«The founding of libraries is like constructing public granaries»  This is what Roman Emperor Hadrian thought about the importance of books and public libraries for the cultural and social growth of all people.  So, drawing inspiration from these ancient principles aimed at preserving and spreading knowledge, the Brunello and Federica Cucinelli Foundation built the Solomeo Library in 2008.  The Library is located inside the Aurelian Neo-Humanistic Academy, a neoclassical building that is part of the Solomeo Forum of the Arts.  It overlooks the Cucinelli Theater and the Amphitheater’s harmoniously-designed oval space.  As all the other Forum structures, the Library is also accessible to anyone; it is a place for promoting dialogue and culture, in all its forms.  Events and meetings on philosophical, historical, literary and art topics enliven the rooms of the Library, while a variety of classic and contemporary art, literature, history, spirituality and philosophy books are displayed on the shelves.  There is also an ample selection of classic books in foreign languages, including the less common ones such as Mongolian, Hebrew, Japanese and Hindi.  https://www.brunellocucinelli.com/en/the-library.html 

What was the first cookbook that changed your life?   Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. 

What cookbooks do you turn to most often?  Books that are practical and accessible and not overly fussy.  I really love Ruffage by Abra Berens.  I joined a CSA this year—Moon Valley Farm, a woman-owned organic farm in Frederick—and it’s really helpful when you have tons of rutabaga.

What cookbook are you most looking forward to testing out?    The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook.

What are the best cookbooks you encountered last year?   We haven’t been able to keep The Tucci Cookbook in stock

What’s your favorite cookbook to recommend to a new home cook?   Simply Julia by Julia Turshen.

You can invite three food or cookbook writers to dinner, living or dead.  Who’s coming, and what would you make?  That’s really tough!   I’ll say Edna Lewis, Julia Child, and Cheryl Day [Treasury of Southern Baking].  She was such a wonderful guest here, I could just spend days and days listening to her.  We would get 2 Amys pizza and it would be great, as always.   Excerpt of an interview with Clementine Thomas  https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/03/10/the-owner-of-bold-fork-books-is-a-cookbook-obsessive-here-are-her-favorites/

David Burke grasps a rusty ladder fixed to the outside of an abandoned 60-foot concrete grain silo towering above a field in Tehama County, California.  Using round holes in the concrete as footholds, he climbs ten or more feet, straight into a cluster of dense green foliage.  Leaves explode out of gaps in the wall and peek over the lidless roof, rustling in a breeze that threatens to blow Burke off the ladder.  Peering into the silo, Burke notes that the trunk is only about six inches in diameter, but it’s one of the tallest fig trees he’s ever seen—and he has seen a lot of them.  “Figs are survivors,” Burke says.  After plucking a small green fig and returning to earth, he slices it open with a pocketknife and admires the dark red flesh inside.  It looks like a miniature watermelon.  A century ago, figs were a major component of California agriculture, cultivated on tens of thousands of acres, mostly in the Central Valley.  Seeing the immense potential of these orchards, and with the help of more than 80 Ford tractors, the entrepreneur Jesse Clayton Forkner leveled 12,000 acres of dry land near Fresno beginning in 1910.  A layer of dense clay lay just below the surface, so he used 660,000 one-pound charges of dynamite to blast as many holes in the ground and planted a fig tree in nearly every hole.  The entire operation cost $6 million.  By the 1920s, California was producing nearly 60,000 tons of figs every year.  The fruit (which is technically a bundle of hundreds of fleshy flowers turned inside out) was often consumed as a sweet dried snack wrapped in wax paper and packed in rectangular cartons.  Distributors also sold figs preserved in cans—fig pudding joined ketchup and pickles as one of H.J. Heinz & Company’s “57 Varieties” of canned foods and condiments—and people also enjoyed figs in all manner of pastries.  In 1919, capitalizing on the fig craze he’d helped to boost, Forkner published a cookbook for aspiring fig connoisseurs that included recipes for fig ice cream, fig soufflé and fig-and-cheese sandwiches.  Americans even distilled figs into liqueurs and brewed them into specialty coffees.  But fig cultivation in California began a slow overall decline in the late 1930s.  While commercial fig harvests were decreasing in California, though, birds, wild pigs and other animals kept spreading fig seeds.  Like the tree sprouting from the center of that abandoned grain silo, these hardy plants have since rooted themselves in all kinds of bizarre spots:  in drainage ditches, behind strip malls, on the edges of long-abandoned farms.  Read much more and see many pictures at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/california-search-for-ultimate-wild-fig-heats-up-180979538/ 

Jacques Pépin (born December 18, 1935) is a French-born American chef, author, culinary educator, television personality, and artist.  Since the late 1980s, he has appeared on American television and has written for The New York Times, Food & Wine and other publications.  He has authored over 30 cookbooks, some of which have become best sellers.  Pépin was a longtime friend of the American chef Julia Child, and their 1999 PBS series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home won a Daytime Emmy Award.  He has been honored with 24 James Beard Foundation Awards, five honorary doctoral degrees, the American Public Television’s lifetime achievement award, the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2019 and the Légion d'honneur, France's highest order of merit in 2004.  Since 1989, Pépin has taught in the Culinary Arts Program at Boston University and served as dean of special programs at the International Culinary Center in New York City.  In 2016, with his daughter, Claudine Pépin and his son-in-law, Rollie Wesen, Pépin created the Jacques Pépin Foundation to support culinary education for adults with barriers to employment.  In 2017, Pépin published a cookbook with his granddaughter Shorey Wesen, entitled A Grandfather's Lessons.  In the same year, Pépin received an honorary doctorate from the Columbia University School of General Studies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_P%C3%A9pin  See signed fine art prints and original artwork by Jacques Pépin at https://jacquespepinart.com/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2513  March 28, 2022