Harbor Light News

Author, artist’s latest cookbook inspired by going ‘on the road’ in California

Harbor Springs Festival of the Book



Cookbook author and artist Erin Gleeson will present at this year’s Harbor Springs Festival of the Book set for Sept. 23-25. (Courtesy photo)

Cookbook author and artist Erin Gleeson will present at this year’s Harbor Springs Festival of the Book set for Sept. 23-25. (Courtesy photo)

In anticipation of this year’s Harbor Springs Festival of the Book, author interviews with some of the presenters will be appearing here over the next couple of months leading up to the event September 23-25 in Harbor Springs.

Erin Gleeson is an artist and New York Times bestselling author of The Forest Feast series of cookbooks.

After working in New York as a food photographer, she left the city for a cabin in the woods of California. Inspired by local California produce, she has now created five vegetarian cookbooks and a line of products that showcase her unique blend of photography overlaid with watercolor illustrations and hand lettering.

I was first introduced to Erin’s art and recipes back in 2014 when a good friend hosted a fabulously memorable dinner party using recipes from the first in the series, The Forest Feast. A couple years later, that same friend’s daughter, then just 10 years old, hosted us all with dishes from the second book, The Forest Feast for Kids. These have become some of my favorite food memories, thanks to good friends and Erin’s books.

“I want people to feel inspired to actually make something themselves and share it. I get messages all the time from people who are hosting their own Forest Feasts, making dishes from the books and inviting people over to enjoy it all. Nothing makes me happier!”

“I want people to feel inspired to actually make something themselves and share it. I get messages all the time from people who are hosting their own Forest Feasts, making dishes from the books and inviting people over to enjoy it all. Nothing makes me happier!”

The Forest Feast Road Trip is the fifth book and the most recent (published in March 2022). This book was inspired by a family road trip throughout California. Each chapter focuses on a different region of the state and includes 100 vegetarian recipes. As with her other books, the illustrations and unique layout make the recipes feel accessible and easy to follow.

It’s probably my turn to host an Erin Gleeson inspired dinner. But I’m still holding out for an invite from the good friends who introduced me to some of my favorite Forest Feast meals all those years ago.

It was a pleasure to get to ask the artist and author herself more about her recent book and her favorite meals.

EMILY MEIER: Your first book was inspired by the move out to California and the local farms and fare. How has place continued to inspire your recipes and art?

ERIN GLEESON: My new book takes that idea on the road, visiting a wide range of farms, ranches, wineries and other producers all over the state. California’s agricultural and geographic diversity really informed this book and allowed me to feature everything from the cheese produced in the coastal north to the dates grown in the southern desert. The colors in each region also offered inspiration. The lavender fields and sunset-colored rocks of the Eastern Sierras inspired my watercolor palette for illustrations in the book as well as ingredients in dishes I created after visiting that area.

EM: Beyond place, how do the ideas for new cookbooks for the series come to you?

EG: It has felt like a natural progression of our life, really! My first book, which came out in 2014 The Forest Feast, was very much inspired by moving from New York to a cabin in the woods. Jon and I had just gotten married and it was the beginning of a new chapter for us in California. After the book came out, we kept hearing that families were enjoying cooking from it with their children. My publisher approached me about adapting it for kids, which we did in 2016 The Forest Feast for Kids. My husband Jon and I have always loved hosting so a natural next step for me was an entertaining book. In The Forest Feast Gatherings I share vegetarian menus for all types of occasions one might host and include many of the dishes we make for our own parties, along with hosting tips we’ve learned along the way. For me, hosting and cooking for others are very much about building relationships and creating community through food, and this book is an extension of that idea. By this time, we had two kids and, while Jon had a sabbatical from work for a few months, we knew we wanted to do an extended trip abroad. I pitched a Mediterranean-inspired travel cookbook. It chronicles our three-month journey through Italy, Spain, Portugal and France and the vegetarian recipes I came up with along the way. With a new third baby in tow, traveling by car closer to home seemed like a good idea, so we pitched the idea of a culinary road trip around California for this, my fifth book.

EM: Do you have a favorite food memory?

EG: I grew up on an apple orchard in Northern California so anything baked with apples reminds me of that time.

EM: Do you have a current favorite recipe? Or one you come back to often?

EG: I’m constantly making some version of a Caprese, adding whatever is in season to the usual mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. This new Road Trip book has a Strawberry Caprese. Recently, I’ve been making some version of a Caprese with stone fruit and cucumbers that are coming out of my local farmers market. My first book has a Butternut Caprese, which I love in the fall.

EM: What are some of your choices for comfort food?

EG: Bread and cheese!

EM: Do your children have a favorite or favorites from this book? What are some of your family’s go-to recipes when you just need something healthy, fast, and easy?

EG: The kids love the Blender Muffins in the book. We make them constantly at home. They are so simple, you blend all the ingredients then pour into muffin tins. I usually make them with spinach and the kids love them.

EM: What meal is your favorite of the day? Breakfast, lunch, dinner? If you could host a lunch or dinner for friends, which would you prefer and why?

EG: Dinner is my favorite to eat because I have more time to put into it and enjoy sitting down with the family.

But my favorite to host is actually a cocktail party with appetizers and drinks. It’s less pressure than a full-on, sit-down meal and feels more casual. Which means you’re more apt to actually invite people over and do it. For anyone who’s anxious about hosting, it’s more doable. Guests can sit or stand and mingle with several different people. Small bites are my favorite foods. Additionally, the timing (usually 4-6pm or so) works great with our family’s schedule (and our friends’ schedules) of needing to put little kids to bed by a certain time.

EM: The Forest Feast Road Trip, is your fifth book in this series. What has writing this book taught you? What are some of the big lessons you’ve learned in creating this series?

EG: As an author I’ve learned it’s important to share what feels most authentic and inspiring to me and that other people will respond best to that. My format of recipe sharing is unconventional but it’s what makes sense to me and people have told me it makes recipes feel simple enough that they’ll actually make them. I’ve learned that people want to feel inspired and that art and color help. I’ve learned that people need opportunities for creativity and that cooking can fill that void.

EM: From the photographs, to the watercolor illustrations, to the recipes you do it all. Do you find one part more challenging than the others? How do you approach the creation of a new book? Does the photography of the place come first, then the recipes, then back to the photography, and then the art? Or is it a more symbiotic relationship?

EG: For this book, we first took the trip and I photographed everything along the way. I also took notes for recipe ideas. This was a combination of things we picked or saw growing along the way and dishes we ate in restaurants or people’s homes. For example, we picked strawberries on a farm in Pescadero and I came home and made that Strawberry Caprese. A drive through miles of walnut groves in Central California inspired the Walnut Enchiladas.

EM: What do you want readers to know or take away after discovering one of your books?

EG: I want people to feel inspired to actually make something themselves and share it. I get messages all the time from people who are hosting their own Forest Feasts, making dishes from the books and inviting people over to enjoy it all. Nothing makes me happier!

To learn more about this year’s festival and register for the ticketed event with Erin Gleeson visit: www.hsfotb.org And to learn more about the author visit: www.theforestfeast.com