Janet Fletcher: ‘My eyes opened to the world of cheese’

BY JESSICA YADEGARAN

Napa cookbook author Janet Fletcher is a longtime advocate of California farms and locavore eating. Her weekly blog, Planet Cheese, is a must-read for cheese reviews and recipe ideas, and the three-time James Beard award winner has authored or coauthored 30 cookbooks. The newest is “Wine Country Table,” which celebrates California’s sustainable harvest with recipes and stories about 23 trailblazing farmers and wineries.

QHow did you choose the farms and wineries featured in “Wine Country Table?”

AI chose leaders in sustainability. They all have different challenges and innovative approaches. For instance, the dried plum grower Taylor Brothers Farms in Sutter County has developed a clever earthworm-powered water-treatment system that yields huge energy savings. In California, you have to be on the cutting edge, or you’ll be left behind.

QWhere do the book’s mouth-watering recipes come from?

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AThey’re my fantasies, based on years of improv cooking from my garden and local farmers markets and from dining around in Bay Area restaurants. My goal was to showcase California produce, but also to reflect the cultural diversity in California kitchens.

QYou’re a certified master gardener. What all do you grow?

AWe eat at home so much. I garden year-round, and we love to cook. My husband, winemaker Doug Fletcher, is an amazing bread baker. Currently, I have 20 fruit trees and grow 24 vegetables, plus about a dozen herbs.

QSommeliers have wine ah-ha moments. What was your cheese a-ha moment?

AWhen I was a college student, I spent a semester in Provence, where I’d go to the farmers market in Aix-en-Provence and visit the cheese trucks. The selection was something I’d never seen. They had so many goat cheeses; some were soft as butter, and some were hard as rocks and meant for grating. I just had my eyes opened to the world of cheese.

QWhat’s your next project?

ALiving in Napa Valley, I’ve noticed all the beautiful culinary gardens that wineries are planting as part of their hospitality programs. I’ve also seen how these gardens elevate the food that’s coming out of the winery kitchens. So that might be next for me.

QFavorite indie bookstore or book event?

AI love Book Passage and their Cooks with Books events. Of course, I would! Great way for the public to connect with cookbook authors over a delicious meal.

“Becoming” by Michelle Obama: So open, so honest. She’s not only an engaging person, she’s an engaging writer, which I didn’t really expect. Full disclosure: I’m still reading.

“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr: I just finished this best-seller. The story is gripping, and Doerr writes like a poet.

“Reinventing the Wheel” by Bronwen and Francis Percival: An insightful read about the impact of industrial processes on traditional cheesemaking. OK, maybe only for cheese nerds.

“Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002” by David Sedaris: It was fun to read what David Sedaris was thinking before he became THE David Sedaris.

The New Yorker: Not a book, but The New Yorker is why I don’t read more books. Every week, there’s a lengthy gem or two that I have to read. I’ve been a subscriber since college. I read only the nonfiction, but I would be seriously uninformed without it.