Sorry for the long silence but I am in the middle of a new book

I know. I’ve been silent for way too long.   It’s not that I have forgotten to write on my blog, it is just that I have embarked on a huge new book project and it it taking most of my time and occupying my every waking and even sleeping thoughts.

I have been asked by University of California Press to write the history of what has come to be known as the California Cuisine movement.   Over the past 5 months  I have just completed 170 interviews with chefs, artisans, farmers, writers, winemakers, restaurant designers, food retailers, press, and front of the house managers, trying to leave no stone unturned in my quest to report the story.  The path is not linear or clear. The story varies between Northern and Southern California. And I am drowning in information that I must now sort and place into into the appropriate chapters. Yes, there is a chapter outline but sequence  is not yet clear.This is a book that will evolve in the writing.  I am a hermit at my desk most of the time.

I know that last time I posted I had just set out on a cruise on the Mediterranean for Lindblad and National Geographic. I was in Sicily,  Sardinia, Corsica, Menorca and Southern Spain. It seems like a dream today.The food was good. I did not have any major new culinary discoveries but being back in the Mediterranean is always satisfaction enough.

 Last month I received the Silver Spoon award in Food Arts and was thrilled to be recognized for my  many years of work.

And I have been working at Yale University to improve the salad stations at all twelve  colleges . It has been challenging and I will be writing about it in Food Arts. Yale University Food Service Director Rai Taherian and I gave a presentation  at NACUFS about our work.

I am still writing for the Sommelier Journal and participating on conferences at the Culinary Insitute of America at Greystone in St . Helena.  So I have not been loafing. Just too busy to post. I know this should be a habit but I often don’t have the time. Sorry, I will try to do better.