Whale Watcher's Cookbook - Softcover

Nogg, Sharon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0939644665 ISBN 13: 9780939644667

Publisher: Westport Pubns, 1990

Synopsis

When gourmet cook/naturalist Nogg was asked to cook for 20 guests who were on whale research vacations, she figured it would be a breeze. Instead she encountered lack of time and budget,and a two hour ferry ride to get supplies. The second year she plied her skills on a sixty foot converted trawler in Southeast Alaska. Glacier ice was used to cool food and that was the good news. Cooking in a galley the size of a poker table was enough of a challenge but then she found out only two of the four burners on the stove worked when the oven was on; the largest turkey she could fit in that oven was 10-12 pounds. And just to make life even more of a challenge, the departing cook had spent most of the season's budget for staples on black beans and miso soup!!! Since the guests weren't paying for peanut butter sandwiches, Nogg had to create dishes that were easy to prepare but qualified as semi-gourmet meals. And wearing her photo/journalist hat, she still needed to make time to photograph whales and other wildlife. For almost five years Nogg worked Alaska in the summer, then followed the whales to Hawaii for the winter. Each chapter of the book starts with one of her photos from those trips. As a world traveler, she has collected recipes from friends and colleagues from varied cultural backgrounds. Nogg converted the material so that most dishes feed four to six people and have ingredients available in the United States. There's also a section for salt substitutes and most recipes offer suggestions for replacing high fat content ingredients.

About this title

From the Publisher

Publisher Jerry Kromberg and his assistant Linda Dageford felt the concept for the WHALE WATCHER'S COOKBOOK - VIEWS FROM THE GALLEY would give it a wide audience and long shelf life. The first printing was in 1990, and the book is still going strong. "Nogg knew from personal experience giving parties in her apartment in Hollywood, that gourmet meals could be made in small quarters and with a limited budget. And she had worked for a Beverly Hills caterer who made crackers from scratch so she thought she was ready for anything. Boy was she wrong. But that's half the charm of this book. We asked Sharon to use anecdotes since there are a lot of people who buy cookbooks not for the recipes but because they are a good read. Her lifestyle, and that of her friends, gives WWCB a spicey flavor all its own. There were two sets of readers we didn't anticipate - RV owners and college students. We assumed that our biggest market might be folks who like to entertain but have limited time, space and money to spend. Another bonus turned out to be latchkey kids who found many of the recipes easy to follow. And the large print appeals to older folks so we feel this cookbook have something for everyone."

From the Author

"My animal-related life in Hollywood began as a zookeeper at the Playboy Mansion West. I went on to become a Field Representative for American Humane's Hollywood office. Being an animal protection officer on movie sets sounds glamorous, and at that time I was the only woman in the world with that job. COSMOPOLITAN even included me on a feature page but I had always loved marine mammals. I met Ken Balcomb from the Center for Whale Research and jumped at the chance to go to Friday Harbor,WA and work on his whale research boats. What I didn't anticipate was being asked to do most of the cooking for our group of about twenty. And the guests were paying for more than peanut butter sandwiches. While I had a big kitchen to work in, time was my enemy being on the boat all day. But I worked it out and guests asked me to photo copy my recipes. I went back to Friday Harbor after a winter in Hawaii, and planned to stay there but Ronn Storro Patterson asked Ken if I could work for him as his cook had left. The DELPHINUS is a sixty foot converted trawler; cooking on her was the ultimate challenge. Among the things I learned was gelatin based dishes don't always "jell" on water. And never try to bake a cake unless you're at anchor, otherwise your cake might have a 45 degree angle look. In the nine years since the book came out, I've done TV and radio interviews around the country. And twice Merle Ellis featured the book on his syndicated TV show, "COOKIN' U.S.A." An added bonus was the photos I took have appeared in the Audubon Societies Marine Mammals of North America, Greenpeace's book on Dolphins, a French Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, MODERN MATURITY magazine and many newspaper.

About this edition

• Publisher: Westport Pubns
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0939644665
• ISBN 13: 9780939644667
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 173