ABOUT DEBORAH MADISON

      —In my own words

Being something of a farm kid (I was raised on a dairy farm and in an ag-university by a botanist father), I’ve long had an interest in plants in general, gardening, and farming. These early experiences have long informed my cooking and writing about food.

I grew up in Davis, California, an agricultural-university town, and became interested in cooking when I was about fifteen. It was the enticing smell of challah baking next door that got me started baking bread. But I never dreamed that I become involved with food. The idea of going to a culinary school didn't even exist when I graduated from high school, so essentially I am a self-taught cook.

I began cooking in earnest when I was a student at the San Francisco Zen Center in the late l960s. That's where I came to cook vegetarian food, the food our Buddhist community agreed chose to eat. At that time vegetarian food couldn't have been further than anything mainstream. It's earnest clumsiness drove fellow Zen students to the corner café where they could eat fluffy pancakes with butter and syrup. If we were to eat together, then my job was to tease this counter-culture diet into one that was more familiar and appealing, yet still remain vegetarian. This long effort culminated in the opening of Greens restaurant in San Francisco in l979. Cooking sophisticated and delicious food for a public that wasn't necessarily seeking out vegetarian food was quite a challenge. For me, the most pleasing words from our customers were, "I forgot there wasn't any meat—it was so good!"

Vegetarian Food Today

I have loved seeing vegetarian food lose its counterculture aspect so that everyone can sit down at the table together. Today, deciding to have a vegetarian meal doesn't have to raise eyebrows, or questions, or indicate a life-style. Rather, a vegetarian meal can simply be another choice to be enjoyed for whatever reason a person has—health, variety, appeal, or ideals.

While I've thoroughly enjoyed developing a vegetable-based cuisine and happily eat vegetarian most all of the time, I also eat meat, fish, and fowl from time to time, although less and less. I appreciate the energy and strength they give me, and even more, I appreciate those who practice wise and humane animal husbandry. I've visited many ranchers and ranches to better understand what's involved in this aspect of food production. I'm increasingly concerned about the problems of farming, whether vegetables or animals, the world's food supply, and the degradation of our landscape and food-scapes. One can't just get gushy about food without knowing something of its story—how it comes to us and what sustains it. That's what makes our food choices interesting, if not urgent, to me.

What I Do, Where I Live

When I'm not writing or working in my vegetable garden, I spend time as a Slow Food convivium co-leader. I have also served on Slow Food's Ark and Presidia Committee and as a board member of the Slow Food Foundation for Bio-Diversity. I am also on the board of the Seed Savers Exchange and The Southwest Grassfed Livestock Association. In my community I am involved with a school garden project and our local farmers market. As a freelance writer I currently write for culinate.com and gourmet.com, and have contributed to Cooking Light, Williams Sonoma's Taste, Vegetarian Times, Gourmet, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Garden Design, Fine Cooking, Organic Style, The LA Times, Orion, and others. As a consultant, I work with CAL Dining Services in Berkeley, California.

My home is in the village Galisteo, New Mexico, where I live with my husband, painter Patrick McFarlin, and my Ragdoll cat, Mister.