Healthy fare, plus bit of gin and junk food

Jesse Ziff Cool is my kind of cookbook author: She travels with her own gin.

Cool, 59, was in town last week to promote her new book and visit her son, Jonah, a doctoral student at Duke University. Her new book is "Simply Organic: A Cookbook for Sustainable, Seasonal, and Local Ingredients."

Cool must be often compared to Alice Waters. Both women were early proponents of using the best seasonal organic produce available. As chefs, both were early champions of sustainable farmers. Both owned successful restaurants in Northern California -- Chez Panisse for Waters and Late for the Train restaurant and Flea St. Cafe for Cool.

But Cool is quick to tell you: "I am not Alice."

While I cannot imagine discussing junk food loves with Waters over a few cocktails, I could see doing that with Cool. Beyond the love of a good cocktail, Cool confessed a fondness for Dairy Queen and eating "really good cheese with jelly by the light of the refrigerator."

Cool is a proponent of what she describes as an 80-20 approach to life: 80 percent of the time, you make healthy, sustainable food choices; and 20 percent of the time, you can be a bit more indulgent. As Cool says, "I'd rather be with a well-balanced person than someone who eats organic carrots all the time."

To help with the 80 percent, her cookbook aims to "inspire people to cook in season." It's divided into eight chapters, including "First of Spring," "Autumn Harvest" and "Deep Winter." The recipe at left comes from "Indian Summer."

And so how does Cool achieve that 80-20 balance in her own life? Her gin is organic.

Recipes

Upside Down Pear Chocolate Cake