Notes from the Start of the American Food Movement

Also a pan you are really going to love. And an incredible vintage menu.

I don’t remember writing this piece, and reading it now I’m stunned. It was almost 45 years ago, but at the time I thought the American food revolution - which was still in its infancy - had already peaked.

The term “foodie” had yet to be invented. (The term was coined by British journalist Ann Barr and writer Paul Levy, an American living in London, when they published The Foodie Handbook in 1985.) And yet, as is clear in this article, I was already feeling many mixed emotions about the nascent food movement.

As for Alain Chapel…I first met him in the seventies when he came to the Mondavi Winery as part of The Great Chefs of France series created by Billy Cross and Michael James. These were the most over-the-top events any of us could possibly imagine. I remember tables covered with living grass and gorgeous plants, astonishing table settings, world-class chefs. On this particular weekend I went up to the Napa Valley because Edna Lewis was cooking lunch (she brought a hundred biscuits with her on the train), and Alain Chapel was cooking dinner.

Chapel, it turned out, spoke not a word of English, and I was recruited to go into the kitchen to translate for him. It was a memorable day; what a remember most was his gentle kindness, his persistent belief that we would find him cock’s combs (not exactly something you could order from an American butcher), and his deep admiration for the chicken livers we unearthed instead. “Quelles beaux foies blancs!” he said reverently. He also fell madly in love with Catherine Brandel - but then everybody who met the late chef, botanical illustrator and muse to California chefs felt the same way; her early death was an enormous loss.

I am in love! I’ve just gotten The Vermicular Pan, and it is beautiful in every way. Lightweight cast iron, it is easy to lift and easy to use. It needs no seasoning, responds quickly to temperature changes - and sits on your stove looking both unassuming and elegant.

There are two types: one has a handsome wooden handle while this one slips happily into your oven.

While we’re recalling the food of the eighties, here’s a special menu from Max Au Triangle, one of the most exciting restaurants to open in Los Angeles at that time. The chef was Joachim Splichal, who had been cooking at The Regency Club before opening a place of his own. Max au Triangle was wildly ambitious - probably too ambitious for the Los Angeles of the time - and after it closed Joachim opened the less glitzy (but no less impressive) Patina.

This particular meal, one of the first multi-chef dinners, featured the food of the young LA chefs who were working in the spirit of la nouvelle cuisine. It took place while Max au Triangle was in its glory. (I’ll be posting the restaurant’s opening menu very soon.)