A ZEST FOR LIFE Fanny Singer’s memoir honours the culinary legacy of her pioneering mother, Alice Waters
You might think that at 37, Fanny Singer is rather young to have written a memoir, but then, she has had a more interesting upbringing than most. Her mother is Alice Waters, who in 1971 founded America’s most famous and beloved restaurant, Chez Panisse. Waters is a culinary and cultural legend who pioneered the fresh, simple, local ethos that underpins what came to be known as ‘California cuisine’; she also launched the ‘Edible Schoolyard’ initiative, a kitchen-garden programme at a state school in Berkeley that was a forerunner of Michelle Obama’s White House garden.
Her daughter’s new book, Always Home, is a glorious celebration of food and family that pays homage to Waters’ extraordinary vision. On its pages, Singer conjures memories of the ‘litany of smells’ in her childhood kitchen: ‘the astringency of the cedar that panelled the cloak closet, the ripe fruit that was stored on the shelves of an outdoor breezeway in the summertime… the smell of a pizza blackening in the wood-fired oven’.
With chapter titles such as ‘Garlic Shrimp’, ‘Salsa Verde’ and ‘My Mom’s Braised Turkey’, the table of contents might make this look like a cookbook – but, in fact, the recipes are less important than Singer’s stories, which are gentle and often hilarious. France plays a big role, of course, so there are recollections of summers spent at Domaine Tempier, a renowned winery in Provence, and of a blissful lobster salad served to the 10-year-old Singer at Les Crayères, a three-Michelin-star establishment in Reims. These charming anecdotes are illustrated by Brigitte Lacombe’s beautiful photographs, which are a touching tribute to the love between mother and daughter. ‘She’s one of the great photographers alive right now,’ Singer says to me. ‘And it was just a gift and a happy by-product of asking her to work on this book that we have such a treasuretrove of images.’
Singer has led a remarkably varied life: she studied for a PhD on the British pop artist Richard Hamilton at Cambridge and spent 11 years in Britain, only moving back to California a couple of years ago. In addition to writing on art and culture, she is a passionate home cook and, since 2016, has been the co-director of Permanent Collection, a website stocking a carefully curated selection of clothing, accessories and homeware.
Having lived apart from her family for many years, Singer knows that in tough times, when the future seems uncertain and we are separated from those we love, the sensual world can bring us real joy. ‘A lot of the things in the book are very, very much about that,’ she says. Right now, she’s staying with her mother in Berkeley; she is contented there and feels lucky to be home. ‘For me, happiness is about walking outside and taking a branch and putting it in a vase,’ she says. ‘I went out with my mum this morning and brought back a posy that we’d collected – a forget-me-not, a freesia and a little rosemary.’
I ask if there’s one recipe she holds dear to her heart, especially at the moment. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she selects her mother’s garlicky noodle soup – which reminds her, too, of the Jewish side of the family (her father, Stephen Singer, is a winemaker). My favourite, however, is her summerysounding salsa verde, a vibrant and adaptable blend of herbs, onions, garlic and vinegar or lemon that can be spooned onto practically anything. Singer laughs with delight at my choice. ‘People will see that salsa verde is the key to unlocking pleasure in the kitchen, I feel – because it’s so simple to make, and it really does improve just about everything!’
It’s her mother, she tells me, who taught her how to comfort and care for herself: to take a moment out, to make a cup of mint tea. ‘I think what we need right now is that kind of spiritual salve: what can you give yourself that you’re missing?’ she says. Mint tea for me, then – and some salsa verde with my supper. ‘Always Home’ by Fanny Singer (£25, Orion) is published on 4 June.