Story by Renee Lapham Collins
FROM MY
KITCHEN Cooking with Jeff Lake
Jeff Lake loves collecting knowledge and sharing it. It’s the same with his cooking. In fact, you might say his cooking is one more way this biology professor shares the knowledge he collects-kind of a recipe for life.
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“Cooking is about nurturing others and yourself, and is best when shared with those you care about,” Lake explains. “In that, too, I’m always exploring new approaches, new techniques, new cuisines, and combining flavors in new ways.” Lake, who lives in Tecumseh with his wife, Julie Whiston, is a biology professor at Adrian College. He grew up in Iowa and discovered his love for plants, gardening, science, and the great outdoors at an early age. “I was very curious about how things worked,” Lake said. “That continued on throughout my life.” He attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, just east of Des Moines, majored in biology and went on to the University of Georgia in Athens where he earned his doctorate in Plant Biology and Botany. In addition to biology classes, Lake teaches four of the classes in the AC Environmental Studies program. He also handles all of the live animals in the department, including snakes, which are part of the school’s Track and Explore program at Michigan International Speedway. “At Grinnell, I saw the real impact a great professor can have on their students,” he said. “I knew from that point I wanted to teach in a small college setting where education is really valued, and you can get to know your students and really make that impact.” His interest in cooking evolved more slowly. “I had some interest in cooking even as a kid,” he said. “We had a big garden and would do homemade jellies and put up garden produce. But food was a pretty simple thing growing up in rural Iowa, and a sort of rotation of foods were a big part of life.” Once he finished college and was living on his own, he confesses to being a bit clueless about nutrition and eating good food. “I soon decided I wanted to improve what I was feeding myself,” he said. “So, through a mix of reading, cookbooks, and some judicious use of Food Network, I started to teach myself to cook.” But his food journey didn’t end there. In graduate school in Georgia, he remembers noticing wine could be more than just an
alcoholic beverage — it could be a very real part of a good meal. “I started going to tastings, and I was very lucky,” he said. “Hugh Acheson (the Canadian chef and restauranteur) was then a very good, largely unknown chef whose only restaurant was in Athens. He would do wine events at the restaurant, and Julie and I attended, got to know him, and learned more about wine and incorporating it into a meal.” Lake said the first big wine dinner he attended at the restaurant featured a winemaker from Chateauneuf du Pape in France. The winemaker highlighted the difference vintage can make with side by side tastings, and how those differences affected pairing wine with food. “I just continued from there,” he said. “For me, wine is also a very academic pursuit. There is so much to learn about wine — each region, type of grape, vintage, and so on — you never get bored.” Lake also prefers to cook “seasonally,” that is, using whatever local produce is available in any given season. In summer, he is cooking with tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, corn, and melons. In spring, he looks forward to morels and asparagus. “I am very passionate about the cooking season and what is available locally,” he said. The Chateauneuf du Pape was on the menu when Lake and Whiston brought over his South-of-France meal, which included a baba ghanoush appetizer, ratatouille, and roasted lamb slow-cooked at 300 degrees until it practically fell apart upon serving. For dessert, Lake prepared a stone fruit pie from a recipe by Anthony Bourdain, the chef and host of “Parts Unknown” until his death in 2018. Lake said he is always exploring new approaches, new techniques, and new cuisines and combining flavors in new ways. “There is a fascinating mix of mastery of traditions and creative exploration that very much appeals to me,” he said. “I have some ‘standbys’ that I like to return to, like the ratatouille, and in the winter, cassoulet. But I really need to always be trying new things.” n
