Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (67 page)

One more teacher turned out to be absolutely
indispensable to the entire project: Harold McGee. As any chef will tell you, Harold is
the go-to guy for all questions of kitchen science, and I went to him more than I care
to admit. But whether the question stumping me involved chemistry or physics or
microbiology, he had the answer at his fingertips or could soon find it, and just as
important, express it in terms I could follow. I don’t know how anyone wrote about
the science of cooking before the publication of
On Food and Cooking,
which was
always within reach.

When I decided to include four recipes in an
appendix, I had no idea how hard a recipe is to write and get right. Jill Santopietro
tested them all, over and again, and edited the recipes for clarity, gracefully
indulging and repairing my ignorance. They should all work now, which was not the case
before she got hold of them.

Back in Berkeley, I was blessed to have the
extraordinary research assistance of Malia Wollan. A gifted reporter and writer, Malia
brought the full range of her journalistic wiles to the project and never failed to
track down the study or statistic or source I needed, no matter how
sketchy my requests. She also fact-checked the manuscript, saving me from countless
errors and embarrassments, and gracefully fixed all sorts of problems in the text. Her
dedication and good humor made the hard work of getting all the science right as
agreeable as it could possibly be. I’m grateful also for the research contributed
by Elisa Colombani and my student-assistants at the School of Journalism, Teresa Chin
and Michelle Konstantinovsky. Thanks to the School of Journalism for being understanding
about all the time off, and to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for supporting
my research over the past decade. I’m also ever grateful to Steven Barclay for his
wise counsel and support, and to his amazing team in Petaluma, for making the speaking
part of the writing life so agreeable.

Cooked
is my seventh book,
published twenty-two years after
Second Nature,
my first, and looking back at
the acknowledgments in that book, I’m gratified to see several names that belong
in this one too, colleagues, friends, and loved ones who have had a hand in my writing
from the beginning. The only book editor I have ever worked with is Ann Godoff; maybe
there’s a better editor out there—more acute, more supportive, more wise—but I
can’t imagine it. She is quite simply the best, and by now a dear friend as well.
Happily I can say the same of Amanda Urban, my agent this whole career; her judgment on
all matters large and small is not something you ever want to mess with. I owe them both
what success I have had in the book business. And heartfelt thanks to the A team in
their respective offices: Tracy Locke, Sarah Hutson, Lindsay Whalen, Ben Platt, and Ryan
Chapman at Penguin; Liz Farrell, Molly Atlas, and Maggie Southard at ICM.

My longtime friends Mark Edmundson and Gerry
Marzorati have discussed, read, and improved every one of my books—what a gift to have
readers as perceptive as Mark and Gerry, and friends as steadfast and true. My old
friend Michael Schwarz served once again as a valued counselor, and Mark Danner offered
the perfect sounding board
during our long walks at Inspiration Point,
entertaining my ideas long before they had been baked into a book.

But my very first and best reader—the one
who alone decides when a manuscript is ready to leave the house—is Judith Belzer. In
addition to being my cherished partner in life, she is my indispensable editor, adviser,
consoler, and kitchen collaborator. Our respective lines of work—my writing, her
painting—have grown so entwined that I can no longer imagine what the books would be
like—indeed, if they would be at all—if we had not met and joined forces way back
when.

For my conviction that cooking matters I
have my mom, Corky Pollan, to thank. Preparing dinner every night for four kids (three
of them vegetarians), and now as often as she can for us and our spouses and her eleven
grandchildren, she continually reminds us of the unparalleled satisfaction that comes
from preparing a beautiful meal and enjoying it at the table together. She is a constant
inspiration.

Lastly there is Isaac, who came into our
lives very soon after my first book was published. Ever since, he has left his mark on
all my books, but never more deeply than on this one. Isaac’s evolution as an
eater and a cook has taught me more about food, and cooking, than he probably realizes.
The period of our lives that
Cooked
covers happened to coincide with
Isaac’s leaving home for college, and so with the end of our regular family
dinner. If I have romanticized that institution in these pages, it is because it has
been so very sweet in our lives, not always, but certainly in the last few years, when
the three of us could share the work in the kitchen and then reap the pleasure at the
table. Thanks for every one of those meals.

—Berkeley

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