Page 6 - Caroline Wright Cookbook

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Foreword

Foreword by Aran Goyoaga

Creator of Canelle Et Vanille and Three-time James Beard Finalist

When a cookbook author asks me to write a blurb nearly-stranger feeding me such delicious and
or review for their book, I request an early copy nourishing food? It truly felt like a gift.
or galley. When Caroline asked me to write a fore-
word for her book, no galley was needed — for Caroline and I first met at Seattle’s cookbook
six months, she brought me soup every Sunday. store, Book Larder, when she was a new author
“Soup is out!” read her text message each time. in town. Our mutual friend told me that Caroline
I never found anyone at the door, but instead had gone through brain surgery and cancer treat-
was greeted by a quart container of new soup ments and that she had healed herself through
each week. (It was the disorienting time of the food and a radical change of lifestyle. She got my
Covid-19 pandemic when we were still cocooned attention right there. I have never had cancer, but
in our homes, and I somehow lost the ability to food also healed me.
be a social human being. A soup greeting suited
me just perfectly.) I have a history of disordered eating, depression,
and anxiety. In 2010, after years of dealing with
I loved getting to know Caroline through her autoimmune thyroid disease, vertigo, hearing
food. We only communicated through text, but loss, blood blisters, and many other unpleasant
the recipes and stories that accompanied them symptoms, I was diagnosed with gluten intoler-
said a lot about her journey, about what she was ance. How can a protein that exists in one of the
interested in, how she was shopping, and even most-consumed grains cause such havoc in my
the books she was reading. The soups kept me body? It didn’t matter. The diagnosis was such a
nourished during the week when I was home blessing at a time when life felt painful and scary.
alone working on my own bread cookbook. Kerali As soon as I gave up gluten, all my symptoms
cauliflower stew, Moroccan squash stew, Polish disappeared. It instantly clicked. I learned then
cabbage roll soup, or Catalan escudella verde — what Caroline learned too: what we eat and how
it felt as though Caroline was transporting me we eat it is the fuel for our existence and the
to faraway places. Soup time became a sacred emotional attachments we have to certain foods
space to tune away from my hyper-focused mind are indeed breakable.
and work anxiety. I carefully scooped a ladle
of the soup of the week into one of my favorite You see, dear reader, I am a fourth generation
handmade ceramic bowls and felt tremendous baker, born and raised in Spain’s Basque Country.
gratitude for her cooking. How in the world is this Gluten was my livelihood, but for years it had also

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