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

by Sally Schmitt, Bruce Smith (With), Troyce Hoffman (Photographer), Cindy Pawlcyn (Foreword by), Thomas Keller (Foreword by)

Overview

Winner of a 2023 IACP Cookbook Award and the Golden Poppy Book Award in the Glenn Goldman Cooking category

Six California Kitchens is the quintessential California cookbook, with farm-to-table recipes and stories from Sally Schmitt, the pioneering female chef and original founder of the French Laundry.

"Schmitt, the founder of California’s famed French Laundry restaurant, reflects on the food that defined her life, in this sumptuous collection of recipes and tales from the kitchens that inspired them. [...] Fans of Alice Waters won’t want to miss this delectable page-turner."—Publishers Weekly

Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in Yountville in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredients—a novel concept at the time.

In this soon-to-be-classic cookbook, Sally Schmitt takes us through the six kitchens where she learned to cook, honed her skills, and spent her working life. Six California Kitchens weaves her remarkable story with 115 recipes that distill the ethos of Northern California cooking into simple, delicious dishes, plus evocative imagery, historic ephemera, and cooking wisdom.

With gorgeous food and sense-of-place photography, this is a masterful, story-rich cookbook for home and aspiring chefs who cook locally and seasonally, food historians, fans of wine country, and anyone who wants to bring the spirit of Northern California home with them.

PERSON OF NOTE: Sally Schmitt, who passed away just five days after her 90th birthday in 2022, was the great unsung hero of California cuisine, a pioneer of the farm-to-table movement, and original founder of the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley. This book celebrates a respected, reputable chef and shares a collection of her best recipes from a lifetime of cooking.

AMONG THE BEST COOKBOOKS THAT CAPTURE CALIFORNIA CUISINE: From a native Californian chef, who founded one of the most well-known and revered restaurants in California (and in the world), this book was written, photographed, and designed by members of Sally's family.

COMPELLING PACKAGE: This book is full of evocative images of Napa Valley, rustic kitchens, and the rugged California coastline. With lifestyle photography that offers a peek into the history of Northern California and its food revolution, this book will appeal to readers with its lovely design and package—but they'll stay for the inspiring story and approachable recipes.

Perfect for:

• Home cooks who cook locally and seasonally or enjoy California cuisine
• Foodies who collect regional cookbooks rich with history and visuals
• Shelve alongside Gjelina, Tartine, The Lost Kitchen, and Julia Child's My Life in France
• Fans of the French Laundry, Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, and David Chang

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781797208824
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	145,477
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 11.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Sally Schmitt was the original founder of the French Laundry and one of California's most influential food pioneers. She was born and raised in Northern California and started cooking professionally in 1967. After 11 years spent in Yountville running a café and a restaurant, she opened the French Laundry with her husband, Don. She designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredients—a novel concept at the time. This style of "locavore" cooking caught the attention of critics and inspired other local chefs, helping propagate the farm-to-table movement. After selling the restaurant in 1994, Sally taught cooking classes in a renovated farmhouse on an apple farm in Mendocino. Sally is the subject of Oscar-winner Ben Proudfoot's short documentary The Best Chef in The World, released by the New York Times in late 2022. She passed away in 2022.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/07/2022

Schmitt, the founder of California’s famed French Laundry restaurant, reflects on the food that defined her life, in this sumptuous collection of recipes and tales from the kitchens that inspired them. Even before she and her husband opened their farm-to-table Napa Valley restaurant in 1978, Schmitt writes, local and seasonal ingredients had always been a part of her culinary DNA—beginning in the 1930s with her parents, whose use of produce straight from their garden and meat “from our own animals” set young Schmitt on a lifelong course of “making use of the food around me—in season, local, fresh, and carefully raised.” Taking readers on a delicious tour through her decades-spanning career, she highlights the dishes and stories from half a dozen homes and restaurants where she honed her craft. A recipe for Green Eggs & Ham served over a verde sauce gets its inspiration from the enchiladas at Schmitt’s first restaurant, the Chutney Kitchen, while a group of “doctored” mayonnaises (garlic, sorrel, and red pepper) evoke the homemade versions of her childhood. Inventive techniques abound; instead of poaching the poultry for curried chicken breast, she sautés the pieces slowly in olive oil. Elsewhere, the sauce for her rendition of steak au poivre (beloved by French Laundry’s erstwhile dishwasher, Tom) calls for a mix of peppercorns, soaked and toasted, to add complexity. Fans of Alice Waters won’t want to miss this delectable page-turner. Agent: Nicki Richesin, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Schmitt, cofounder of the original French Laundry and a pioneer of California cooking, penned this exquisite debut cookbook in her 90th year (she died in March). It is a book of rigor and delight, filled with stories, photos, and recipes drawn from every place she has cooked." —Library Journal, Best Cookbooks of 2022

“Schmitt’s memoir and cookbook […] was 10 years in the making. Sadly, she did not live to see the fruits of this particular labor: Schmitt died on March 5, just five days after her 90th birthday and a month before the book’s publication. But her forthright, unpretentious presence is very much alive in this beautiful volume filled with food, family, reminiscences, recipes and no-nonsense cooking tips.”—The Wall Street Journal

"Schmitt, the founder of California’s famed French Laundry restaurant, reflects on the food that defined her life, in this sumptuous collection of recipes and tales from the kitchens that inspired them. [...] Fans of Alice Waters won’t want to miss this delectable page-turner."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A cookbook-memoir that’s humble, proud, and filled with family {...} Along with her recipes (more than 100), Schmitt shares knowledge of ingredients and culinary wisdom that forswears fancy equipment and techniques to zero in on flavor and taste. Personal photographs grace her lessons {...} Dishes themselves, reflective of Schmitt’s personality, are approachable, unintimidating, and respectful of flavors {...} An inspiration up to her closing lines.”—Booklist, starred review

"The book, illustrated with photographs and memorabilia, is filled with often inventive but always ingredient-driven dishes [...] Some are written with step-by-step directions — two pages for a turkey sandwich! — that convey a sense that Ms. Schmitt is at your side offering handy tips. Her French Laundry recipes are pulled from daily five-course menus: warm salad of sweetbreads and mushrooms; roasted rib-eye of veal; and rhubarb mousse, nothing precious."—The New York Times

“This cookbook is like having a grandmother teach you how to cook. But this isn’t about grandma’s green beans and pot roast — Schmitt had an expansive palate, a sesame seed toaster and a suribachi (grinding bowl) from Japan and adored salmon with sorrel sauce. […] It’s the kind of cookbook you will want to sit and read through, taking in maybe a couple kitchens a day and marking the recipes as you go along […] It becomes quite apparent why she had legions of fans of her cooking. You’re about to become one more of the them.”—San Francisco Examiner

From the Publisher

★ 04/01/2022

The late Schmitt (1932–2022) cofounded famed Napa County restaurant the French Laundry, whose farm-to-table ethos is credited with transforming food culture. This cookbook is a love letter to California cuisine and six of the kitchens Schmitt worked in (starting with her mother's), paired with 115 total recipes—sure to inspire home cooks as well as buffs of American culinary history. Schmitt launched her career cooking in the Yountville, CA, restaurants the Vintage Café (1967–78) and the Chutney Kitchen (1970–78), before opening the French Laundry in 1978. After 15 years as chef of the French Laundry, she sold it to Thomas Keller and taught culinary classes at Apple Farm (1995–2008), before finally settling into retirement at Elk Cottage (2008–16). Alongside Schmitt's kitchens are easy-to-follow recipes that highlight simple, fresh ingredients— from Schmitt's first kitchen, a basic white sauce; from the French Laundry's Friday dinners, steak tartare and Schmitt's signature "Chocolate Chinchilla Topped with Sherry Cream"—all with charming commentary. The book also includes "Sally's Pantry" (her list of must-have ingredients), forewords by Keller (who still runs the French Laundry) and Cindy Pawlcyn (who created Fog City Diner), and color photographs. VERDICT Highly recommended for cooks who love a good story.—Lacy Wolfe

Library Journal