What We Need Now: “Simply Julia,” A Comfort Food Companion
“I think of myself as a home cook, and I’m proud to be that,” says Julia Turshen.
Well, okay, but how many of us home cooks are bestselling authors of multiple cookbooks, co-author of numerous others (among them a few with Gwyneth Paltrow), or have written for Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, or Saveur?
Admittedly, interviewing the Hudson Valley resident is like talking to your best friend about what you’re going to make for dinner, and that friendly, approachable voice comes through in her latest cookbook, Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food, launching next month. Turshen will be appearing at Oblong Online in conversation with fellow cookbook author Dorie Greenspan on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m. Signed copies are available.
Simply Julia follows Now & Again, Feed the Resistance and Small Victories (all named or voted best cookbooks of the year by Big and Important Media). Delish says it’s one of the most anticipated cookbooks of 2021. In Simply Julia, Turshen focuses on the healthy comfort foods she most often makes at home. The book is divided into practical chapters: weeknight go-to’s, make-ahead meals, vegan one-pot meals, and others. Chicken recipes get their own chapter, as do soups and stews, noshes, and breakfast dishes.
“It’s not only the most personal book I’ve ever written, it’s also the most practical,” she writes in the introduction. And, back to that relatable manner of hers: Turshen’s things-to-have-on-hand lists — unlike those of cookbook authors who pronounce fresh lemongrass and coconut flour to be absolute essentials — are things you really do probably have in your fridge, cupboard, spice drawer and utensil drawer. Each recipe is prefaced with an essay about its provenance (lots of food memories; “Nostalgia, though a complicated thing, informs so many of my recipes,” she says), and beautiful food photography.
Photo: Melina Hammer
The recipes are unfussy, the techniques simple, and the voice behind them encouraging. A brief, random preview? How about Ratatouille and Ricotta Baked Pasta, Garlic and Sesame Noodles with Mushrooms and Broccolini, Jalapeno Popper-Stuffed Chicken, Hasselback Carrots With Pimenton and Roasted Lemon, Everything Bagel Hand Pies? Comforting as they come.
Maybe it’s precisely the fact Turshen is not a “celebrity” chef that makes her — and her recipes — so much more accessible. (In fact, she never wanted to run a restaurant.)
“I’ve always loved to cook since before I can remember,” she says. “The only way I can think to describe my feeling is the kitchen and I are magnets. I feel pulled to it. All of the really good things in life — the most adventurous, most curious, the safest — happen in the kitchen. It’s where I feel most grounded and in control.” Her favorite place to be still is in her kitchen with her wife, Grace Bonney (writer and founder of the wildly popular interior design blog Design*Sponge) and their dogs.
With both of her parents working in the magazine world, Turshen was surrounded by print media, and had access to a plethora of books and magazines. She taught herself to cook through reading cookbooks and watching PBS. She studied poetry at Barnard College, loving to write as much as cooking. Still, Turshen was a bit precocious, taking a catering course at the New School when still in a high school, and running her own catering business before college. The summer between high school and Barnard, she worked in the front of a bakery, and later, interned at Food & Wine. She also worked part-time for a producer of PBS cooking shows, and became the lead writer on a companion cookbook at just 22.
In Simply Julia, her fourth solo cookbook, Turshen approached the testing process a little differently. As always, she wrote the recipes before trying them out (as opposed to working them out in the kitchen first, as many other cookbook writers do), but for this book, she invited friends and family to test them along with her.
“I sent them the recipes with a list of questions,” she says. “The timing coincided with Grace closing her business, and she tested all of the recipes in our kitchen. It was amazing to watch her make them right in front of me, but it was a great addition to my process.”
Timing played another role in producing Simply Julia. Turshen turned in the first draft of the manuscript at the end of February 2020, just weeks before New York State went into pandemic lockdown. It brought more urgency to her quest. As she states in her forward, “While I care deeply about giving you trustworthy recipes, pretty photos to show you what they look like, and stories to tell you what they all mean to me, what I care most about is who you’re cooking for, including you. “
The pandemic hasn’t affected her cooking or eating; both she and Boney already had worked from home. But what changed was what so many of us in the Rural Intelligence region have been forced to reckon with: how and how often we get ingredients and shop.
“We’ve come to rely so heavily on our local farmers,” she says. “I volunteered at my friends’ farm, and that deepened my appreciation for the people responsible for growing and providing our food. We belong to CSAs and try to support local businesses. And we do so with more gratitude.”
Following her book tours — which will be virtual — what’s next on her horizon?
“Every book leads to another book,” she says, “but I’m feeling like I want to take a break.“ What she does know, though, is what she’s planning to make for dinner this particular evening: "Fish curry with some Thai curry paste and coconut milk. Throw in some carrots and greens, add rice.” Simply Julia style.
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