the future - what's next?

[Faith Willinger]

Ciao Paula

Of course I'm a big fan. The new book is simply beautiful. I'm so glad that your books finally have color photography.

So what's next?

[Wolfert]

Ciao Faith,

Thanks for your kind words.

My next work will be my most personal cookbook -- a collection of delicious, earthy French Southwest and Mediterranean country recipes, often introduced with culinary memoir material.

However, unlike the current spate of culinary memoirs, in which authors recount stories and then include a few recipes, my book will be first and foremost a working cookbook, organized by chapter in the traditional way: first courses, breads, soups, meat dishes, fish dishes, etc. All the recipes will be prepared in ceramic pots -- earthenware or stoneware vessels.

[Safran]

I have most of your books...and my bookshelves are waiting for your new one!

[bleudauvergne]

        My next work will be my most personal cookbook -- a collection of delicious, earthy French Southwest and Mediterranean country recipes, often introduced with culinary memoir material.

However, unlike the current spate of culinary memoirs, in which authors recount stories and then include a few recipes, my book will be first and foremost a working cookbook, organized by chapter in the traditional way: first courses, breads, soups, meat dishes, fish dishes, etc. All the recipes will be  prepared in ceramic pots -- earthenware or stoneware vessels.

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I love the idea of a cookbook for all earthenware or stoneware pots. I understand you have been collecting cooking pots for some time. Do you plan to use some of your vintage cookware in the making of the cookbook?

[Wolfert]

An important sub-theme, and the lead into the memoir/anecdote material, will be my conviction that "every pot tells a tale." Thus a memory of a dish may be evoked by a pot in my collection, which might then evoke a remembrance of a culinary adventure from my forty-plus years of travels around the Mediterranean in search of recipes. Not every recipe will include a story, perhaps only a third. These adventures will range from interesting (and often amusing) interactions with Mediterranean women, as well as such food and literary personalities as Richard Olney, James Beard, Dione Lucas, Jack Kerouac, Paul & Jane Bowles, etc.

I've whittled down the amount of pots needed by the cook to prepare most of the recipes to just a few.

[moosnsqrl]

An important sub-theme, and the lead into the memoir/anecdote material, will be my conviction that "every pot tells a tale." Thus a memory of a dish may be evoked by a pot in my collection, which might then evoke a remembrance of a culinary adventure from my forty-plus years of travels around the Mediterranean in search of recipes. Not every recipe will include a story, perhaps only a third. These adventures will range from interesting (and often amusing) interactions with Mediterranean women, as well as such food and literary personalities as Richard Olney, James Beard, Dione Lucas, Jack Kerouac, Paul & Jane Bowles, etc.

I've whittled down the amount of pots needed by the cook to prepare most of the recipes to just a few.

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Wow, this sounds great! I read a book about pioneers heading west when I was in grade school (A Kettle Named Maude) and have shared your pot/tale conviction since that time. I'm absolutely convinced that some dishes just do not turn out as well if they're not prepared in the 'proper' pot (and I mean this in a superstitious or traditional way, not when there is some basis in fact as, for example, paella where the size/shape actually does affect the outcome).

I'll look forward to seeing this.

[Wolfert]

Tians, tagines and cazuelas are all pots developed by potters for specific dishes.

I'm not sure but I think the French poet Paul Valéry wrote about ceramics: "The idea of the shape precedes the shape."

[fifi]

. . . . .

  I'm not sure but I think  the French poet Paul Valéry wrote about ceramics: "The idea of the shape precedes the shape."

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Hi Paula . . . Many thanks for joining us. Your comment above absolutely requires me to ask about the pot on the cover of your book. The first thing that came to mind when I first saw it was how odd the shape is. Then came the inevitable question . . . "why?"

And, I don't know whether to thank you or something else for my most recent addiction, clay pots!

[muichoi]

Paula,I love the original 'Cooking of south-west France' so much that I'm almost loth to replace it-I haven't seen the new one yet. One of the very,very few truly great food books!

[Wolfert]

Hi Paula . . . Many thanks for joining us. Your comment above absolutely requires me to ask about the pot on the cover of your book. The first thing that came to mind when I first saw it was how odd the shape is. Then came the inevitable question . . . "why?"

And, I don't know whether to thank you or something else for my most recent addiction, clay pots!

I love that pot! Thanks for asking about it, because it's one of my treasures -- a one gallon cassoule or Provencal tian. It's traditional to use something like this for cassoulet. As the beans and liquid bake in my hearthkit lined oven (you can substitute quarry tiles on the sides) a glaze or crust appears. I break it in a few times, adding to the richness below. Then I allow the top to caramelize, achieving a final glaze. Of course you can break the crust no matter what shape pot you use, but the large area on the top creates more crust. (Sometimes I skip the breaking of the crust and use breadcrumbs.)

There is a potter at www.claycoyote.com who will make a replica of this pot for you in stoneware. (The original is earthenware). It's quite handsome and does the same job very well.

[Wolfert]

Paula,I love the original 'Cooking of south-west France' so much that I'm almost loth to replace it-I haven't seen the new one yet. One of the very,very few truly great food books!

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thank you so much. You've made my day!

[kitwilliams]

Hi Paula!

I'm curious as to know "which came first" for you: the love of the clay pot solely based on its rustic beauty, or the love of the clay pot, having been fed some amazing dish cooked within its confines? And what was that first dish you were served that had been cooked in clay?

[Wolfert]

Hi Paula!

I'm curious as to know "which came first" for you: the love of the clay pot solely based on its rustic beauty, or the love of the clay pot, having been fed some amazing dish cooked within its confines?  And what was that first dish you were served that had been cooked in clay?

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Definitely the rustic beauty: I still have my first clay pot. I bought it in New York

when I was nineteen years old, shortly after I started taking cooking lessons with Dione Lucas. It's a fourteen-inch wide, round, shallow, brown-glazed earthenware pot with a very small opening and a fitted cover on top.

The woman who sold it to me told me it was a French triperie used for cooking tripe. At the time I had no idea what tripe was, but I knew I wanted that pot! There was just something about it: the mysterious shape, the deep rich brown color, the tiny cover which could be sealed with a flour-and-water paste. I've never cooked tripe in it , but have used it a few times over the years to cook beef estouffades. They always emerge exquisitely tender