“Cooking as therapy”: California's top chefs on the recipes that got them through 2020

If the pandemic has had any upside, it is that it forced us to cook at home more than ever. Stuck indoors and eating out less, 2020 was the year to bust out a dusty cookbook, to scroll YouTube for baking lessons, to reach into the back of the cupboard to see if maybe, tonight, that old can of beans could become something special.

It’s a reality that applied not just to home cooks but to the Bay Area’s most celebrated chefs. Many of them saw their restaurants radically altered, as the region cycled through closures and re-openings, re-closures and new rules and a seemingly endless stream of challenges. A meal made back in one’s own kitchen was a place to find comfort, nostalgia and creative relief.

I wanted to find out more about what these chefs were gravitating towards during an unusual time. Would it be straight up comfort food? A recipe passed down through the family? Something new and experimental?

Writing for the Guardian, I spoke with five chefs, all of whom shared answers that were both highly personal and totally appetizing: Alice Waters, the doyenne of seasonal eating and founder of Chez Panisse; Gilbert Pilgram, the exuberant head chef of the longtime San Francisco favorite Zuni Cafe; Sarah Kirnon, the founder of Oakland’s beloved Caribbean restaurant Miss Ollie’s; Brandon Jew, the founder of the boundary-pushing Chinatown eatery Mister Jiu’s; and Reem Assil, whose California-inspired take on the traditional Arab bakery has won Reem’s national accolades.

They also shared recipes you can try out yourself at home - from Bajan fishcakes to the best margarita you’ll ever taste (or so Gilbert promises!).

Check out the full feature on the Guardian’s website here.