In the picture to the right, the image shows a table of guests, smiling and enjoying their meal together. This is a scene that is repeated every day at both of my lodges in Alaska and it is one that brings me joy and a sense of accomplishment.
The opportunity to cook for people, traveling from all over the world, from all types of backgrounds and lifestyles, is the best part of the work I do. The opportunity that I have to live creatively has allowed me the time to pursue my interests: food cookery, culinary literature, gardening, teaching, and writing.
This section of our website shares favorite books we are reading at the lodge, notes from my journal, and other brief glimpses into our lives in Alaska. Below is an excerpt from the Winterlake Lodge Cookbook that shares with you a little about my philosophy of cooking. And the lady raising her glass in the photo – that’s Madeleine Kamman, seated next to her husband Alan. Make sure you read all of Madeleine’s books listed under Favorite People and Places.
“When Carl was a boy he lived in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He was drawn to a life in the outdoors even then, despite his urban upbringing. Carl pedaled around the neighborhood on his bicycle delivering newspapers, played baseball, or spent time in the woods. On some days he would ride down a long, rolling road to a rural farmhouse, tidy and cozy and situated next to a little pond. Carl dreamed that someday he would live in a house like that, a house in the country alongside a pond.
When I was young I loved cookbooks and cooking, organizing recipes on file cards, and planning dinner parties for friends. I spent many an evening going to the local library and checking out my limit of books.
One book that made a particular impression on me was The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth by Roy Adries de Groot. The book is a memoir of a trip de Groot took to a valley in France called La Grand Chartreuse. The writing conjures up a romantic sense of living close to nature and the wild. Evocative writing and chapters with titles such as “A Journey to a High and Lovely Place” transport us to a small French inn where two women introduce de Groot to remarkable mountain cuisine and unforgettable regional wines. I wanted to be just like those women who cooked at the Auberge. I wanted to take care of weary travelers as they stopped along their way to somewhere from somewhere else.
And now, Carl has a house alongside a pond and I spend my days cooking for travelers who find their way to our door.”
