about


Hi.  I'm Samin Nosrat.  I cook.  I write.  I teach.  Bart Nagel took this photo of me.  

As an undergraduate studying English at UC Berkeley, I took a detour into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant that's happily determined the course of my life and career.  For the past fifteen years, I've pursued my twin passions of food and words with equal vigor, aiming to create work that inspires, creates community, and raises cultural, social and environmental awareness.  

I learned to cook at Chez Panisse, in Italy alongside Benedetta Vitali and Dario Cecchini, and at (the no longer existing) Eccolo in Berkeley.  I studied poetry with Bob Hass, Shakespeare with Stephen Booth, and journalism with Michael Pollan.  Alice Waters and farmer Bob Cannard have taught me more about land stewardship than anyone else.  

I'm currently writing Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: The Four Elements of Good Cooking, which will be illustrated by the inimitable Wendy MacNaughton and published by Simon & Schuster (US) and Canongate (UK) in 2016.  

I've been invited to speak about food, art, culture and cooking at venues as diverse as the Oakland Unified School District Nutrition Services, UC Berkeley, Yale University, SFMoMA, St. Mary's College, University of San Francisco, the Orange Institute, the Headlands Center for the Arts, the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), and Artechef, the Cuban national cooking school.

Affiliations:
2014 MacDowell Fellow and recipient of the 2014 DeWitt Wallace/Reader's Digest Fellowship at MacDowell
2013-2014 Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts
2011 Resident at Mesa Refuge
Member of Southern Foodways Alliance
Member of Les Dames d'Escoffier International
Advisor to Good Eggs

But mostly, I live to cook and eat with my friends, surf, sleep under the stars, & read and write and listen to good music.

You can send me a message at ciao {at} saminnosrat {dot} com.