A Day in the life of...
Joan Porte
As a cookbook author, my methodology is not typical of
most writers. I do not have to face a blank screen or piece of paper and will
the words out of my right brain. I don’t have to fear writers block. However,
that does not make my task any easier than that of the novelist or biographer.
In fact, I am not as fortunate as those lucky people are. Every time I sit down
to work on a recipe, I face something much more dastardly. It is the memory of
the days when I had to chase my mother around the kitchen to try to have her
actually write down a recipe for what she was making. Don’t snicker! This is
something that can cause flashbacks of horrors for decades.
Members of my mother’s family were of the touch-and-feel
school of cooking. If you would ask her how much salt to add to a pasta recipe
she would say something like, “Feel it, when it feels like there is enough, it
is good.” How do you write a recipe that reads – amount of salt --- to the
feel? It can’t be done.
