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The next generation PDF Print E-mail
Saturday, 03 November 2007

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 Elizabeth Thigpen Hunt with her mother's Jell-O molds and her grandmother's lamb cake form

    The next generation

    Liz Thigpen Hunt gives me hope. I wrote a story for a Travelers’ Tales book years ago, in which I said, “I think I am the last generation to learn how to cook from my mother.”
    Hunt, who is 26, in fact, did learn to cook from her mother. But whereas my mother was teaching me French Canadian specialties, Hunt grew up eating lots of stir-fries, brown rice and tofu.
    “My parents were hippies, but not the stoned-out kind,” she says with a laugh.
    Today, she is the special events coordinator for Macy’s Cellar in San Francisco and she’s none the worse for all that healthful food. She still doesn’t have any truck with a TV, but she’s been known to tuck into a juicy steak.
   

Dad is from Tulsa; Mom is from Alabama, but she grew up in Davis, where her mother, a builder, still lives. Every year, she and her siblings have reunions in Oklahoma and on the southern coast of Alabama.
    It was from Hunt that I learned about the Mobile Bay Jubilee. She explained that on one night in the summertime, the water recedes from Mobile Bay, usually in the early morning hours, and the shallow waters teem with blue crab, shrimp, flounder, eels, and stingrays. People living near the shore ring bells and everyone runs to the water’s edge to scoop up the harvest. Needless to say, everyone eats seafood, drinks beer and parties in the predawn hours.  
    In Davis, Hunt grew up in Village Homes — a unique community founded in the sixties. At that time, residents didn’t have fenced backyards and many houses were solar. Bike paths encircled the subdivision and there was a greenbelt peppered with fruit trees and gardens.
    “Because of the setting, I grew up knowing the seasons, knowing food,” she explains.
    Her parents were original members of the Davis Food Co-op, a nonprofit store that was a model for many other communities.  
    “My mother, being a single mom and having her own business, did quick-healthy food. We always had brown rice and beans. Mom was vegetarian (although she would eat fish) and my sister Anna Joi and I were too,” she says.
    “One day, my best friend’s mom took us downtown and I had a hot dog … my mother was horrified,” says Hunt. “Of course, I was a kid who would try anything,” she says with a giggle.
    After her mom and dad divorced, she grew up in both of their houses. Here is her explanation:
    “Mom’s house: peaceful, vegetarian, artsy, no TV. Dad’s house: TV, stepbrothers and sister, football games, steak every night.”
    At one point she is talking about baking and she begins to rummage through her tiny kitchen cabinets. She lives in the Marina in a top floor studio and her uncovered windows look out on The City. She pulls out a two-piece cake mold in the shape of a lamb, which was her grandmother’s.
    After high school, she went to UC Berkeley, which was a revelation to her food-wise: the Cheeseboard and more.  To her mother’s dismay she joined a sorority. She studied agricultural economics and wrote a comparative study of Ghana and Tanzania from an agricultural standpoint.
    A turning point was when she went to Italy and studied cooking. It ignited a love that imbues her work today.
    “I have a lot of foodie friends — they dine out a lot and have really well-tuned palates, but they just don’t cook much,” she explains. “After college many of my friends moved away,” she says, “and they wanted to make my risotto. After walking them through my recipe on the phone a zillion times, I finally decided to write it down.”  
    Here it is:

LIZ’S RISOTTO RECIPE
Serves four

Arborio rice (about 2 ounces dry per person for a first course)
2     quarts chicken broth (I like Better than Bouillon [comes in a jar in supermarkets] if I don’t have fresh chicken stock. Recipe can also be made with seafood stock paired with clam juice or straight beef stock.)
1     large yellow onion, chopped finely
3-4 Tbs olive oil
½     bottle dry white wine (unoaked Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, or Sauvignon Blanc)
1     cup pecorino cheese, grated
4     Tbs butter
freshly ground pepper to taste
    Because of the salt in the bouillon and the salty cheese, added salt is usually not necessary

    Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and sauté chopped onion. Cook the onion until it's golden.
    Add the rice and sauté for 2 minutes on low.
    When the edges of the rice begin to become ever so slightly transparent, pour half a bottle of dry white wine into the pan and stir continuously. The liquid should sizzle when it hits the pan and then come to a gentle simmer, not a boil. Keep stirring —there will be no visible liquid but the rice will be fairly wet — at this point, add the first ladle of broth.
    Patience, time and temperature are the key to this recipe!
    While stirring continuously, add the broth slowly, one ladleful at a time. Stir until the same wet, but not soupy, consistency is achieved and then add the next ladleful.
    The actual stirring technique is very important:  Stir in one direction lifting the rice from the bottom of the pan.
    In my experience, it takes about 30-40 min before the rice is done. When it is almost completely done, start tasting. When you achieve the right creamy, yet al dente texture, add the butter and pecorino cheese — at this point be gentle and fold in the ingredients. Let sit a minute before serving. Drizzle with a very small amount of high quality olive oil. Serve on heated dishes.
    Variations: You can add almost anything to risotto, which is why I love it, and it is perfect in any season. Add a few threads of saffron for a classic Milanese risotto, or just visit the farmers market and get inspired
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 December 2007 )