Samin Nosrat’s second cookbook, Good Things: Recipes to Share with People You Love, comes out on Sept. 16, and she will be appearing at Toronto’s Massey Hall on Sept. 27 to discuss it.Illustration by Photo illustration by The Globe and Mail. Source imagery: Aya Brackett
Samin Nosrat became a household name when her best-selling 2017 cookbook, Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, was adapted into a Netflix docuseries in 2018. But deep down inside, fame left her feeling lonely and empty.
“It was just really destabilizing,” says Nosrat from her home in Oakland, Calif. “Sometimes, you just want to be out in the world in your dirty sweats, drinking a smoothie, you know? I’ve lost that, so there’s a kind of armour I have to put on to leave my house now.”
After the passing of her father, and subsequent grief and depression, the Iranian-American shares how she had to shrink her life. “I distilled and filtered out so much incoming information. Then I was able to finally get quiet enough to hear and feel what I actually still cared about.” Now, the James Beard Award winner is sharing a heartfelt message about the value of time with her second cookbook, Good Things: Recipes to Share with People You Love (out on September 16), which she will be discussing at Massey Hall in Toronto on September 27.
The Globe spoke with Nosrat about her ever-evolving relationship with food, what brings her joy and how she carves out time for the things that matter most.
Could you tell me about some of your daily rituals?
Every morning, I go outside with my coffee and check on the garden, which is so beautiful right now. A big part of gardening, and the things that make me feel the best, are about slowing down, paying attention and noticing.
My dog gives me a lot of wonderful daily rituals. I have a standing hike in my calendar with friends that I do every Friday. I read tons of books; I listen to tons of podcasts.
Let’s dig into that a little more. How have cooking and gardening impacted your mental health?
My hands are busy and often dirty, so it’s the one time in my life now where I’m not immediately like, “Oh, these e-mails, these texts, this constant barrage” – that gets set aside for four hours, you know? That’s a real gift. So much of cooking for me is an opportunity to get out of my head, which is where I spend all the rest of my time, and isn’t always a very positive place to be.
After curating your new book, is there a kitchen gadget that you absolutely love using?
The kitchen tool that appeared in so many recipes in this book and has become my number one favourite thing is the immersion handheld blender. I love a mortar and pestle, but sometimes I cannot be bothered with pounding the basil for the pesto or whatever. To go from mortar-and-pestle to immersion blender is a pretty good symbol for my cooking arc.
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What’s one book you loved this year?
One book that I loved this year was Tables for Two by Amor Towles, which is a collection of short stories. It’s so delicious and really entertaining.
What do you love to listen to while cooking?
I really like Culture Study by Anne Helen Petersen. She has a different guest co-host each week and they answer questions that her listeners have called in. She’s created a fantastic community of the smartest, most thoughtful, sensitive people – the questions are so wonderful.
Oh, there’s this harpist, Mary Lattimore, who lives in L.A. It’s really funny to say it but she makes the most beautiful music – I find it really relaxing. I also listen to Brazilian Indie musician, Tim Bernardes, on repeat.
What are your top go-to ingredients?
Yogurt and labneh have always been tops for me.
The other thing that unexpectedly became indispensable is preserved lemon paste.
One of the first tasks I learned very early at Chez Panisse was making preserved Meyer lemons. As much as it was fun to make these jars and give them away, I rarely used them. My friend, Chris Crawford, runs this little business [Tart Vinegar]. She turned it into a paste. I thought, “Oh, when it’s a paste, I can put a little spoonful into vinaigrette, into this yogurt, into whatever I’m making.” I love that, 20-something years in, I’m meeting this ingredient for the first time and developing a whole new relationship to it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
