The Kitchen Whisperers: Cooking with the Wisdom of Our Friends is a new book by Dorothy Kalins, founding editor of Saveur magazine. The premise of the book, part memoir, part cookbook, is that the cooking lessons that stick with us are rarely the ones we read about in books or watch on YouTube. They are the ones we pick up by spending time with good cooks in the kitchen. She’s dubbed the people who pass along their cooking wisdom “kitchen whisperers.” Consciously or not, they make us the cooks we are because we see them as the kind of cooks we can become.
Kalins’ prolific food media career has given her regular exposure to incredible cooks and chefs. She says she can’t enter her kitchen without hearing the voices of mentors and friends like Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan, famed food writer and photographer Christopher Hirsheimer, and chef and New York Times food columnist David Tanis. My kitchen whisperers range from my mom, who cooks lean roasts with a layer of salt pork on top, to my dear friend Elizabeth, who in 1992 taught me that every kitchen pantry should have at least three types of vinegar.
In this issue of edible MAINE, we give you many potential kitchen whisperers. We chat with Gross Confection Bar’s Brant Dadaleares about not-too-sweet desserts, author Mindy Fox about what she’s learned through a dozen cookbook-writing collaborations, and Mumbai to Maine’s Cherie Scott about creating a food-based business from scratch. We feature four plates of food served at Front & Main in Waterville that illustrate how the state’s next-generation local food system is evolving, give you a map of general stores where you can grab a good meal while you’re out enjoying the fall foliage, and outline the many Maine-made fats that can help flavor your cooking. We feature a raclettier, a scone baker, and a Bolivian empanada maker. And we highlight a nonprofit that conducts cooking classes for our food-insecure neighbors all over the state.
I can only wonder who your kitchen whisperers are. But I do hope you might find a few new ones in these pages.
Best,
Christine
