About The Author

Shelley Boris began her career in food at New York’s renowned gourmet food market, Dean & Deluca. She went on to become the chef at Exile, then at Peter Dent Catering, both in Tribeca. She opened the first Dean & DeLuca Espresso Bar at the Paramount Hotel in Midtown, then began working as a private caterer. She has published recipes in various journals and books, including the The New York Times and Food & Wine, Recipes From America’s Small Farms, and co-wrote The International Mail Order Gourmet food guide. Shelley is the executive chef at the Garrison Institute in New York’s Hudson River Valley. Since forming Fresh Company catering, where she is partner, creative director, and executive chef, Shelley has cooked for such personalities as the Dalai Lama and Mikhail Gorbachev. She is a founding member of the Cold Spring Farmer’s Market and works in the Hudson Valley region to promote local foodmakers and farmers. She lives in Garrison, New York with her husband and two sons.

Learn More About Shelly

www.freshcompany.net

Media

Shelly talks with Kitchen Chat

Interview with Dr. Alvin

"Dot Earth" New York Times

Feature in Cookbook 365

Kid Chef Eliana Interviews Shelley

Interview with the Journal Sentinal

Feature in Salad For President

Fresh Cooking

A Year of Recipes from the Garrison Institute Kitchen

Shelly Boris

Fresh Cooking: A Year of Recipes from the Garrison Institute Kitchen (Monkfish Book Publishing, June 2014) inspires new and experienced cooks alike. Two hundred sixty pages and full color throughout, this is a cookbook with range and flexibility that addresses seasonality, budget, and diverse diets and tastes. The recipes, a personal repertoire, are adaptable throughout the year and are for vegetarians and meat eaters alike. Built around meals Shelley Boris created for the Garrison Institute, a retreat center in New York's Hudson Valley, it contains thirty-six menus, with four to five delicious recipes in each, organized by month for an entire year. Caroline Kasterine's beautiful photographs complement the recipes.

From the beginning of her career in the heyday of New York City's culinary scene with Dean & Deluca, Shelley Boris has maintained a love of fine, fresh ingredients and an intuitive grasp of their possibilities. This book draws on her passion and experience to create delectable meals on a budget without compromising flavor or diversity.

Author Q&A

Q: What can you tell me about your recently released cookbook, Fresh Cooking?

A: This book is the culmination of about 10 years work at The Garrison Institute. I finally had the perspective to choose recipes that balanced guests favorites, family recipes and new ideas, into a book that represents the spirit of the food we serve. Everything is served family style and mostly not prepared à la minute. The food we make at the Institute is a little more austere than what I make at home, less meat, less heat, but within those limits I push to the edge of what’s tasty and give instructions for making many dishes with or without meat.

Q: How did you choose the menu format for the book?

A: I thought about doing a menu cookbook in the beginning, but I rejected the idea because they can sometimes be frustrating for the beginner cook to approach. But then I came around—I realized that the way I think about what we serve [at the Institute] on a buffet is that the whole buffet makes the meal. So the book needed to be done by menu. The book is true to my voice.

Q: What should one consider when planning a menu for a particular season? How does one pair ingredients that aren't necessarily local or in season—beverages, spices, for example—with what the harvest is providing at that particular moment?

A: I pair favorite spices and oils, for example, that are imported and special, such as toasted hazelnut oil, brown mustard seed or haiga rice with seasonal items such as greens in the summer, cabbage or potatoes from storage in the winter and experiment. I might be influenced by classic combinations such as Indian curries or use my imagination that is informed by years of experience. I recommend using just a few items, even just two, for beginners, especially. I also recommend they try all their ingredients, taste and smell them, even bitter herbs or fats. Familiarity expands a cook's vocabulary.

Q: What is your cooking philosophy and how can the home cook incorporate that into their daily repertoire?

A: Try to cook what you like and then think of who you are cooking for, and try to think about what they might like. The combination is usually a recipe for success.

Q: Tell me a little about your upbringing.

A: I was born in Paterson, New Jersey. We moved to the suburbs when I was 9. My mother was a great cook and an adventurous one. We spent lots of time eating and shopping in Paterson and also New York City in the ethnic markets, fish stores, roasted peanut stores, live-poultry markets, and so on. We ate Jewish food on holidays, otherwise, mostly Italian food at home, Chinese food take-out and my mother experimented with new dishes like pesto when the recipe first appeared in The New York Times. She was an early adopter of food processors and health food stores. My mother and sister and I watched the Julia Child TV show were we were young. I moved to New York City in the '70s. I worked in restaurants, traveled, ate, shopped at many markets and cooked my way through classic cookbooks before moving to the Hudson Valley in 1993. I live in Garrison, Putnam County, with my husband and two sons.

Q: You came to cooking by way of fine art. What kind of art did you make? What were your influences?

A: I started out as a potter, but I was drawn to painting. I was in art school in the late 70′s. Minimalism, conceptual art, performance art were popular. I would say “less is more” was drilled in and stuck. At the School of Visual Arts in New York City, I built large shaped paintings. At the time I loved Jasper Johns’ painterly style combined with his layered meanings. I went on to graduate school at Hunter, I studied under Bob Morris, and being a “good” student type, I tried to make sculpture but I don’t think I was really ready. I have recently (when I have time) returned to painting.

Q: Tell me about the painting on the book cover. I see it's under your copyright.

A: Yes, it is my painting. It is an image of a spoon that belonged to my mother-in-law, Shirley Lewis. A very wonderful woman, mother, and great grandmother to my children. My children never met my mother, so Shirley was especially important to me for that reason, among others. We have an eclectic set of her silver serving utensils at home and I love the size and shape of that one in particular.

Q: How does your art practice factor into your life now?

A: I love materials like charcoal, wax, paint and pencils the way I love basic ingredients like onions and eggs. As a mildly dyslexic person, computers and smart phones are a godsend, but the textures and smells and feel of art supplies and food still hold a great attraction for me. I paint when I can.

Q: At what point did you transition into a career in cooking/catering?

A: While I was at Hunter working towards an MFA, I moved to Crosby Street and started selling cheese at Dean & DeLuca on Prince Street. The food world in lower Manhattan was very exciting at that time. Giorgio DeLuca was importing great ingredients from all over the world that were fairly new to the US market. We were experimenting with regional American ingredients, like fingerling potatoes from France being grown on Long Island, and Italian arugula. We still had butchers and cheese mongers in lower Manhattan—there was a collective interest in these small businesses before all that went away. Chanterelle restaurant was close by, and the kitchen was just more entertaining to me than my studio. I meant to go back to finish at Hunter but never did.

Q: How would you characterize your cooking?

A: I like to cook what I like to eat. My cooking has evolved over time. I started out quite rigid and rule bound and made things that were complicated. I worked my way through French cookbooks— Julia Child and Paula Wolfert big time. These days I enjoy good ingredients prepared in a conscious and focused way, but I am much looser.

Q: How would you describe the difficulty level of the recipes in your book?

A: I wrote it with beginners in mind. My sons are my muses, the Garrison Institute is my laboratory. I wanted to present big, bold flavors to a generation that eats a wide variety of ethnic cuisines and lots of street food, but maybe haven't done a lot of cooking. At the same time I wanted the meals to reflect what we do at the Institute, which is to be a bit spare, simple and moderate regarding budget, preparation time and the amount of meat we serve. I tried to find a balance and within the recipes offer the opportunity for people to find their own balance and direct them to adjust the recipes to their own liking: to focus and taste and use what they have and can afford and like, and also to experiment.

Q: What importance do you place on local and organic ingredients?

A: I’m all about local—believe me—but I’m a pragmatist. It’s not fair to make people feel guilty. Pepole who can’t afford to buy organic ingredients can still make delicious food—you can have fun cooking. It will taste good and people will enjoy it. I try to be aware of budgetary constraints and create recipes that can be made in an affordable way. I hope that we can sustain a food supply that has some “local, delicious, organic.” It’s all about balance and moderation.

Q: You cook for Manhattan brides and people on meditation and yoga retreats alike. How would you compare the two challenges?

A: I try to tie them together. I plan every menu that my company (Fresh Company) prepares, whether is it a wedding or lunch for a meditation retreat. I try to approach all my menus as if I am cooking a banquet for my own family—a fictitious, giant, extended family. I used to think of catering as the stepchild to restaurant food, but I have come to appreciate a great banquet and think hard about making food that doesn’t suffer from being made in large batches or traveling far away.

Q: Tell me about cooking for the Dali Lama, Lou Reed and Philip Glass. What was that like, and what did you make?

A: Well, I think New Yorkers try to remain cool in the face of celebrity but the people you mention are people I admire and it was an honor, though I try to think I cook with care for everyone. Philip Glass has been very generous to the Garrison Institute but, in particular, when I cooked for him, he was part of a group. One thing that is interesting to people about the Dalai Lama is that he eats meat. He was very gracious, and I got to prepare what I wanted. But steak is part of a sensible, sustainable diet in Tibet and while he is not living in Tibet, I think that a diet that includes meat is what he is used to. I had a funny experience with Lou Reed. My son was a young teen at the time just discovering and enjoying the Velvet Underground. I had a small supply of wild boar sausage I kept for him at the kitchen, a favorite of his. Lou Reed was here as part of a group eating all vegetarian meals, when he had a need for a bit of protein. I raided the wild boar sausage stash and saved the day.