Chili resident combines love for research,cooking and photography to publish his first cookbook
It all started with a bowl of soup.
After retiring from his job as an engineer at Eastman Kodak Company in 1991, Chili resident John Smith was watching a travel show about Thailand when it struck him just how enjoyable a good meal can be. “The locals were eating in this hole-in-the-wall restaurant, slurping up what appeared to be the most delicious soup, and they had such satisfied looks on their faces,” he said.
Smith tried to find a recipe for the type of soup they may have been eating and headed for the kitchen. What resulted sparked a multi-year undertaking. He served the soup to his daughter, Nancy-Jean Osborn, and she reacted in much the same way as the people eating the Thai soup. In fact, she thought it was so delicious that she suggested her father write a cookbook.
Smith set out to educate himself by purchasing a set of DVDs featuring Julia Child’s first cooking shows that aired on PBS. “Julia would not only show you how to cook, but how to rescue your meal if something went wrong,” he said. The famous chef also taught him to make flavorful gravies and that a good sauce often makes the meal. Smith shares her tip for lump-free gravy – start with a white sauce first.
Some of his early meals included tuna salad, veal Francese and spaghetti with marinara, tomato bisque and grilled salmon. Every week Smith and his wife, Rita, would test out his recipes with some being successes and others being relegated to the garbage.
In 2008, Smith began to develop recipes for his book and even started a humorous cooking blog. He said the idea of combining cooking with his love for photography is what propelled him to create the cookbook, which he aptly named Kitchen 46 Cookbook after his house number. The kitchen in his home is where all of the recipes were prepared and photographed. “I took a photo of the exact meal as I had prepared it straight out of the oven, sometimes with the steam still rolling off of it, and was eating it shortly after photographing it,” he said.
Each of Smith’s recipes had to meet three criteria before being included in the book. The meal had to look good, taste good, of course, and include only ingredients that can be found in the local grocery store and butcher shop. If an item is more difficult to find, such as pomegranate molasses, then Smith included instructions in the book on how to make it.
Unlike most cookbooks, the Kitchen 46 Cookbook features complete meals on its pages. “I would decide on the main dish and then compose it with side dishes that taste and look good together,” said Smith. Each dish is referenced in the index making for a convenient and easy-to-use reference.
What also makes the cookbook unique is that it includes recipes from many different cultures as well as those that originated in the U.S. “I tried to create a general cookbook that includes international dishes that Americans like to eat,” said Smith.
It took about six years for Smith to compile the 96 main dish recipes and 70 side dish recipes in the book, and then it became a family affair. His daughter, Janet Tierney, edited the book, wife Rita proofread, and twin granddaughters Stephanie and Nicole Casper, age 26, designed the cover.
Smith chose Lulu.com to self-publish his cookbook, a process that took about nine months to complete. The book is now available on Amazon.com and in the Chili, Gates, Greece, Ogden and Newman Riga public libraries.
In his dedication, Smith writes, “If you choose an entrée and follow the recipe you will enjoy a great meal, and you may never want to part with your cookbook, ever.”
Provided photos
