a little bit more about the Nepenthe story now, but this only whetted my appetite. I hope to see a more in depth biography of the Fossetts and the Big Sur scene.

Among the reviews here on Amazon you will find numerous nostalgic tales of Big Sur in the hippie days; here is mine. The first time I drove down California Highway 1, from the green cliffs of Santa Cruz through Monterey and Carmel and finally to the spectacular coastline of El Sur Grande, was unforgettable. Big Sur is surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. The year was 1965, a time when California was also the leading edge for certain revolutions unfolding in American life. In the late 60's and early 70's Big Sur's breathtaking landscape attracted pioneers of some of those lifestyle innovations - including Esalen and the Tassajara Zen center. But the population of local residents was remarkably small and remains so to this day. Big Sur was spared from development by the extremely rugged topography and isolation - the only road was not even built until the late 1930's - together with a lack of buildable private land and strict protective laws. As a result this area, only 100 miles from the densely populated Bay Area, has remained largely unspoiled wilderness. This means few services for the visitor - one will not find a Starbucks in the 100 miles between Carmel and San Luis Obisbo - so stopping at the landmark Nepenthe restaurant with its stunning view of the Pacific Ocean was part of the Big Sur experience.

An outsider like myself, who could only manage to visit for a day now and then, always wondered: Who actually lives around here? This book, by a grandaughter of the founder of Nepenthe, answers a bit of that question. It is not only the story of Nepenthe as an institution and of the extended family who founded and operated it over several generations, but also a colorful narrative of the community of locals, a mix of rugged artists and writers, Hollywood celebrities, chainsaw hippies, bohemians, misfits and outlaws who gravitated to this wild land in the 50's, 60's, 70's. The story is told in the form of a cookbook, but it is really a memoir of the author's large family and especially her grandmother, who was the matron and guiding spirit of Nepenthe and a pillar of the Big Sur community for many years. It is a highly personal family album and the reader may glaze over at long lists of cousins. But it does give a feeling for making a family business and hardworking way of life in a wilderness which for all its grandeur had few economic opportunities. I found it interesting however that the founders came West with quite a bit of capital to invest - the building was designed by a Frank Lloyd Wright associate and was not inexpensive to build. The recipes are nice to have, but not really the main point of the book. Nepenthe was never a shoestring operation, and the founders took pride in offering first rate cuisine.

Unfortunately, this nostalgia is mostly about the Nepenthe of 40 years ago rather than today's version. The author doesn't write about how she and her large family finally gave in to the temptations of cashing in on an iconic destination which now attracted legions of foreign tourists. Probably the many descendents wanted more cashflow from Nepenthe and less personal commitment. The result was professional management and a revised business model. In other words, the prices are now stratospheric. The steak entree which used to sell for $3.50 is now $36.50, and the fries $8 extra!! Salmon fillet is $29.50, vegetarian lasagna $24.50. Whoa. These are tourist-trap prices set for Japanese photo-snappers and other one-time visitors, obviously not the local outlaw artist hippies, who presumably now hang out elsewhere. Even the book itself was probably strategized as a souvenir item to sell in the gift shop. Oh well, selling out was probably inevitable. But Big Sur will always be wild and magnificent.

It is rare for me to buy a cookbook for anything other than the recipes, but I must admit to having such good memories of time spent at Nepenthe that I couldn't resist. And as that was the rationalization, I couldn't be more delighted with this gorgeous coffee table book which is so much more than just a collection of recipes.

For those who don't know, Nepenthe is a renowned restaurant that opened in Big Sur back in 1949. It's set in one of the most naturally stunning locations on the planet and has a fascinating history which is fully documented by author Romney Steele, the granddaughter of the restaurant's original owners. She does an excellent job relating the history of Nepenthe as a business, as a destination, and as it intersects with her family history. The story is more interesting than you might guess. The place has seen a lot of people and a lot of events in the past 60 years.

In addition to documenting the history of Nepenthe in words, this over-sized book is chock full of the most magnificent photographs of the people, the surroundings, and--oh yeah--the food.

The book contains nearly 100 recipes from the family and the restaurant. For me, the book worked slightly better as a whole than strictly as a cookbook. The recipes aren't really organized in any way, and they're a somewhat random selection. There's a little of this and a little of that, but if you're looking for something specific, you won't necessarily find it here. More, it's like a book you'll read, and you just might discover a gem inside like Chile Custards with Salsa Fresca or Nepenthe's Triple Berry Pie.

A bonus: after reading this book and the included recipes, you may feel compelled to visit the restaurant. I haven't been in a few years, but I can't wait to return with a new appreciation of this Northern California institution.

If you hear the word "Nepenthe" and it conjures up unforgettable memories of a one of the most beautiful and unique places in the world, then Romney Steele's "My Nepenthe," may be the perfect gift to give yourself. Why? Because paging through this book will most likely make you almost FEEL like you did when you were there! It's magic, like an amazing parlor trick...merely paging through a book can make you see, hear, feel, and smell the spirit of a place. But, somehow, this book does it.

The book is breathtaking, just like Nepenthe. The artistry is bohemian, just like Nepenthe. The book's overall design -- its many odd typefaces, brilliant colors mixed with muted colors, compelling historic and current photographs of people, place and food -- evokes the identical awe-inspiring natural and artistic beauty that greeted you at every turn and view around Nepenthe. Having this book in your hands, and discovering its content...well, it feels much like the experience you might have felt when you first discovered the place. At least that is how I reacted to the book when I browsed through it for the first time. I was transfixed, mesmerized, and miraculously, suddenly, very happy.

The book is full of artistic full-page photographs of Nepenthe restaurant food. Each photograph depicts a specific dish served at the restaurant and each is accompanied by a recipe and a story about the recipe. The recipes are the best of California fresh and natural cuisine. They don't look difficult, and any mix of them would make a stupendous menu for a fine dining event.

After enjoying hours just paging through the book, you will want to find the time to read it. Surprisingly, the text does not disappoint. It is a history of the place and the people that owned it; the people that worked and lived there; the people who build the majestic building that so lovingly embraces the views; and the famous people from all over the world who visited and left a part of themselves in the spirit of the place.

The author, Romney Steele, is "a writer, cook and food stylist and the granddaughter of Bill and Lolly Fassett, creators of Nepenthe Restaurant." She grew up with Nepenthe as her home and worked there for many years. She spent a great deal of time researching family archives to gather together the best photographs, recipes, and stories to share with readers.

It was serendipity that made me stumble upon this book. I am so happy I did! It is not going to rest with my other books in the library. No, this book is going to be in my living room where I can easily visit with it from time to time, let it influence my mealtime planning, and share it with my friends.

I live in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, but I've had the good fortune to visit Nepenthe many times. I love the book, it's contemporary and nostalgic at the same time. It's informative, but most importantly, it has the recipe for the Ambrosia burger!

Is there anything better than history with great food?

Though it covers a broad span of history in Big Sur, from 1906 to the present, My Nepethe is particularly evocative of 60s and 70s, when love ins and be ins and sit ins were a way of life. It speaks to my hippie roots.

The restaurant, and area, shared times with the famous and infamous. There are tales of Grandma Lolly shutting down the restaurant to keep the Hell's Angels at bay or offering the restaurant as a forum for James Baldwin. There are stories of a pissy Henry Miller, the cast of the Sandpiper, with a young Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, of politics and poetry and dancing.

Ahhh... And then there are the recipes. There are many wondrous desserts, but, frankly, it's easy to tempt the salivating reader with passion cookies with pecans and coconut, or pumpkin spice cake with sour cream frosting.

Where it gets very interesting, at least for me, is when unusual things are done to common ingredients, or when there is finally a doable recipe for an impossible ingredient. And, while there are meat and fish recipes galore, there is much to tempt the vegetarian, as well.

My recommendations:

Oven-baked rice. Yeah, I know. We can all make perfect rice in our rice cookers. But this is baked in the oven, and it's perfect every time. How cool is that?

Roquefort Dressing. I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for the perfect recipe for roquefort dressing. I think this might be it.

Ambrosia Sauce. No, not that stuff with jello and canned grapes. This is a sauce for burgers. A little spicy, a little sweet. Gotta try it.

Crunchy coleslaw. Everyone claims to have the best recipe for coleslaw. I'm sure you do. Send me yours. In the mean time, here's one with some mayo, some sugar, some Chinese hot mustard... Need I say more?

Baked Cinnamon-Pecan Apples with Rum. It's hard to make a bad baked apple. And I'm not one for fussing up the recipe. This one doesn't. It just adds rum. And I know I've got some in the back of the liquor cabinet from those summer cocktails. Now I can use it in the autumn, too!

Roasted Corn with Chipotle Butter. My husband makes a killer version of this with corn rounds. Problem is someone nearly loses a finger every time we cut the corn into rounds. This one is done with whole ears of corn, adobo sauce, and butter. Oh yeah. And lime wedges. Yum.

Garlic Basil Aioli. I make a rather outstanding garlic mayonnaise. Many vouch for it. But this looks even more intriguing. Garlic, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and fresh basil. The bar has been raised.

Wine-Poached Quince with Rosemary. If you already have a quince recipe, more power to you. I don't. And those quince (quinces?) at the Farmer's Market taunt me, week after week. Well, their time has come.

Read it and cook it, or read it an fantasize. Or read it and time travel back to Big Sur in the 60s. It's a good trip.

3 1/2 stars. 338 pages (the product description is incorrect, listing 352 pages.)

This semi-cookbook chronicles the Big Sur, California restaurant, Nepenthe, which owes much of its great success over the years since 1949 to the following causes:

(1) through terrific timing (on when and where to open for business) and the wisdom to change with the times (while maintaining selected standards) in certain aspects of the operation,

(2) by offering superb recipes/dishes which are founded largely upon the finest available ingredients,

(3) by attracting a celebrity clientele which was sure to boost continuing public interest.

(4) by initiating great architectural vision.

(5) by the fact that this restaurant has been operated over the years by a family (the Fassett family) which has been dedicated to its every detail and high standards.

The author (Romney Steele) is a member of the family operation and has documented a detailed and personalized history of this semi-renowned culinary establishment.

What do I most like about the book? It's very artsy, heavily illustrated (dishes/landscape/nostalgic photographs), unique to other books, and the recipes (85 of them) are all manageable, given some planning, and they lead us to something different with which to grace our dinner tables.

Discussing the recipes first, these dishes almost all scream out CALIFORNIA, a place from whence most things new in the United States typically issue. Nearly all the recipes here incorporate an ingredient fusion of multiple cultures, innovation, and a timeliness in that these great light entrees, sides, desserts, basket foods, treats, and complex cocktails all mesh with 21st-Century culinary thinking, even though the menu at Nepenthe has remained largely static for quite a long time.

Some examples include "Ambrosia Burgers" (one of the top sellers), "Lolly's Roast Chicken with Sage Stuffing," "Pumpkin Spice Cake, "Baked Fish with Marjoram," "Chile Custards with Salsa Fresca," "Rosemary Lamb Brochettes with Mint Pesto," and the "Moscow Mule" [a highball].

Regarding ingredients, if home cooks attempt these dishes from local (outside California) or inferior food products they are likely to be disappointed. Steele is very specific as to the brands and types of ingredients necessary to each recipe. Nepenthe has always used "Prime" meats (as opposed to "Select" or "Choice") and such meat products cannot be purchased just anywhere because they are expensive and thus do not market well in grocery stores and even in some butcher shops. Unbleached flour (always recommended by the author) is readily available everywhere and it's typically the same price as bleached flour; however, so many home cooks have yet to become informed on how very superior unbleached flour really is and so they tend to not use it. Nepenthe chefs chiefly use organic fruits and vegetables which are expensive in most regions. Dungeness crab is superb if you can get it (it really is the very best and comes from the Pacific Northwest region) but if it's not available, I would not attempt a recipe which uses it when anything less is bound to be inferior. Grand Marnier (an expensive French orange-flavored cognac blend) is pretty pricey to keep around for one or two recipes. And, a big positive is that Nepenthe chefs only use fresh tomatoes when they're in season which assures recipe quality and consistency.

While the recipes are very intelligently conceived and detailed, a few could still tolerate a minor improvement here and there. An example would be the excellent French Fries recipe on page 66 where the methodology is near perfect but the author lists canola oil as a possible base for the frying process - canola oil exudes a fishy taste when heated and peanut oil (which releases no flavor of its own) would have been a superior recommendation. Such issues are very minor ones but important in this type of cooking and baking.

My point is that many of these recipes are very specific ingredient-dependent so this is not really a "cookbook" that one should keep to pull off the shelf to whip up one of the dishes -- one needs to plan ahead to prepare most of these recipes, assuming that you wish to maintain a lofty standard of excellence.

The book features as much or more emphasis on Nepenthe's history as it does on the recipes and, of course, this is where the art of the book is punctuated. A huge feature of Nepenthe is grounded in the fact that scenes from the famous Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor Film, The Sandpiper, were shot here. And many other period celebrities have graced the premises such as Clint Eastwood (during his "Rawhide" years) and Kim Novak.

As the protest and psychedelic era of the Free Love Society came on, the Nepenthe staff members were host to rock music notables such as Jimi Hendrix, Mama Cass Elliot (she DESPISED the "Mama" appellation!), Janis Joplin, and David Crosby.

But probably the folks who originally launched this trendy ocean overlook included the sort of notables who could likely have just flown over from Gertrude's and Alice's Picasso-pad in Paris: Henry Miller, Dylan Thomas, Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Jack Kerouac... (I'm certain that Kerouac was never actually in Gertrude Stein's and Alice B. Toklas's Paris home but his tenuous pal Brion Gysin was her frequent guest until he boinked Alice's cookbook [after Gertrude's death] with his infamous "Haschich Fudge" recipe! The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book.)

In an effort to avoid re-relating the entire book here I'll summarize with a few critical points.

These recipes are very difficult to locate by referencing the index -- so, too much art where there should have been some practical utility.

The graphics are fairly burdensome in numerous places where the layout folks used black ink on dark maroon- and dark teal-colored pages -- this is tough reading. I also did not savor the recipe titles (and other headings) where someone with marginal penmanship scribed them in longhand -- I felt that this artful approach actually detracted notably from the overall merit of the work.

To whom does this book market? It's not exactly a coffee-table book and, as a cookbook, it needs more recipes. Neither does it grab the eye of movie star fans since there is limited film and music nostalgia here. So the publisher really did not pinpoint a target buyer, which brings me to my final point: it's a fine book to flip through but with a sticker price of thirty-five dollars I'm sure that there are better gifts in the areas of interest which this work highlights only marginally. The book seems over-priced by about ten bucks to me.

With that, while I think that the author has generated a quality culinary and literary end-product, due to the reasons which I've previously stated I unfortunately cannot recommend it except perhaps to Bug Sur region residents and maybe to former visitors to the Nepenthe restaurant.

Much has already been written about this important mid-20th century landmark. It's part autobiography, part memoir, part recipe book and while I don't dispute the author's intimate, first-person account, the choice to make it so personal carries with it the burden of making a memoir compelling to strangers. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with this story; the many accounts of Nepenthe's famous customers and of Romney Steele's bohemian and ultimately privileged life struck me as more than a tad elitist; many times, while reading, I sensed that Steele seems to subtly, almost nonchalantly brag about her family's associations with celebrity under the guise of retelling history.

One Amazon reviewer, speaking in praise of this tome, called it a "scrapbook." I couldn't find a better word to describe it myself. Personal accounts, historical and family photos, recipes...they're all there. But how many strangers, even those who have been to Steele's Nepenthe, can sit captivated through 352 pages of name-dropping?

While I'm on a roll, a word about the food: it seems that somewhere along the line, Nepenthe's bohemian spirit has been traded for reaping the profits from a California landmark. How else can one explain away a $16.75 chicken sandwich or a $25 wedge of lasagne?? Yes, the views are stunning, but if you really want to experience Big Sur, grab a campsite, pitch a tent, and let the salt air and pine forest envelop you in all the glory this magical, mystical coastline has to offer.