4 minute read
United We Cook
from San Diego Woman
So, you cleaned out your kitchen, rearranged your closet, and even started reading that best seller, kudos for you. How about this – you spend countless hours researching and then emailing 100’s of restaurants. Then answers to your emails begin to trickle in and before you know it you are spending hours and hours on the phone. These phone calls begin to produce mountains of paper with thousands of words. This is how Nadia Mashar spent the latest lock down due to that thing we now call Covid-19. Well buckle up, because it looks like we are about to go around for a second lock down, which means no candlelight dinners, unless they happen in your dining room.
Nadia is “a gal that is single and loves to eat,” (her words) when I asked her to describe herself. She was doing her part to keep her favorite restaurants, ordering take-out, when she decided she could do more, much more. Being a type A personality, she decided to see what would happen if she got say, 200 random recipes together in a small
Advertisement
By Carol Heath
cookbook. Then she could compile these recipes, put them together in a file you could download, charge for this little cookbook, and send the proceeds to the participating restaurants. Sometimes good small ideas explode into fantastic big ideas.
Nadia’s idea grew into a cookbook with recipes from some 100 independent restaurants including 37 US cities, representing 24 states. This is not your typical cookbook as it features 23 different cuisines along with a sprinkle of some remarkably interesting cocktail recipes. Fine dining, as well as some mom and pop special little gems are included in this labor of love. Some of these recipes are from award winning chefs, who graciously shared their culinary delights. This unique downloadable Pdf, full of recipes from New York to San Francisco, San Diego to Atlanta, and some in between will never appear together again.
As I was rolling through the book with my mouse, I stopped at Lazy Betty from Atlanta who offered Grilled Spanish Octopus, Bartlett Pears, Fermented Black Bean Vierge, as their entry. Rolling on, my absolute favorite recipe was on page 20, is the entry from Intero Restaurant in Austin, Texas. Are you ready? It’s a recipe for Ricotta, being Italian I was jazzed, but surprised that it came from Texas, San Francisco or New York I wouldn’t give it a second thought but Texas! Rolling on we have Gadabout’s Pumpkin Hummus from Chicago, also from Chicago, there is Mott Street Korean Chili-Kansas City style Dry Rub Tri-tip with Chinese Hot Mustard & White Nectarine Dip, from Mott’s. And let’s wash all these delicacies down with some Frozen Bourbon Milk Punch from New Orleans.
When I had the opportunity to speak with Nadia, she was very gracious about sharing the ingredients, whipping and blending them together, to ultimately produce this one of a kind book. Nadia seemed to be completely oblivious that she accomplished something amazing; it was like all in a day’s work. And speaking of work, Nadia has led a successful Finance and Investment firm for some 13 years. She is the founder & Managing Partner of Ouro Partners, whose services include but are not limited to helping investors buy and sell middle market companies in various sectors. She told me she loves helping people and this is her real passion; I’d add successful publishers to her accomplishments.
This labor of love, entitled United We Cook, was conceived, and totally achieved by Nadia Mashar. The whole process was a one woman show from sending out the emails, talking to the chefs, getting the recipes, putting them in a Pdf file, opening the bank accounts for the proceeds, doing the bookkeeping, sending out the checks, and now she is marketing her baby. Ahh, did I forget to tell you that the $28.00 price goes in a bank account and is divided between all the participating restaurants and food banks, and yes Nadia does it all. I take my hat off to you my new friend and Bon Appetit!
I love the way Nadia formatted the book, first she quoted a notable figure. Then separated by cities and states, each restaurant has a small write up that they offered, along with a good-sized color photo, and of course the recipes. And finally the icing on the cake, every once in a while Nadia gives us what she calls FFF, which are little facts about food, i.e. loud music makes you eat more and faster; Honey is the only food that will never rot. It can last 3000 years. Wow! I told you it wasn’t your average cookbook and I hope you will buy it, try the recipes, and enjoy them knowing that your purchase will help those restaurants that are closed down because of the damn virus.
