In recent years, the food world has seen a return to traditional ingredients and traditional methods of preparing food, but what of the traditional ways of enjoying it? That elusive thing called the “family dinner,” once so essential to the formation of bonds and palates—can it be revived?
It’s a question the Pollan family set out to answer—in the affirmative—in their new cookbook, The Pollan Family Table, out October 28. Many readers are probably familiar with at least one member of this clan: the eldest child, Michael, has authored several bestselling books, including The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, that have earned him renown as an expert on food history, science, and business. But, aside from a foreword, you won’t see much of him here. Instead, the book’s more than 100 recipes—and its message about the importance of eating with family—belong to the women who helped shape his worldview: Corky, his mother, and his sisters Lori, Dana, and Tracy.
The book “evolved out of our own lives,” said Lori, a health and wellness expert who lives in Manhattan. “We all have three and four children and are very busy. But we love sitting down to dinner with our families.” Whenever any of them got stuck in a cooking rut, she said, they’d turn to each other for advice. “We would call and say, ‘I just don’t know what to make for dinner tonight. Or two of us would be at the gym together, and one of us would say, ‘I made this amazing thing,’ and go through all the steps of it.”
Over time, this collaborative process yielded a sizable repertoire of recipes. The Pollans began to wonder about turning their collection into something more. “We realized, Wouldn’t it be great to make a cookbook of all these recipes and take some of that guesswork out for people?” Lori said.
The Pollans wrote a proposal and began conversations with a number of publishers. Shannon Welch, senior editor at Scribner, acquired the book in January 2013. “The Pollans are an incredible family—warm and genuinely, enviably close,” said Welch. “They believe that the simple act of sharing a meal can be transformative, building and sustaining bonds—no matter what is going on in the world at large. Hearing the Pollans talk about this simple but powerful idea was galvanizing.”
From the outset, the authors wrote with readers much like themselves in mind—busy parents and home cooks with little to no professional culinary experience. “None of us are chefs,” said Lori. “We might not know the correct way to dice or chiffonade, but we get the meals done and they’re delicious. We just want to send the message that everyone can do this.”
Tracy, an actress who is married to the actor Michael J. Fox, said many of the dishes hark back to her childhood. “We ate very healthy growing up—probably more so than other people. A lot of our dishes are similar … just revamped.”
If one aim of the book is to help busy families cook more healthily and efficiently, another is to encourage them to eat together. Corky, who worked as a style director for Gourmet and as a blogger for the Cooking Channel, said she wanted to reinforce the idea of “sitting down to dinner together as a common pod. I think there’re so few times now in our splintered world to take that time.” Michael, in his foreword, concurs: “I have no research to back up this claim, but I’m convinced that when people eat from the same pot or platter, they share something more than food,” he writes. “That institution is essential not only to a family’s health and well-being but also to our society as a whole.”
Indeed, the family's commitment to the tradition of eating together is perhaps best illustrated by an anecdote involving the (literal) Pollan family table. “Our table at one point wasn’t big enough, so we hired a carpenter to add an extension,” Corky said. “And then that wasn’t big enough when all the kids came. I had to break through our dining room and make an extension.” She restructured her house just to fit everyone at the table? “Yes! Exactly!” she said.
