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Danbury Times 97
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Cookbook brings full bushel and Peck of pride. Being published is perfect garnish for chef's career
By Marjorie Owens
Carole Peck was on her way back from Madison, where she booked a 10th wedding anniversary party her company would cater Later, she would be off to her restaurant,
Good News Cafe in Woodbury, to check on things. But this sunny afternoon would be devoted to talking about her first cookbook, "The Buffet Book" {Viking, $2995), at her house in Woodbury.
Her husband, painter Bernard Jarrier, said she was expected any minute and offered a tour of the converted 1740 cider mill in the meantime. A courteous man with a pronounced French accent, Jarrier pointed out several of his paintings along with favorite pieces of the couple's folk art collection as he led the way through the rooms.
The centerpiece of the country kitchen with its rose- painted brick walls and hanging copper pots is not the usual restaurant range found in a chef's kitchen. Instead, a 1930 enamel Chambers stove holds the space of honor. Jarrier demonstrated the efficient six-jet gas burners in front.
He explained that they found the antique in Rhode Island, and Peck loves cooking on it. Their collection of miniature stoves -they once served as salesmen's samples -is arranged on and around it.
Colorful antique fabrics cover several walls in the house, adding warmth to the rooms. The early-American ambience is enhanced with furnishings of the period, wide-board floors and Oriental carpets. In just three years, the couple have turned the vintage hillside building into a comfortable and distinctive home.
Peck arrived with warm greetings, took a seat at the long dining room table, and in her usual low-key, friendly manner began discussing her latest accomplishment. Cleo, an elderly St. Bernard, settled down near her chair and heaved a sigh of contentment
"I think the publisher did a really nice job," Peck, 43, said. "Sometimes, being a perfectionist, it's hard to let go.
"This is a book with a lot of general information and I've learned a lot I feel fortunate that in my career I could have something like this. It's a nice feeling. I feel really blessed to have it happen.
"To be able to juggle four balls in the air- not everyone is able or wants to. It feels pretty darn good. I feel like I've accomplished a lot"
Peck said she wrote the book with a specific subject in mind: casual, make-ahead buffets with an emphasis on taste, variety and natural ingredients. In her introduction she gives extensive tips on buffet entertaining she has gleaned from years of catering and giving parties herself.
There are more than 175 recipes, with menus for 10 to 50 guests. The buffets are for seasonal occasions, from a garden party to a wedding, from harvest to the holidays.
"All the buffets in the book were done in Litchfield County," Peck said. "Some were actual parties. All the food is real, not a mockup. I would make the full buffet for the pictures, and I did all the styling myself. They are all my ideas of how buffets look and should look.
"It was a project, but it was fun. From start to finish. It took three years exactly. You always think you have more time than you do. There was a little cramming at the end.
"The hardest thing was finishing it," she said, laughing. "Also, my co-writer lived in California, so there was a lot or long distancing. But Carolyn Bryant was an editor before and she was good for me be- cause she was able to put the book in sequence. She really knew how to put a book together. And she's a home cook, so she knew what kinds of questions to ask."
Peck is already thinking about an- other cookbook.
"It sometimes amazes me that my love of and excitement about food have not dissipated. I have never gotten sick of food. After I finished the book, we went to France and" Spain for three weeks. I loved the food in both countries and had great experiences in both. We had a headcheese of wild boar I can still taste, it was so incredible."
Peck thinks food skills are in her blood. Her brother, who lives in Florida, cooks church suppers for as many as 200. Her aged great aunt in Ukraine is still cooking for wed- dings.
"Does it run in the family or what?" she asked, laughing again.
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