IF YOU LIKE FOOD

I've just finished Judith Jones' memoir The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. This woman is adorable - and I can say that with some authority, having heard her speak at The New School's "James Beard: The Quintessential American Epicure" event last month. Seeing a writer whose work I'm familiar with is more exciting to me than seeing Katie Holmes or Gwyneth Paltrow. I forgot my hardcover for her to sign that night and was too shy anyhow, there was such a crowd around her at the end.

The Tenth Muse chronicles Jones' childhood growing up in New York, watching and learning from her family cook who planted her love for simple, honest cooking; her after-college years in Paris where she met her future husband Evan; her career as first an assistant editor then eventually a big-time player at Knopf, working and helping publish cookbooks by (this is just a few) Claudia Roden, Julia Child and of course, James Beard. The book ends with 80 pages (80!) of recipes mentioned throughout the chapters, with notes and reminiscences of the mentors or events that influenced them.

The memoir may as well be printed in her handwriting, it's so intimate and affecting. What's great is that she easily becomes friends with the chefs she works with, and the reader is taken into the homes and kitchens to savor over descriptions of techniques, dinner parties, the food markets, the spices, the wine-pairings, the chopping and dicing - all the delights of a foodie.

So tonight, inspired, I make myself an inventive dish with ingredients on hand: pan-fried Wild Pacific Keta salmon fillets and brussel sprouts topped with an oniony balsamic viniagrette, sprinkled with some cumin and lots of freshly ground pepper.