Because of her food journalism, the food world has been well aware of Samin Nosrat for several years. But she became a household name when two things happened: First, her book Salt, Fat, Acid Heat: Mastering The Art of Good Cookingbecame a runaway bestseller. The book explored the mysteries of cooking for the home chef, and garnered just about every award a cookbook could get. In the words of Nosrat’s mentor, Alice Waters (chef-owner of the legendary Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse,) Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat “not only teaches you how to cook, but captures how it should feel to cook: full of exploration, spontaneity and joy.”
As if that weren’t enough, Nosrat filmed a four-part docuseries with Netflix last fall, and which was also called Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. In it, she travels to Italy to explore the importance of fat (olive oil! Parmesan!); to Japan to see salt harvested and soy and miso fermented; then to Yucatán, Mexico to see how acid, in the form of sour oranges, enhances dishes; and finally back to California to show us how heat transforms meats and vegetables.
After the Netflix series, Nosrat became so well known it became hard to walk down the street or into her favorite grocery store without being stopped by fans and yes, people with questions. (So many questions!) And sometimes just thanks. She recalled the Iranian father in Oakland who thanked her for speaking to his daughters, who were Iranian and African American. “Thank you for showing them what is possible,” he told her.
Nosrat is that rare thing: a woman of color in the upper echelons of the snarky, hyper-competitive food world. Her columns appear regularly in The New York Times, she travels the country lecturing about food and culture and doing cooking demonstrations. She is acutely aware of her unicorn status, and spends a lot of time thinking about how to push wider the door she’s managed to open so she won’t be the Only One in the public eye.
