Six California Kitchens: A Collection of Recipes, Stories, and Cooking Lessons from a Pioneer of California Cuisine by Sally Schmitt

Six California Kitchens: A Collection of Recipes, Stories, and Cooking Lessons from a Pioneer of California Cuisine Reviews

• 
  Beth Cato

  I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.
  
  Sally Schmitt is a legend in California cuisine and the farm-to-table movement. She's most famous as one of the founders and as chef at The French Laundry in Napa Valley, but as this memoir/cookbook relates through friendly banter and asides, this is only one of six kitchens that has shaped her life. As a storytelling format, it is unique and logical. She begins with her childhood and her mother's kitchen, and moves onward from there, explaining what she learned and what the general vibe of life was at the time, with everything elaborated upon with photographs, drawings, and recipes that will make the mouth water.
  
  The recipes are formatted in a unique style that fits the conversational tone of the whole book: there's no ingredient block up front, but the ingredients are listed in the own column alongside the point in the recipe directions when they are used. I wish more cookbooks would take on this style and save cooks from having to flip pages between ingredients and instructions! The food itself is the epitome of Napa Valley cuisine, relying on lots of fresh ingredients and high quality meats such as lamb. Cost and availability will likely curtail many readers from giving the recipes a try. However, this book is so much more than its recipes. It's a refreshing, gentle memoir, an ambling journey through someone's life via their kitchen and foods.
• 
  Caroline

  A memoir by one of the first chefs to promote California cooking in the 1970s. Sally Scmitt and her husband founded the French Laundry restaurant in Yountsville.
  
  Sally grew up (just a few miles from where I live) in Roseville California. Her father was (like my grandfather) a railroad worker. The family lived on a small farm, as my forebears in northern California had pioneer farmed just south of Sacramento.
  
  So I felt some affinity as she started her memoir, which covers eighty years of growing up, becoming an accomplished cook, and founding seminal restaurants. But when she described how much physical and creative work she did while raising five children all resemblance ceased. I am in awe of someone who accomplished so much and describes it so casually.
  
  The book is a delight. Beyond her work ethic it is filled with her devotion to healthy farming and eating, rigorous discipline and method, and celebration of family and friends. It is also filled with fabulous sounding recipes I can hardly wait to try. They are all based on the bounty of California farms, ranches and vineyards. Difficulty ranges from simple everyday meals to dishes you need to devote a day to, but all appear to be within the scope of a home cook.
• 
  Nancy

  This is a lovely memoir masquerading as a cookbook!
  I find many memoirs, especially foodie ones a little pretentious but this was the lovely story of a woman and her family. Sally's odyssey from her mother's kitchen and into her own cooking/restaurant career was told nicely in terms of recipes and vignettes. I actually read and enjoyed all of her commentary. The setting of Yountville and the Napa Valley is a little familiar to me and that was also enjoyable.
  I found many recipes that I will like to try, though ingredients might be hard to source for a home cook. The attention to detail in the instructions and added hints were great! The recipes were refreshing in that not a lot of special equipment was needed to prepare them.
  It was intriguing to see that Apple Farm is still a working venue (except for the pandemic) and I'm now keen to try a stay there out when it is able to reopen.
  The photography adds a lot to this book. Not every recipe is pictured but the setting is well documented in addition to the recipes themselves which is lovely.
• 
  Furrawn

  I literally read this book cover to cover. This book is more than recipes. There are hidden tidbits about cooking that are often passed down generation to generation. There’s the story of a wonderful life.
  
  Then, there’s the recipes.
  
  What can I say? Well, I have the big Italian cookbook by Marcella Hazan. I even have a backup hardcover copy in case something happens to mine. Marcella taught me how to cook when I was in college. I’d rescue that book in a fire.
  
  I think Sally Schmitt’s cookbook is in the same class as Marcella Hazan and Julia Child. Recipes that work. Cookbooks that become part of who you are.
  
  Sally Schmitt’s recipes are mostly real recipes that normal people often eat at home even, but her recipes yield results that match our memories of the best happiest meals we ever ate.
  
  Sally, Marcella, and Julia.
  
  I urge you to get a copy and expect it to be one of your most loved.
• 
  Emily Avila

  Homesick
  
  I devoured this book over two days, bewildered at the culinary history that unfolded just up the road from where I grew up, yet a world away. I had a passion for cooking since I was a child, and feel the bittersweet longing for this era in the beautiful Napa Valley. I was sad to hear that Sally died in March of this year, but I am so happy that (1) she is getting the recognition she deserves and (2) her family continues the tradition of so-called “California cuisine.” 🧡
• 
  Michelle

  This is a lovely cookbook/memoir from Sally Schmidt with California-esque recipes and plenty of stories. I kept bookmarking pages for recipes to make! Focusing on Napa Valley and Yountville, this book is a treasure of farm to table dishes, over six restaurants.
  
  Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC!
• 
  Phyllis

  The subtitle says it best: “This is a collection of recipes, stories and cooking lessons from a pioneer of California cuisine.”
  
  As much a memoir as a recipe book, this book describes the history of a family as well as a cooking movement. Sally Schmitt is best known as a pioneering chef and the founder of the French Laundry, a legendary Northern California restaurant which is now owned and operated by Thomas Keller, who owes it all to Sally as he says in the forward, “She is our original cofounder, our original cook and guiding light.”
  
  The “Six Kitchens” of the book’s title refer to the six kitchens that shaped Sally into a self-taught cook who changed the way we eat, beginning with her mother’s kitchen in 1932 and ending with her Elk Cottage. Sadly, Sally passed away in March 2022, just a month before the book was released in April 2022.
  
  In addition to recipes, the book contains a detailed timeline combining both personal and professional highlights, private family photos as well as food shots taken expressly for the book, wonderful commentary from Sally that amplifies many of the recipes, a list of basic must-have ingredients, and a sense of family that permeates throughout. Sally had five children who assisted her professionally during the course of her life, as well as grandchildren, children-in-law, and close friends who became like family. A key element of the book is Sally’s honest and experienced advice that makes reading the book like having Sally at your elbow.
  
  One thing to keep in mind is that these are Sally’s recipes, and they are a chronicle of the time period when she was cooking for the hordes who clamored for distinctive California cuisine. Today many people won’t chose to prepare (or eat) her duck or veal recipes. But there are so many other recipes to inspire you. Overall this is a heartwarming book that captures a life and a treasury of food memories.
• 
  Abra Kurt

  Six California Kitchens is a love letter to a burgeoning locavore food scene that continues to lead trends and influence the entire country and the ways we source food and dine more than six decades later. The photographs and carefully chosen recipes bring even more depth to the beautifully told story of Sally's evolution from young home cook to home economics student to chef and co-founder of the iconic French Laundry restaurant to her life after French Laundry and beyond as she neared her 90th birthday. This reflection is made even more poignant by her passing as I was reading it for review. This incredible book is at once a cookbook, a memoir, a food history lesson, and a love story. A must-have for foodies and fans of California cuisine.
  
  I received a digital pre-publication copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and will include it in a TBR round-up of recent releases for foodies later this spring. I'll also be adding a physical copy to my permanent collection upon its April 5, 2022 publication.
• 
  Stephanie

  There is a lot to unpack with this cookbook/memoir — it's not skim-able in the same way many cookbooks are, in a good way. It's the kind of book where you may earmark your fave recipes, but will still be able to discover new pockets of stories and/or different approaches to preparing the tried and true over time.
  
  The recipes are intuitive and come with delightful background, which enriches the experience. They are also simple enough but varied enough to cover every day things like potato salad, and also fancier options, depending on who the inspiration for the chapter is.
  
  One of the things that drives me crazy about recipes and cookbooks in general is the separation of ingredients and recipe steps. The way the recipe instructions are written in this book removes some of that annoyance, as they are more in a narrative flow and remove doubt as to what you should be doing and how you should be doing it.
• 
  MookNana

  This is such an interesting memoir, and Sally's voice is so positive, wise, and full of life! I really liked the tour through her various kitchens and the things she learned there. I also really appreciated that most of her discussions on food focused on the "why" of the ingredients and techniques she used, along with the "what" and "how".
  
  The format of the recipes differs from the typical list of ingredients followed by a list of instructions, but I had no trouble following them and easily got used to the style. Somehow the food presented seemed both accessible and aspirational all at once. I didn't see much I didn't feel like I could make, but they all seemed elevated, with a great respect for the ingredients and joy of cooking. What an enjoyable read!
  
  Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!
• 
  Diana

  Got another stack of cookbooks from the new books shelf at the library. This was the cream of the crop. Interesting memoir of Sally Schmitt’s life interspersed with recipes from stages of life and her various food enterprises including the French Laundry.
  
  Recipes copied:
  Lazy Housewife Pickles
  Curried Chicken Breast
  Peach Chutney
  Tomatillo Tortilla Soup
  Date, Onion & Avocado Salad with Peanuts
  Butter Lettuce Salad with Cumin, Oregano & Orange
  Scallops in Tequila Lime Cream with Cilantro Gremola
  Red Pepper Tapenade
  Lemon Cloud with Crisp Lemon Zest
  Marinated Citrus Compote
  Three Citrus Sherbet
  Preserved Lemons
  Braised Pork with Cider and Apples
  Caramel Apricot Rice Pudding
  Angie’s Spice Cake
  Rhubarb Shortcake
  
• 
  Marilyn

  If you are a foodie, if you feel nostalgic about food and the way your mom, grandma, great Auntie Sadie made it - this is the book for you.
  
  She takes us on a trip from her fist kitchen in her mother's home to the kitchen today. She talks about the ingredients, where they came from and their story.
  
  This book will open people's eyes about picking an apricot off the tree and eating it vs. putting an apricot into a plastic bag at the supermarket and eating it a few days later.
  
  Flavor, Nostalgia, Family and FOOD!
  Loved it! Highly recommend.
  
  I was given an advanced copy via NetGalley and appreciate the opportunity!
• 
  Kristin C

  Pure love. "We all have a ladder to climb, and then descend. My ladder was made up of six kitchens, all of them in California." I savored every delicious morsel of this book. Sally Schmitt is an iconic cooking legend who helped pioneer the farm-to-table movement in Napa. This is the story of how she got her start, the story of how The French Laundry was born, the story of Napa’s burgeoning wine scene, but mostly, the tender story of a family. Her family. Chock full of nostalgic photos, beloved recipes, charming anecdotes and insightful tips, this book is a timeless treasure.
• 
  Jennybeast

  Really lovely memoir -- I wasn't expecting the cookbook, but the combination is wonderful. It's amazing to get to read about these super famous folks and realize how down to earth and pragmatic they were -- just doing the thing that made the most sense at the time, with an emphasis on making really good food. I was particularly impressed that their family remains so close together -- both in proximity and affection. If that's not indicative of a life full of joy, I don't know what is. Inspiring.
• 
  Daphne Manning

  It’s fun to go back to where it all began. Chefs were not calling themselves chefs but cooks who were out to do things differently. Young ,eager, respectful of tradition but spoiling to upend and start fresh. Luckily they were in a place redolent in fresh and new and untried. Every story though true to its own path crossed over and spilled into the thoughts and ideas being unearthed here in California. A fun historical read.
• 
  Misha L.

  This book is great for somebody who would like to read a memoir that centers food and cooking or for somebody who likes Sally Schmitt's restaurants, but it is not a good cookbook. The recipes in the book, which are sparse compared to the memoir-writing come across as mostly outdated and uninspired. Sometimes Schmitt does well at tying in recipes with history, but mostly does so only with her family's history instead of with California history at large.
• 
  Lea

  While this is not what I thought it would be, it was interesting none the less. It’s written by an establish California chef, who is likely most famous for confounding the French Laundry.
  The recipes are surprisingly simple and with ingredients most of us have access to.
  The stories about her life and the restaurants were intermixed with the recipes and I found that to be a unique look into someone’s life.
  I think someone familiar with the author would enjoy this even more.
• 
  Margery

  I read every page and finished this remarkable memoir/cookbook in 2 evenings. Sally Schmitt is best known for co-founding The French Laundry and this is her story. And her recipes--I think I bookmarked a quarter of the book, and I'm a Pescatarian. This is going on the same shelf with Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Deborah Madison, and Mark Bittman. A classic for sure!
  
  I entreat you to add this to your cookbook collection!
  
  
  
  
• 
  Nancy J Pelaez Anderson

  Delicious recipes that use fresh ingredients and yet are practical and easy. For example, instead of Hollandaise sauce on asparagus, sesame oil flavored mayonnaise gives a delicious exotic touch - and it’s so easy! Also I was inspired by the story of the author who opened the original French Restaurant in Napa as a mother - what a great entrepreneur she was yet without losing her focus on love for her family.
• 
  Randal White

  I'm lucky enough to have had our cousin's son and wife cook at the French Laundry. This book was the perfect addition to their stories and anecdotes. I found it to be just wonderful. The writing, the recipes, the history and background, everything. Hoping I can get them to make me a couple of the recipes! And that someday I might be lucky enough to dine there myself. Excellent book!