Six California Kitchens

Six California Kitchens is the quintessential California cookbook, with farm-to-table recipes and stories from Sally Schmitt, the pioneering female chef and original founder of the French Laundry.

Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in Yountville in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredients-a novel concept at the time.

In this soon-to-be-classic cookbook, Sally Schmitt takes us through the six kitchens where she learned to cook, honed her skills, and spent her working life. Six California Kitchens weaves her remarkable story with 115 recipes that distill the ethos of Northern California cooking into simple, delicious dishes, plus evocative imagery, historic ephemera, and cooking wisdom.

With gorgeous food and sense-of-place photography, this is a masterful, story-rich cookbook for home and aspiring chefs who cook locally and seasonally, food historians, fans of wine country, and anyone who wants to bring the spirit of Northern California home with them.

CALIFORNIA CONNECTION: This is a California cookbook from a native Californian chef, who founded one of the most well-known and revered restaurants in California (and in the world). The book was written, photographed, and designed by members of Sally's family.

PERSON OF NOTE: Sally Schmitt was the great unsung hero of California cuisine, a pioneer of the farm-to-table movement, and original founder of the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley. This book celebrates a respected, reputable chef and shares a collection of her best recipes from a lifetime of cooking.