gfron1

I loathe downtime whether it's a daily moment or a longer life period, so right now I'm most looking forward to getting into my new building and serving food again. As far as the book goes, I'm looking forward to Terry Gross calling me for an interview

Not yet. I am shopping for buildings already but I'm still hoping to sell my building in NM before I open up so I have a stronger operating cash reserve.

As a child I would bring back a small bucket of crawfish from time to time, which my mom lovingly worked into dinners, but my formal foraging happened at the Curious Kumquat. It just made sense there. Pristine wilderness. Vast amounts of diverse environment. In the book I have an essay about Doug Simons, who mentored me in foraging. More importantly, he mentored me in ethical foraging which is so often lacking. As I am struggling to learn new plants right now I remember how learning to forage is like building steam bking up a hill. It takes a while to get the wheels moving, and once you do you get stronger and faster, and then finally you can zip along and enjoy the ride. Back in the Gila Wilderness finding super sweet and juicy juniper berries did that for me. That moment that you're asking about is realizing how amazing nature's food could be if you struggled along for a bit (eating a lot of nasty juniper berries and getting legs covered in chigger bites).

I touched on the bigger picture of distribution and Amazon dominance in the Making of topic. My publisher doesn't even have their copies yet. The printer ships them to Perseus Distribution, who shipped Amazon their batch while EVERYONE else (me, the publisher, Amazon's competitors) waits until the 20th. I've been told that the publisher will get theirs on the 17th. They will then ship to me. I'll inscribe until my hand cramps, then I'll ship them out immediately. I'm also working on the extras like the food photo tutorial from my photographer, and the bonus recipes.

My spouse is splitting his time between StL and KC for his job, so he keeps both teams ball caps in his car for use depending on the audience. Even though my degree is in sport and exercise I'm not a big fan of team sports anymore, but if I have to have a team there is no doubt it will be the Cardinals (baseball) and Blues. I gave up on team sports in early 90s when teams decided that they could move to whatever city built them the best stadium. Football Cardinals are dead to me. Rams were never my team when they were here - dead to me! But the baseball Cardinals are owned by a family that is firmly rooted in St. Louis and I appreciate that.

Thanks to Dave and the team for setting up this Q&A. It seems a bit odd since many of you have known me for a long time now, and I'm certainly not short on words, so I think many of you know what I'm thinking at times. I would like to start off by sharing two pictures from the cookbook: Acorns & Cattails is bookended with my appreciation to eGullet for a reason. As Tri2Cook mentioned, when I first found the forum back in 2005 I was a foodie to be sure, but not hard core, and with zero formal training. I had never consciously foraged. I had never taken other people's money for food. In fact, I was just a guy who ate out a lot for work. My degree is in the Social Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and most of my pre-food career was running non-profits which resulted in my taking people out to lunch to beg for money. But when I found eGullet I was surrounded by experts. Some known, like Grant Achatz and Dorie Greenspan, and the vast majority unknown to the larger culinary world. I remember how I learned to properly use a knife from Chad Ward, who ultimately put out a fantastic book. And I remember when I was the recipient of a giveaway for Ann Amernick's book, which I ultimately baked my way through doing every recipe. I had so much fun baking the book, that next I baked my way through Pierre Herme's books. I can't remember who recommended those books, but someone on eG suggested them to me. Those two books were also when I met Dorie Greenspan here in the forum, and was surprised how willing a famous author was to engage with this community. And then somewhere in this mix of events was the moment that I know launched me into a new paradigm of cooking, and bolstered me previously shaky confidence - the moment that Ling picked me to do a pastry challenge. Fast forwarding a decade, I have had some success with my restaurant and career, and am preparing to start all over now that I've moved to St. Louis and enter this major market with a slew of amazing chefs with serious creds. Acorns & Cattails will be the closing of my previous New Mexico life and the launch of my return to the city where I am born and raised. I am starting at square one (well, maybe two) learning new plants to forage, and studying how to invest serious money in a serious restaurant in a city with serious restaurant reviewers. Scary and daunting, so my attention to details and planning are crucial. But back to the giveaway. I'm writing all of this the day after I met Elliot, a 13-year old self professed foodie who has already held his own pop-up dinner. I mentioned the name Flynn McGarry and he bristled at the comparison (ironically he later compared me to Michael Gallina to which I bristled). I guess we all want our own spotlight. Once we both put our egos aside, I invited him to cook with me at my first pop-up coming right after the book tour. I remember how important it was for me to have the eGullet forum root me on, educate me, and critique me to improve. I have always tried to pass that along to aspiring cooks that I have worked with in the past. And so this book giveaway comes because much of my career is owed to that Amernick book, but moreso this community.

I would encourage you to wait. There's something on the horizon that will be announced Tuesday here at eG.

She is my baby and I will be so lost without her - she's 13 and doing well but much slower than the good ol' days of her an me on the trail.

Of course I'm insanely jealous. He's always come off as a very nice and generous man.

@Shelby I had to laugh because I opened your post to this table setting. The only difference is I've finished more of my coffee

That is exactly it. I very often take the dj off my cookbooks because I'm going to use them in the kitchen with messy hands. So I wanted the boards to stand on their own as something beautiful. Where the designer upped my idea was the gold inner paper off the board (there's a technical term for that page but I don't know what it is) that played off the gold emboss. Such a nice touch and a good example of the relationship between me and the designer on this project. Stay tuned for possibly another topic that might do what you suggest - it's a great idea and is being discussed by the managers and hosts. I will, however, have a bit more to say on this thread about the business of making a cookbook now that I enter the sales end of things.

Welcome and you'll find a number of 2nd/3rd/4th careerers here in the forum who finally moved over to their passion. Cheers.

I doubt anyone will notice it so can I toot a very small horn? I wanted the 2/3 dust jacket for my book. I didn't know if it was more or less expensive than what they normally would do, but the publisher agreed. They were already set to emboss the board, and I suggested the logos of an acorn on front and cattail on back. The original draft had the logos dead center. I suggested that they bump them up to just above the DJ to add a sort of depth to the appearance of the cover. They then ran with the idea and moved my name to the top of the spine to stick out above the DJ. All in all I am very happy with this effect. My agent and I keep saying how unusual and impressive it is to have a publisher who let's you have so much say in the design process. SkyHorse was fantastic to work with. Now, as many of you are getting your hands on the books (I can not thank you enough!) any favorable reviews on Amazon are appreciated to help set the tone. I've already decided I absolutely can not read the Amazon reviews. I've seen how harsh those can be, and quite frankly, unlike my restaurant where I read every review and make adjustments as necessary, I can't do anything to fix the book if there are weaknesses, so even the kindest critical review will be hard for me to read - in fact, that's why it's so hard, I would want to fix things and know that I can't (unless there's a reprint).

The editor sent me the test print (a final version from the printer before they do the full run). Now that I'm touching it - so love this! The paper quality, the color choices, of course the photography. The font...it's even more than I could have asked for. Now I just hope my recipes live up to the design!

From my publisher

As my previous health inspector used to say, "There are some questions that you don't want to ask." Almost all of my meats came from 4H youth and were not USDA processed and I was always vague to the media, but upfront to my customers. Possible but for such a high profile publication he'd be pretty stupid to not be more careful with his words.

This whole thread has been about learning, and even as we near the end it appears I'm learning about distribution. I'm interested to hear from my publisher when I will get my books for the folks who ordered through my site.

Timely, since just the other day I watched THIS video of Gordon Ramsay hunting and eating puffins!

I learned late on Friday (after my publisher's office closed in NYC) that the book will be shipping next week - 3 weeks early! I'm sure I'll hear more on Monday, but if you were waiting til the last minute to order - now is the time. And if you ordered through our website and want a custom inscription for a gift or yourself, please send that asap. Thanks again for all your support to this point, and please encourage your friends to get one as well to show your appreciation for good scratch food, foraging, beautiful photography or just me

Those squares are really beautiful

His story is that everything comes from that land. That article seemed to crack that story a bit. My guess is that he does some shopping.

Your link to me didn't catch so it was a good thing that I thought I should come chime in here. I've been really thinking, not so much about him, but the reaction to him. I've read people say he can't feed a crowd on that little amount of land. He can't make that many cheeses. He can't make that many syrups. OR if he does they can't be very good. Well, I think he can. I know that my mis en place each night is jokingly small, yet somehow I feed 7 courses to 20-30 people five nights a week. My staff joked that it was a loaves and fishes miracle every single night. Because, not exaggerating, I often had less than ten prep tubs in front of me, a couple of proteins hanging out on the side, and whatever fresh greens were around. A truly foraged meal can not be compared to a traditional meal - it's not about protein, carb, veg, garnish. Foraged chefs think differently out of necessity or maybe we forage because our minds are different to begin with. So here's my take. First, it is rare that I find a commercial kitchen that I don't think is overstaffed. I'm in one right now. We have 7 at night and I would lop off at least 3 of them. My chef last night even commented how I was rocking through prep. Well...yeah. It's called hard work and demand of value - I want 8 hours of work out of an 8 hour employee. I put in 14-16 hour days for 8 years. I loved what i did and thrived. I also found a sweet spot of efficiency. When I gather stinging nettle, for example, I come back to the kitchen and make 3 or 4 different things with it - maybe a panna cotta for this week, an oil for the next month, wrap a goat cheese for 3 months from now and so on. Long-term planning and creativity made my scarce resources last a long time. So, as far as workload goes - yes, he can do what he's saying he does. Second, like most chefs, we are story tellers. There's a line of bullshit that runs through every ego-driven chef. Look at menu language - so much BS. The Farm to Fable article captured this to an extent...and when a good story becomes an outright lie. His "booked until 2025" just reeks of BS to me. He's creating an air of exclusivity, and my guess is that he opens nights to "last minute cancellations" whenever he has the supplies and energy to knock out a dinner. If his booked til claims were true, then when this article came out, hundreds, nay, thousands of people would have been posting on their facebook pages that they had reservations for 2019. That hasn't happened as far as I can tell. So again, I call BS. I did order his cookbook, and it's odd because if you go to his publisher's page you'll see they do a sort of dummies investment books, not cookbooks. Maybe a friend. Maybe a fan. I just hope I get my book for the money.

When I visited Oaxaca I never saw stone soup in regular restaurants. There was a place about 20 minutes east of the city (Northern end) that everyone told us was more geared towards locals - where yes, they had big caldrons that they would drop rocks into to cook the soup. Fun idea, but when we went they were closed and our driver tried to really screw us over. That said, they look like gourds to me too, but if they are stone I'd love to find a set for myself. For evidence that they are gourds, look at the rim of the forefront bowl and look at about 2 o'clock. You'll see an irregularity that would make sense for gourd instead of rock - on a rock that would probably have shattered.

Be kind to me my friends ... this is my first video. I will be releasing a series of videos in support of Acorns & Cattails being published on September 20th. These videos allowed me to get into what's important and exciting about foraging. Enjoy! HERE

I tell the story all the time of when the eG crew gathered in Vegas a few years ago for a chocolate workshop and we all went to Lotus of Siam for dinner. The 20 or so of us all sat together at one long table. The New Mexico contingency (and a bit of Arizona) was at one end, while the rest of the table was filled with folks from Toronto to California. When it came time to order the shared dishes the Eastern end of the table opted for heat level 1 and 2 (out of 10), while the New Mexico contingency picked 4-6. The other side of the table drank a lot of water, and the New Mexicans felt that it was barely hot. We definitely have skewed heat tolerances. I sure miss my chiles in Missouri.