How do you know you’re finally home when you’ve been everywhere? For Susan Herrmann Loomis and husband Michael, it was when they realized they’d stayed seven years in France.
“It’s the longest we’ve lived anywhere,” says Susan, whose father’s miliary career required the family to move often. Since she left home, Loomis has lived on both coasts as well as in Europe.
Now, they’ve settled in Normandy. Michael, a 48-year-old sculptor, has put his skills to work restoring the 15th century convent they bought. Meanwhile, 44-year-old Susan continues to walk her career tightrope, cooking and writing. To that end, she’s taken research trips around Europe; written articles for newspapers, magazines and online sites; tested recipes for whichever cookbook she was developing; and served up hours-long country lunches to paying guests.
Loomis’ goal always has been to encourage people to eat well. That means rather than taking food for granted, people should notice what they are eating and, ideally, know where it comes from and who produces it. “If people know what’s behind the food,” she says, “they’ll respect it more.”
At the start of her food-writing career, Loomis set out to find out who catches the fish (“Great American Seafood Cookbook”), cultivates the vegetables (“Farmhouse Cookbook”) and makes the cheese (“French Farmhouse Cookbook”) that everyone eats.
The tall, slender Loomis has ridden on boats, climbed onto tractors and clambered up terraced fields to gather the multitude of stories about people and foodstuffs that season the recipes in her hefty cookbooks.
Sounds like an interesting life — and it is, says Loomis, who was in the Twin Cities last week to promote her latest, the “Italian Farmhouse Cookbook.”
She’s pleased with the book because the material is so accessible. “This food is so fast, simple and flavorful,” Loomis says. “It’s the kind of food that people want to eat.”
The French-trained Loomis initially found Italian fare unrefined, but she grew to love it. “It is a joyful assemblage of ingredients,” she says. “The best ingredients!”
She praises the bright taste of such dishes as tomatoes with herb sauce, lemon and pine-nut pasta and olive-studded swordfish. “And the beauty of it is,” she adds, “there’s no technique.”
To illustrate the difference between Italian and French, she cites grappa and cognac. Grappa is as esteemed in Italy as cognac is in France, Loomis says, “though cognac is dressed in rich golden robes, while grappa generally has on its used, work-worn clothes.”
Italian farmers are also more market oriented, she says. After they noticed a huge demand for organic goods in Germany and Austria, many went organic. “The fact that the soil is healthier is just ancillary,” Loomis says.
But single-mindedness has a downside. Raw-milk cheeses that were available in Italy a few years ago are no longer being made. “They have no nostalgia for old ways,” Loomis says.
Loomis, too, is on to new things. She plans to launch a cooking school this fall. And she has a new publisher and is coming out with a new book next year. With only 50 recipes, “On Rue Tatin,” will be less a cookbook and more a memoir.
“It is all about us,” says Loomis, whose family includes 9-year-old Joe and 17-month-old Fiona. “It’s hard because I’m a little reserved.”
The family has found contentment nestled in the community of Louviers. Loomis walks to the market every Saturday, she and her husband don’t need to worry about the kids’ safety and, when American friends visit France, the family can take a one-hour train trip into Paris to join them for dinner. They couldn’t ask for much more.
Says Loomis: “Living in France has allowed me to do what I really want to do.”