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May 26 - June 1, 2005 Edition
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Print: Tina Miller's Cookbook Has Been Stewing for 18 Years The Martha's Vineyard Times May 26, 2005
Giving props to local farmers, fishermen, hunters and other gatherers had been home-grown Tina Miller’s idea all along and, with the publication of “Vineyard Harvest,” she harvests a crop that she started planting way back in the summer of 1987. It is as much a testament to Tina’s perseverance and her passion for life — particularly Island life. Now, nearly two decades later, come the fruits. The launch event for her literary labor of love will be a signing Friday, May 27, from 4 to 6 pm at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore, on Main Street in Vineyard Haven. Published by Broadway Books, the book teams Tina with Island photographer Alison Shaw, whose original, slightly fuzzy close-ups, achieved by shooting with a shallow depth of field, reflect a new stylistic direction designed to evoke more intimacy. But the real stars are the Islanders who feed us: agriculturalists Andrew Woodruff of Whippoorwill Farm, Jim and Debbie Athearn of Morning Glory Farm, Rebecca Miller and Matthew Dix of North Tabor Farm, Caitlin Jones and Allen Healy, Marie Scott of Beetlebung Farm, Debbie Farber and Alan Cottle of Blackwater Farm, and Freddie Fisher of Nip-N-Tuck Farm; fishermen Robbie Coad, Louie Larsen, Scott Terry, and oyster farmer Jack Blake of Sweet Neck farm; preserves queen Linda Alley; hunter Danny Bryant; and sheepherders Allen Whiting of Whiting Farm and Clarissa Allen of Allen Farm. Their brief profiles are sandwiched between the photos and simple but elegant recipes based on Tina’s philosophy of cooking. Easy, realistic approach “It shouldn’t be rocket science,” Tina said in an interview. “These are realistic recipes based on three steps: prepare, mix and cook.” “That’s Tina’s whole mantra — it should be easy to make, not daunting,” said Alison. So, for instance, introducing her recipe for homard a l’armoricaine, Island Style, she begins, “Do not be intimidated by the name.” It turns out to be steamed lobster with a sauce made by simmering the shells in vermouth, tomatoes and cognac. Also included are familiar dishes we all would like to make better: heirloom tomato-basil soup, steamers, BBQ ribs, mini cod cakes, Portuguese kale soup, saffron chicken stew — in all about 100 recipes organized by season. Along with suggestions of what to keep in the pantry and the basic cook’s tools, a handy back page lists all the Island purveyors with addresses and phone numbers. The ingredients, Tina emphasized, should be local, in-season, and grown, raised, or caught by people with integrity, people like the Islanders who have inspired her her whole life. Tina was last seen publicly on the Island restaurant landscape at the Café Moxie, which she opened on Main Street in Vineyard Haven in 1998 and which immediately became the next hot Island restaurant, evening guests running the Vineyard gamut from familiar year-round faces to the literati and gliterati of summer. All shared at least one value: appreciation for the fare that combined Tina’s ideas with chef Merrick Carrieo’s. That successful venture had been preceded by the Roadhouse, a West Tisbury restaurant she owned from 1989 until 1992 which some still remember fondly for its ribs and red beans and rice (it’s where the Bittersweet is now). Family comes first But after several years at the Moxie, in 2001, now with her second child, Tina decided she had gotten restaurants “out of my system and I wanted to concentrate on my family.” Now she is a private chef for several lucky families on the Island and devotes the rest of her time to her husband, electrician Steve Gallagher, and their two sons, Henry, 8, and Theo, 5, in a house in the woods they had built in 2003 off the Panhandle in West Tisbury, a stone’s throw from one of the many places Tina lived since being born here in 1964. Many people know that Tina’s father, Alan Miller, is a piece of Island lore. He was one of the Black Dog Tavern’s founders. But hers was not a privileged life. There were hardscrabble years. As she admits in her introduction, “We never had a lot of money and our kitchen at home was rarely well-stocked with food.” True, the B.D. kitchen was like her nursery for a while, but it was at her friend Beach Bennett’s house that she developed a taste for cooking. Making what became known as “Miller-meter” sandwiches to endear herself to her friend’s family, she also discovered the feelings that drives many chefs: “I was able to experience a bit of instant success and appreciation.” Cut to…years of working in kitchens, first as a dishwasher, then as a waitress, finally on the line, from here to Key West to L.A. and back. The idea for the book came in that summer of ‘87, when she was 23, living in John and Bea Whiting’s boathouse on Tisbury Great Pond in Chilmark. She worked for them as gardener, shingler, all-around go-to girl. She was moved not just by the plentitude of naturally growing things to eat surrounding her — from the gardens and from the pond — but also by the visual beauty of it all. She began taking pictures, cataloguing recipes and ideas that formed the foundation of “Vineyard Harvest.” Focusing on the local “I never wanted it to be a cutesy Martha’s Vineyard cookbook, with seashells in the borders or using celebrities’ recipes,” she said. “It was always going to be about the people and the produce that come from here.” From wanting to write a cookbook to actually getting a publisher is no mean feat, especially if you’re not a so-called celebrity chef. When she saw a customer from the Roadhouse listed as a Broadway cookbook editor in a food magazine, Tina went to New York to meet with her. That editor was not too encouraging, suggesting instead Tina try regional publishers. But undaunted, by the summer of 2002 she had pulled together a proposal and through an agent sent it to 15 publishers. It was that editor at Broadway who ultimately bought the book. How Alison joined the project is an odd coincidence as well. The two knew each other because both had children in the same school. “I saw her every day at pre-school,” said Tina, “and have always admired her work but I was too intimidated to ask her.” Meanwhile, one of Alison’s book editors “casually mentioned Tina was working on a Vineyard cookbook,” recalled Alison, “and I immediately asked her, ‘Do you think maybe, maybe Tina might be looking for a photographer and consider me?’” The pair spent nine months setting up shots together. Alison wanted the look to match Tina’s culinary sensibilities. “We worked with available light, no strobes, no food stylists,” said Alison. “We shopped at the thrift shop for props. It’s friendly, informal food and I wanted to make it look like you could sit down, pull up your chair, and dig in.” By shooting with a short depth of field, one detail of an image jumps out at you. “This style makes you focus on one part and you say, ‘Oooh, I’m going to have to eat that.” And now it’s time for everyone to come to the table and dig in. Meet Tina Miller at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore, Main St., Vineyard Haven, Fri., May 27, 4-6 pm. Perry Garfinkel, a former Times Calendar Editor whose article on Buddhism will appear in National Geographic Magazine in December, is now at work on a book, “Buddha or Bust,” to be published by Harmony Books in 2006. |
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