It started with a tomato sandwich.
When renowned chef and cookbook author Joanne Weir was 6, her mother, a chef and caterer herself, took her into their garden, picked a juicy, beefsteak variety, carried it carefully inside and combined thick slices of the tomato with homemade mayonnaise on freshly baked bread.
“As soon as I took a bite, I realized that this homemade tomato sandwich so lovingly assembled by my mom, was probably the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted,” writes Weir in her new memoir cookbook, “Kitchen Gypsy.”
“I am convinced that my love affair with food began with that sandwich,” says Weir, who is one of the author’s featured at next month’s Tucson Festival of Books.
Weir is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and international cooking teacher. The fourth-generation professional chef has anchored two PBS cooking series and received the first IACP Julia Child Cooking Teacher Award of Excellence. In 2012, Weir was appointed to the American Chef Corp., which promotes world relations through food. And the list goes on.
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Weir, who once studied with revered teacher Madeleine Kamman in France and spent five years cooking with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, now owns her own restaurant, Copita, in Sausalito, California, with restaurateur Larry Mindel. She has launched an online wine business, Joanne Weir Wines, and continues to teach cooking classes around the world. In all, she has written 17 cookbooks. “I guess I’m afraid to stop,” she admits in a recent phone interview. “I love what I do. I love food!”
“Kitchen Gypsy” is Weir’s story of how she got here, beginning with her earliest food memories as a child to a pivotal trip abroad in her 20s to the meal that changed her entire life. Paired with her rich stories are the delicious recipes that defined each moment of her journey.
“It really was a pure passion project, like nothing I have ever worked on before,” she says. “I didn’t realize I had that in me, to write such a personal story, so much from my heart.”
“The contract was for 25,000 words and I thought ‘Oh my god, that is scary!” she says with a laugh. “I ended up writing 40,000. It was so cathartic for me. All those memories just kept coming back to me.”
In your book, you write that your father called you “The Wandering Gypsy.” Why?
Even when I was a little girl, I was never home. I was at the neighbor’s house. I was riding my bike to the park. It was an adventure, and I love adventure. Sometimes I carry an overnight bag in my suitcase and I will go away from going away. I will go one place and then go somewhere from there. I love to travel and I love seeing new things.
Do you have favorite recipes?
I love, love, love salad and I love making homemade pasta. There are also some great pizzas in this book. One dish that really stands out is the citrus salad — it is beautiful and has lots of different flavors. The roasted cauliflower is another one, it has this really wonderful sauce from France. … I love anything fresh. ... I like food to look like it has fallen out of a garden. It’s composed, but it’s casual and not intimidating.
What made you decide to open your own restaurant, Copita?
I was on a friend’s boat, this beautiful yacht off the Mexico coast. Larry (the friend) said he made the best margarita and I said, “No, I make the best margarita.” So we had a cookoff. I made him mine and he made me his. He told me it was the best margarita he’d ever had and would I open a Mexican restaurant with him? I had just had two margaritas and I was feeling happy and I said, “Yes.’
At this point in your culinary career, do you still find new teachers?
I’ve been looking at books by Yotam Ottolenghi and I got inspired. I read the books from cover to cover and then I made this unbelievable Middle Eastern meal. I continue to learn through books. I learn a lot from my travels. I go to restaurants and I’m inspired.
Do you still have time to cook for yourself?
Yes. Last Sunday, I made veal, with some new asparagus and roasted potatoes. It was very simple, but homey.
Despite your incredibly busy schedule, you still find time to work in the Chez Panisse kitchen. Why?
It’s my culinary home. Once they asked me, “Could you peel a lug of apples?” It was huge, at least 30 pounds of apples, and my hands were practically cramping. But I still love going back there. I always will. It will always be a part of me.
What’s next for you?
I might just have another restaurant up my sleeve.
