A day in the life

In late 2015, Nathalie Christian was hired to work as a recipe tester and project assistant for Emily Kaiser Thelin, author of the forthcoming biographical cookbook about Paula Wolfert titled UNFORGETTABLE: Bold Flavors from Paula Wolfert’s Renegade Life. [We previously discussed this project and its Kickstarter backing on the EYB blog.] In a recent blog post for the San Francisco Culinary School, Nathalie provided us a glimpse of what she did on the project in the form of a one-day diary. 

As you might expect, the day starts early and is chock full of activity. On this particular day the crew is doing a photo shoot for one of Paula’s most iconic dishes. Says Nathalie, “Out of all of the dishes that have garnered Paula icon status, her Cassoulet in the Style of Toulouse, in my opinion, most reveals her penchant for exactitude. After a great deal of research, testing, rewriting, and tinkering, her cassoulet recipe is counted among the best ever committed to print. It required very little updating, but it’s a doozy.”

Paula Wolfert was on hand for the photo shoot, and Nathalie’s description of her probably fits what you imagine she would be like. “Paula is a whirlwind of energy and excitement, and her positivity and optimism even following her diagnosis [of Alzheimers’] are incredibly inspiring. She greets us all with hugs and we kick into high gear, galvanized by her dynamism,” writes Nathalie. 

A recent update from the Kickstarter project said that the book is still on track to be released in spring 2017. The cookbook is currently in final draft form and is “already deep into revises,” according to the Unforgettable team.