I rarely cook from cookbooks—I spend so much of my time creating and testing my own recipes. When it comes to making dinner for my family each night, I usually just improvise something simple on the stovetop, like a stir-fry or a pasta. Or I might throw together an easy pizza dough, and top it with just a few items from the refrigerator. But I do love to READ cookbooks—for vicarious sensual or literary experiences, or to sample and enjoy other writers' styles. And there is much to learn.

Once in a great while, I'll actually have a transcendent experience reading a cookbook. This happened most recently when I picked up a copy of the new and unusual Salt & Pepper by Michele Anna Jordan. I started reading it and couldn't put it down. I had been familiar with Michele's work for some time—she is a friend of mine, and I greatly admire her food sense and her beautiful writing. But inspired though I have been by everything she has done, this book has given me something beyond inspiration. It has given me permission.

Let me explain. I love the tastes of salt and pepper. Yet, having internalized the prevailing cultural snobbery about these ingredients, I have judged myself to be pedestrian and gauche in these passions. So I've kept my feelings largely to myself, like a naughty secret. A widespread, irrational morality hovers around the use of salt especially—both in the kitchen and at the table. The result is that this important ingredient has come to be taken entirely for granted, at best, and indicted as "bad" or an emblem of weakness at worst. And pepper, while perhaps not judged as harshly as salt, is also largely misunderstood and unappreciated.

In Salt & Pepper, Michele Anna Jordan delivers long-overdue justice to these surprisingly fascinating and complex subjects. There are so many more kinds, grinds, colors, flavors, and sources of salt and pepper than you'd ever have dreamed existed! Michele's bold narrative weaves together fables, history, lore, and scientific research, as well as technical information and techniques, both artful and practical. She also provides a list of resources (for information, newletters, and supplies), and a glossary, bibliography, and full index.

Michele is a born storyteller and a consummate teacher. Her writing voice ranges from poetic to downright wry. But always—consistently—she is brimming with knowledge and passion. I now see salt and pepper with fresh eyes, and taste them with a fresh tongue. I appreciate them more deeply and openly, without shame, and with newfound awe and enthusiasm. And, needless to say, I look forward to savoring more of Michele's writing in the future.

Oh—did I forget to mention recipes? There are 135 of them in Salt & Pepper, and they as simple to prepare as they are complex and provocative to taste. Michele is not just a wonderful writer. She's a fabulous cook.

Here are some of the recipe titles:

Salted Almonds
Perfect Deviled Eggs
Crostini with Olive and Artichoke Tapenade
Spicy Sweet Potato Soup with Nutmeg Cream
Dried Gnocchi with Lemon, Pepper, Basil, and Ricotta
Risotto Pepato
Grilled Portobellos with Black Pepper Polenta
Artichokes, Shallots, and New Potatoes Roasted on Salt
Pepper-Crusted Pizza with Porcini, Fontina, and Sage
Grilled Corn with Pepper Butter
Clay Pot Garlic Potatoes
Peppery Green Salad with Roquefort and Pears
Green Peppercorn Mayonnaise
Raisin, Onion, and Green Peppercorn Chutney
Roasted Strawberries with Black Pepper
Black Pepper Ice Cream
Asian Limeade
Chai
Malaysian Martinis

---

In Her Own Words:
Two excerpts from Michele Anna Jordan's Salt & Pepper "The story of salt and our craving for it is inseparable from human history. After we crawled out of the sea and wandered inland, we were able to do without extra salt for a time because we got what we needed from the raw meat we ate. But as we grew more and more civilized, cooking our food and learning to farm, our need for salt began to rise, growing into an insatiable hunger if unsatisfied for long. "

"Salt is indispensible. The earth is cloaked in salt; a salty tide moves within us too, every moment lapping at the edges of our cells. Without it, we die.

Pepper is superfluous. Salt's culinary spouse is expendable, entirely unnecessary for existence (the ideal marriage, one partner frivolous, one keeping the house afloat). It is a gift, a luxury that we have come to take entirely for granted. 'Saltandpepper' is nearly a single word in our kitchen vocabulary and the thought of doing without the pepper part is all but inconceivable. But should something occur to put pepper absolutely out of reach, we could live. We would mourn its loss, and with every bite be aware of its absence. But we would live."

"Salt tap-dances naked on your table, makes you blush with delight. Pepper taps you on the shoulder and invites you behind closed doors. Both are shameless in the endless pleasure they impart."

---

About Michele Anna Jordan:
An award-winning writer, cooking teacher, restaurant critic, and James Beard Award-nominated radio personality, Michele is the author of ten books. These include four titles in the "Good Cook's" series (Tomatoes, Mustard, Oil & Vinegar, The Good Cook's Book of Days), published by Addison Wesley, and now available at www.amazon.com

A California native and culinary historian. and former chef and caterer, she has also written Polenta (Broadway Books 1997) and the much-lauded California Home Cooking (Harvard Common Press 1997), which was a finalist in the very competitive IACP Julia Child Cookbook Awards. Among her many other projects, which include a performance piece about her relationship with her mentor, MFK Fisher, and a new appointment as the North Bay restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Michele is currently working on a new edition of her excellent first book, A Cook's Tour of Sonoma, to be published in 2000 by Sasquatch. She divides her time between Sonoma County and San Francisco.

You can write to Michele Anna Jordan with queries about her books: msugarbone@aol.com.