August 6, 2008: Here Comes Koehler

Here's the official announcment of Jeff Koehler's visit to Clark College on Aug. 20th. As the director of the Columbia Writers Series, I feel it's my duty to promote the program through my own blog. (Perhaps I should start a blog for the series itself?) I hope, dear reader, you can come!:

The Columbia Writers Series welcomes author, cook, and photographer
Jeff Koehler
August 20, 2008, 12:00 p.m., in Room 213 of Clark College’s Gaiser Hall. Admission is free.

Jeff Koehler is the author of La Paella: Deliciously Authentic Rice Dishes from Spain’s Mediterranean Coast (Chronicle Books)—listed by the New York Times as a noteworthy cookbook in 2006—and of the forthcoming (and tentatively titled) Rice, Pasta, Couscous: The Heart of the Mediterranean Kitchen (Chronicle Books, 2009), a unique hybrid of cookbook and culture study. Koehler writes about food and travel for many magazines and newspapers, including Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine, EatingWell, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, Christian Science Monitor, Tin House, and Dwell. He also writes regularly for the Spanish government publication Foods From Spain News and for Continental Airlines’ in-flight magazine. Some of Koehler’s pieces have been anthologized, including one on the Lotus-eaters of Djerba in Food & Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast alongside works by Francine Prose, Steve Almond, Lydia Davis, and Grace Paley. Last winter the book had its European launch at Shakespeare & Company Bookshop in Paris where Koehler joined other expatriot writers for a public reading.For Koehler food is an ideal subject: “Writing about it – especially here in the Mediterranean – is writing about culture. It is the window through which almost any story can be told.”

Koehler is also a photographer whose images have illustrated many of his own and others’ articles, his cookbook, La Paella, Teresa Barrenchea’s The Cuisines of Spain (a 2006 IACP Cookbook Award Finalist in the international category) and Braiden Rex-Johnson’s Pike Place Market Seafood Cookbook.

Jeff Koehler grew up north of Seattle, studied at Gonzaga University in Spokane in the early 1990’s , and then spent four years on the road traveling throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Eventually, he settled down in London to study at King’s College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. There, in the kitchen of a shared Hampstead residence hall, he met another foreign post-grad, a Catalan woman named Eva. When she returned home to Spain to do her PhD, Jeff followed. They married not long after, and for most of the past decade they have lived in Barcelona. They have two girls, Alba (six) and Maia (four).

Visit Jeff Koehler’s website: https://exchange.clark.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://jeff-koehler.com/ , and learn more about his writing, photography, and upcoming projects.

~

Because you can't stow yourself away in Koehler's suitcase and accompany him back to Barcelona, here are five things about that magnificent city you can daydream about: (1) Pinocho in La Boqueria. The greatest food kiosk I've ever visited and one of the best restaurants in that city. Be greeted by Juanito, eat a custardy-pastry, drink a cafe con leche, and order up a dish of fried baby squid or sardines or blood sausage. Fantastico! (2) The Boqueria itself. Endless stalls of produce, seafood, breads, pastries..the sights and smells are unforgettable, and walking through the place with Koehler nosing out good buys is an utter joy. (3) La Rambla, the walking street that runs through the core of the city, full of musicians, vendors, cafes, street performers, pickpockets, and every age and condition of human being. And flanked on both sides by the endlessly fascinating architecture (old and modern) of the city. (4) La Sagrada Familia, the greatest work in progress in Europe. Spectacular even in its incompleteness; visit the Gaudi exhibition in the crypt (?) and marvel at his plans and designs. (5) Picasso Museum. An amazing collection of his juvenilia and immature work--many oils on wood panels, done in the impressionist style. The museum is in the Born, the city's medieval neighborhood, and housed in a 13th century merchant's house. How wonderful is that?

Adeu,

JBF