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Ex-Chicagoan Merry White is a Boston University anthropologist and author whose most recent book is Coffee Life in Japan, a memoir cum ethnographic study. But back in her school days at Harvard (she now holds a faculty research appointment there), she took a job cooking at the campus’s Center for West European Studies, where she was responsible for weekly luncheons. When I think of 70s-era food I think of, say, the fondue craze (my mom’s pot sat in the back of one of her cupboards gathering dust). I think of the microwave, which was just then making its way into home kitchens (the first time I used one I blew up a potato). I think of Tang. White evidently thought of pesto and pollo al limone, and though not a formally trained cook, she developed a pan-ethnic repertoire, from Swedish limpa bread to rogan josh. A publisher at Basic Books who dined at the center was so impressed with her fare that he became set on gathering her recipes in a collection. The result was Cooking for Crowds, a little book filled with dishes scaled to feed six, 12, 20, or 50. Edward Koren, best known for his New Yorker cartoons, illustrated; there are double spreads of his work throughout.
White will be at 57th Street Books (1301 E. 57th, 773-752-4381) Wed 11/20 from 5 to 7 PM; Z&H Market Cafe is catering.
