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I was born in 1963 in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from Duke University in 1985 with a BA in English Literature, I worked for The New York Times as a newsroom copyboy. I left before two years had passed to pursue a desultory life of travel, writing, and odd jobs, returning to Cleveland in 1991. Here I found work as an editor at a local magazine that covered Cleveland's cultural scene, for which I wrote an article about the man who had become headmaster of my high school, a private boys' school. This article began my first book, Boys Themselves (1996).
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Thomas Keller, chef owner of The French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., sprinkles chives on paper thin slices of tuna belly, seasoned with a Meyer lemon vinaigrette. Photo by Deborah Jones, from The French Laundry Cookbook.
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I became so fascinated by the work of the professional cook and the culture of the restaurant kitchen that I continued to pursue the work, punching a clock briefly as a line cook, then writing a book about chefs and cooking, The Soul of a Chef (2000). I co-wrote The French Laundry Cookbook (2000) with Thomas Keller at the same time, and he and I subsequently wrote a food column for the Los Angeles Times for two years. This was followed by Bouchon (2004), a cookbook that aims to explore French bistro cooking and isolate the keys to perfecting it.
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Michael Symon has reopened Lola as Lolita and will open a new Lola in Cleveland in 2006. He opened a restaurant in New York City called Parea, serving stylish Greek food, in the spring of 2006.
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Dr. Roger Mee, the subject of "Walk on Water," operates on the heart of a two-year-old child at The Children's Hospital at the Cleveland Clinic. Photograph by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
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We continue to live and work in the house pictured on the jacket of House, taken circa 1920. My book, with Brian Polcyn, on charcuterie for the home cook--a love song to the pig, to animal fat and salt, pates, terrines, sausages, confit--was published in 2005 and The Reach of a Chef in 2006. I’m currently working on and developing new projects, most of them chef- and food-related.
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In Vermont during work on A Return to Cooking. Photo by Tammar and Shimon Rothstein.
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A devoted amateur cook since fourth grade, I proposed to the Culinary Institute of America, the oldest and most influential cooking school in the country, that I be allowed into its kitchen classrooms in order to write a narrative of how the school trains professional chefs. The school agreed, and I wrote The Making of a Chef (1997).
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Brian Polcyn, chef-owner of Five Lakes Grill in Milford, Mich., grinds pork liver for a Pate de Grandmere at home, recipe testing for our charcuterie book. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
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Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin in New York City. Among the many facets of his excellence in the craft of cooking is extraordinary finesse in seasoning food. Photo by Tammar and Shimon Rothstein, from A Return to Cooking.
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In February 1999, I moved with my family to Martha's Vineyard to research and report on life at a yard making plank-on-frame boats for the book Wooden Boats (2001). In October 2000, I began work at the Cleveland Clinic's Children's Hospital for the book Walk on Water (2003), a book about a pediatric heart surgeon and the work of fixing babies malformed hearts, which I wrote concurrently with A Return to Cooking (2002), with Eric Ripert, chef-owner of Le Bernardin, the Manhattan four-star restaurant.
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Ross Gannon, left, and Nat Benjamin discuss the rehab of a Vineyard Haven 15, 'inside' their shop in Vineyard Haven, Mass, September 2000. Photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman.
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