Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life
The gripping narrative traces the arc of Wolfert's career, from her Brooklyn childhood to her adventures in the farthest corners of the Mediterranean: from nights spent with Beat Generation icons like Allen Ginsberg, to working with the great James Beard; from living in Morocco at a time when it really was like a fourteenth century culture, to bringing international food to America's kitchens through magazines and cookbooks.
Anecdotes and adventuresome stories come from Paula's extensive personal archive, interviews with Paula herself, and dozens of interviews with food writers and chefs whom she influenced and influenced her-including Alice Waters,Thomas Keller, Diana Kennedy, André Daguin, and Jacques Pepin.
Wolfert's recipes are like no other: each is a new discovery, yielding incredible flavors, using unusual techniques and ingredients, often with an incredible backstory. And the recipes are organized into menus inspired by Wolfert's life and travels--such as James Beard's Easy Entertaining menu; a Moroccan Party; and a Slow and Easy Feast.
Unforgettable also addresses Wolfert's acknowledgement of the challenges of living with Alzheimer's, a disease that often means she cannot remember the things she did yesterday, but can still recall in detail what she has cooked over the years. Not accepting defeat easily, Wolfert created a new brain-centric diet, emphasizing healthy meats and fresh vegetables, and her recipes are included here.
Unforgettable is a delight for those who know and love Paula Wolfert's recipes, but will be a delicious discovery for those who love food, but have not yet heard of this influential cookbook writer and culinary legend.
Reviews (49)
This book is a time capsule
I too, read this book straight through immediately after it was delivered. What a beautiful book in all ways. I was transported into a mesmerizing world—far flung travel, exotic cultures, deep into a love affair with food and spices, the likes of which I could never have imagined. My life is better for having read the story of Paula Wolfert's life, to the present moment in which she lives with Alzheimer's. I appreciate the information the book provides regarding dementia, her diet and her activism. Her impassioned and deeply curious nature combined with the ability to convey the joy of experiencing heightened flavors through ingredients, technique, and stories is unforgettable. Although her recipes were exhaustively researched and composed, I do not fault her one iota for the complexity. There's an ease in reading this book, including the recipes, and the photos are sumptuous. I read nothing out of order as I'm prone to do, as the recipe is part of the narrative. Now that I'm done, I am going back to choose the first recipe to try. Thank you, Emily and all who made this book happen. Thank you, Paula for sharing your life in this ambitious book.
Food and Memory
Paula Wolfert is not just a writer of cookbooks. Like only the very greatest of her colleagues, she is a writer about life and about how to live with joy and intensity. Now, as she deals openly and courageously with dementia, she has received a fitting tribute, and those of us who've been inspired by her love for the Big Taste have received a gift, in this labor of love by Emily Kaiser Thelin. The photographs by Eric Wolfinger brilliantly capture the depth and complexity of Wolfert's "bold flavors." The selection of favorite recipes is inspiring , and the interwoven story of Wolfert's "renegade life," right down to the present, is both heartbreaking and heart-nourishing. Food and memory, memory and food. Love. This remarkable book is indeed aptly titled "Unforgettable."
A Trailblazers life
I'm married to a retired American French chef and we have owned Paula's books since the 80s and I'm so over the moon thrilled with this book. details of her early life are just mind blowing that she was such an adventurous spirit and trailblazer makes me want to travel more after reading this biography. The recipes interspersed among the stories are delicious and lovely. Thank you for Sharing your life with us .
Why have I not heard of Paula Wolfert before now?
This was a former library book. (Yes, I bought it used- many of Wolfert's books are now out of print, and/or expensive in 'revised' editions- and so, only going by the blurbs on Amazon, I wasn't sure that I would like this memoir.) To say this book (and the woman it chronicles) is fascinating, is an understatement. It's a standard memoir, but with recipes tagged on. Unlike Julie Powell's 2005 'diary of an aspiring cook' [Julie & Julia] made famous by the Amy Adams/Meryl Streep film of the same name, Paula Wolfert's fame has largely (if not totally) been confined within the effete and isolationist 'foodie circles' of Manhattan and San Francisco, and among chefs of 'high degree.' Which is, in some ways, a shame. Following in the footsteps of Julia Child's [Bertholle/Beck] oeuvre, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" [ 1961], Wolfert had just married, and escaped to Tangiers during the same period. Her cooking fame didn't really begin until a decade and more later, with the publication of her first book, 'Couscous and other good food from Morocco' [1973]. Since then, she has written/revised 8 other books, spanning 1973-2011. While most of us in that '70's generation were just trying out Wendy's Hamburgers (1969) or Burger King's 'flame-broiled' offerings ('Hold the pickle, hold the lettuce') for the first time, Wolfert was already very far ahead of the culinary curve- sometimes, too far ahead! And that's probably why, though I was already (barely) an adult when 'Couscous' was released, it's taken me until 2020 and COVID to read of her amazing life. The book is a chronology of a cooking detective's life, food obsessions, and recipes from each 'era' of Wolfert's life. While the cover art is quite 'Unforgettable' the writing is quite good, and the pictures and recipes are a visual and gustatory testament to a person whose own life might be the subject for a movie. Would I spend the time, money and special ordering on Amazon all the various spices in these recipes? Probably not. But I will try at least SOME of the recipes in this book, and maybe even order some of those pepper flakes mentioned in a lot of the recipes. If you've mastered Julia's recipes, if Paleo and Keto is starting to be the 'same old, same old' maybe picking up one of Wolfert's books, that talk about the JOY of being a REAL cook, and actually cooking for others, might just be for you.
This book is even better than I expected!
The book arrived faster than I anticipated, protected in plastic and a cardboard box. Great price, too. I have been a Paula Wolfert fan since discovering "Couscous and Other Good Foods From Morocco" years ago at the library, and then had to go out and buy it. "Unforgettable" is even better than I thought it would be, and I was expecting a lot! I received it yesterday, and although I am in the middle of reading another book, I began to read the first chapter. It is taking me longer than usual, because I also keep randomly looking at all the beautiful photos and reading recipes and marking them for future occasions. What an amazing woman! Thank you Emily Kaiser Thelin for this wonderful book.
One of my favorite books off 2017 for so many personal reasons
What a well researched, well written, thoroughly engaging, portrait of Paula. So well done, Emily, thank you! As a former restaurant critic for one of the largest newspapers in North America, and its food editor, I had the pleasure of spending a few days with Paula in the early 1980s. We dined together, cooked together, and I found Paula's enthusiasm so infectious, and her recipes so sensorially stimulating, that I purchased all the gear needed to replicate her Moroccan dishes after she left town. For a long time, I made b'stilla and many other dishes, which Paula had taught me -- and many of these recipes are in Emily Thelin's masterful profile of Paula. I LOVED this book and congratulate Emily on the achievement. And a big shout-out and digital hug to Paula!
Unforgettable: The Bold Flavors of Paula Wolfert's Renegade Life
I just finished reading Unforgettable- a biography/cookbook that reads like a novel about the early, middle and later continuing life of Paula Wolfert-written by Emily Kaiser Thelin. Most people probably don't realize that there is couscous and myriad spices, peppers, grains etc. on our shelves due to the indomitable research, intellectual capacity and old fashioned warmth of Paula Wolfert. Through this book, you learn about her one bad eye that made her afraid to use sharp knives; her personal relationships with her parents, grandparents, her husbands, her children and the gazillion chefs and "ordinary" home cooks from out of the way regions who taught her and inspired her. Hugging seems to have been one of her greatest tools! Fast forward to now, and this great cook, author and globe trotter has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. Read how she is dealing with it through diet, meditation and meds; and cry when she asks how to make an omelet. Paula Wolfert does not want us to pity her. She is fighting with every inch of her being and trying to help others as she does so. This book is poignant and inspiring. And btw- there are many amazing recipes and photographs as well! On a personal note, my Father, who died 3 years ago, spent time in North Africa during WW2. As I was reading this book, I could hear him talk about the couscous he enjoyed there. He even bought a couscous pot in the hope that someone would make it for him. Unfortunately, it was given away unused before I was old enough to claim it. Food memories are so powerful. They may prove to be the best medicine of all.
I loved this book so much that after buying a copy ...
I loved this book so much that after buying a copy as a Christmas gift for my sister and brother-in-law, I ordered the kindle version for myself, too. The pictures are compelling and inviting, the recipes are interwoven for a full meal experience, and the backdrop stories about Paula are touching and inspiring. I highly recommend this --even if you don't cook!
Unforgettable Paula
I have been following Paula Wolfert's research and cookbook efforts for quite a while. I do appreciate all of the detail I read in her books, so it was most gratifying to read about her history. It even prompted me to order another book that she published in 1994, "The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean." Both are very good reads.
Paradox of an extraordinary life of a food writer.
It is a crime that there aren't more people know about Paula and her amazing repertoire of food writing. "Unforgettable" is a great introduction to the life of a legendary food writer. The book is well-written, filled with details of Paula's colorful journey around the world the past five decades. Emily gets us a frank and no-BS look at the complicated, and often painful, past of her upbringing, health and relationships, ultimately the triumph of resilience, determination and humor over adversities. The book is packed with mouth-watering imagery of Paula's classic recipes, chronologically synchronized with the timeline of her memoir. All the recipes are fool-proof, insanely easy to make and so very Paula. Julia makes cooking fun. Paula makes cooking extraordinary. Extraordinary memorable.
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