FEATURED CHEF OF THE MONTH

We’ll come right out and say it…at first we were apprehensive about the potential cheesiness suggested by the title of Paula Disbrowe’s Texas cookbook, Cowgirl Cuisine: Rustic Recipes and Cowgirl Adventures From a Texas Ranch. In fact, there is nothing cutesy or gimmicky about Paula’s writing or her recipes. From the moment we “fact-checked” the deliciousness of her chocolate whiskey cake (we discovered her through a piece by her friend Beth Ann Fennelly in our 2009 BOTS issue), we knew she was the real deal, and so was her cooking.

Perhaps our favorite thing about this book is the way that Paula’s joie de vivre and approach to cooking and to life in general come through in the stories and the recipes. She’s genuinely adventurous, fun loving, and up for a challenge both in and out of the kitchen. It’s quite inspiring to read about how she and her husband, David—after a decade of living in New York, where he cooked at Manhattan’s famed Bouley Bakery and she wrote for such publications as Food & Wine and Saveur—wholeheartedly embraced the ranching life and learned to adjust their city habits and fancier cooking styles to fit their Texas surroundings. Paula is both a talented and creative cook and writer, but she also comes across as your (cooler, more laid-back) friend, equally game for a homemade margarita or a desert hike.

Paula doesn’t over-glamorize the lifestyle of running a working ranch—tending the garden in the Texas heat, nursing baby goats, finding scorpions in her boots, etc.—but it is both refreshing and impressive how she and David learned to embrace local ingredients and methods (cowboy coffee brewed over a fire pit, anyone?) into their cooking. In her introduction, she explains, “this is not a calorie-counting diet book, but it is healthful and nutritious because of the wholesome, simple ingredients.”

A few of the recipes in this book may be more accessible to Texans who can find a greater variety of Paula’s staple ingredients (peppers, tortillas, Mexican cheeses) at their local markets, but that doesn't mean that it’s irrelevant or even any less enjoyable for those outside the Lone Star State. For example, in “testing” recipes from the cookbook, we found that Paula’s green polenta could be made local (and all the more delicious) with Arkansas cornmeal and Swiss chard from the farmers’ market.

Despite having just given birth to her second child when we caught up with her, Paula answered all of our questions with her characteristic spunk and humor. Cowgirl up!

THE OXFORD AMERICAN: Okay, Paula, to begin with: What do you love most about cooking?

PAULA DISBROWE: I love the entire sensual process, from start to finish: selecting beautiful ingredients, preparing them (and the colors and aromas and the sizzling sounds that accompany that work), and of course the eventual eating and enjoying. When there’s great music in the kitchen and I’m sipping a glass of wine while I cook, I’m about as happy as I ever am.

THE OA: What do you hate about it?

PD: Nothing, not even the dishes! The only negative feelings I can come up with in relation to cooking is when I haven’t planned well and the natives are restless and I feel stressed. I have a lot of cooking anxiety dreams, mostly related to times in my life when I’ve cooked full time. Once I had a dream that [Michelin-starred chef] Jean-George Vongerichten was in line for a swanky cocktail party buffet that I had supposedly prepared and after I shook his hand I realized I hadn’t shopped for most of the ingredients yet….

THE OA: Since you and your hubby (who is a baker) met by way of food, can you recommend one enticing meal to serve to someone you are seriously wooing?

PD: I can still remember the first wooing meal that David prepared for me: crispy herbed polenta sticks and clams. When he invited me over for dinner, he left a cute message that sounded rehearsed that said, “I just happened to see some great clams at Citarella…” Yeah, right. In terms of a seduction dinner, for me there has to be bubbly, and it’s nice to have things to eat with your hands: oysters and cured meats and beautiful vegetables with aioli or vinaigrette. A perfect fruit tart would probably make anyone fall in love.

THE OA: What’s the most exotic item you’ve ever eaten or cooked with?

PD: I’ve cooked with Andrew Zimmern, the host of Bizarre Foods, before, and he’s as exotic as they come. When it comes to ingredients, nothing seems that exotic these days—tripe, cabrito, the tasting menu at El Bulli…

THE OA: Are cooks as kooky as other creative folk?

PD: Absolutely, and they drink just as much.

THE OA: What qualities do great cooks have?

PD: I think most cooks are sensualists who love the fragrant and tactile pleasures of cooking, but also the emotional gratification of feeding and pleasing others. Lots of Cancers (like me) are chefs or food folks, and Cancers are definitely sentimental, emotional people.

THE OA: What’s your advice to somebody who wants to be a good cook?

PD: Seek out a great cook and spend time in their kitchen.

THE OA: Why was coming to Texas and cooking at Hart and Hind Ranch a fortuitous event for you?

PD: Absolutely, the job was a life-changing event and a rich, amazing chapter. I got to play cowgirl on a ranch for four years, the experience led to my first cookbook and, I guess you could say, my marriage, my kids, and my current life in Texas. Not to mention a fondness for carne guisada and tequila.

THE OA: In what way were you able to take lessons, techniques, and/or flavors from your stints cooking in Italy and France and apply those to cooking on the ranch?

PD: One of my most valuable cooking lessons that I learned in France is that foods and wine that flourish together, from a certain region, naturally taste good together. An obvious example is the herbs and garlic and tomatoes and fish of Provence that go so well with Provençal wine. In Texas, I paid attention to the smells and flavors of the Hill Country, and that led to some really fun cooking and recipe development. The piney and rosemary smells of the canyons influenced my venison, for instance, and habaneros found their way into my carrot soup.

THE OA: What were the biggest challenges of writing a Texas-themed cookbook as a non-native?

PD: By the time I had a few notches in my belt (when my boots and saddle wore in, after I’d been stung by several scorpions, thrown from a horse, hoisted a newborn calf, and killed a huge monster of a snake in the chicken house), I felt comfortable writing a Texas-themed cookbook. There are so many passionate Texas cooks, and native Texans do take that authority very seriously. But I was very clear that I wasn’t attempting to write the definitive book on cowgirl cooking—I wrote a very personal book about my experience on a particular ranch. I was grateful that the Texas press embraced my cookbook—they were very kind to me. Still, I did get a few angry letters from rural gals saying, “Ha, that’s not cowgirl cooking, I’ll show you cowgirl cooking….”

THE OA: Are there any dishes you’ve come across of late that you now wish were part of your cookbook?

PD: The goat cheese slathered in spicy piloncillo sauce at The Liberty Bar in San Antonio.

THE OA: Your adventurous spirit comes through in the stories of ranch life sprinkled throughout Cowgirl Cuisine. Do you like to take risks and try new things in the kitchen as well? Can you think of a time when a spontaneous experiment was particularly successful (or particularly unsuccessful)?

PD: I’m actually a creature of habit in the kitchen and I really tend to gravitate towards simple, gratifying foods made from beautiful ingredients.

THE OA: How has being a mother changed your cooking?

PD: When a toddler is hanging onto your leg, you tend to spend a lot less time in front of the stove. Even though I’ve always loved fast and fresh, that approach is more essential than ever. I’m trying to make meals that my husband and I can enjoy with our toddler, so these days I use fewer chile peppers, and focus more than ever on healthful ingredients low on the food chain. My husband and I actually enjoy the excuse to eat some of the simpler dishes that Flannery, our daughter, loves. A “kid-friendly” meal that pleases all of us, for instance, is penne with peas, Greek yogurt, and salmon.

THE OA: Over the course of your career, you’ve had the chance to pursue several diverse-but-related passions. If you weren’t a cookbook author/chef/rancher/agritourism promoter, what else might you be doing?

PD: Since I’m too old to be a barrel racer, I'd love to be a version of Tift Merritt or Lucinda Williams, singing about heartache and the desert and boudin sausage. Or I’d be a novelist holed up on a coast somewhere, swimming in the cold sea and making my kids pasta with mussels and clams and squid and so forth.

THE OA: In Cowgirl Cuisine, you provide recommendations for some of your favorite Texas music. What albums, new or old, do you have on heavy rotation this summer?

PD: Anything and everything by Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, The McKay Brothers, Django Reinhart, Tift Merritt’s Another Country, the new Calexico, Iron and Wine, and my standards: Andres Segovia (morning) and Bill Evans (evening).

THE OA: What is your favorite taste of summer?

PD: Cold bing cherries, perfect corn (I’m an Iowa native, after all), tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches with basil, blueberry pie, and fragrant peaches.

THE OA: By the way, what restaurants in the South (including Texas) do you always get excited about visiting?

PD: So many! The Liberty Bar and Mi Tierra in San Antonio; Cochon, Herbsaint, and Bayona in New Orleans (full disclosure, I wrote cookbooks with all of those chefs); Hawk's for crawfish in Rayne, Louisiana; and Peg Leg Pete’s in Pensacola Beach, Florida, for grouper nuggets and cold beer. I’m way overdue to go to City Grocery and Big Bad Breakfast with my pal Beth Ann Fennelly in Oxford.

THE OA: Let’s talk about your current project, Feather Down Farms.

PD: Feather Down Farm Days is an exciting agritourism concept that began in Holland in 2004. Since then it has expanded, with great success, to the UK and France, and now my husband and I are the team developing the US outpost. One of the most memorable chapters of my culinary education was cooking on an agriturismo, or farmhouse bed and breakfast, in Tuscany, so the concept is very near and dear to my heart. A stay on a Feather Down farm amounts to fancy camping on some of America’s most beautiful family farms (small, family-owned farms). The job is actually a perfect confluence of my career in the food biz and David’s interest in agriculture (and artisan foods) and his work with farmers at Whole Foods (he previously worked with the meat quality standards team there). A big attraction is how Feather Down provides a supplemental income for farmers, and they really need it these days. The tents are amazing, with wood floors, wood-burning stoves, a central wood-burning bread oven, etc. Oh, and flush toilets in each tent, so you’re not exactly roughing it! Guests can collect eggs for breakfast each morning, kids can pet the animals in the paddock and play in the water and have all sorts of fun decompressing from their ordinarily frenetic lives. The project is about two things: relaxing in a different way and eating differently, too. Feather Down farm stays are the exact opposite of the corporate holiday packages that encourage you to race around (and spend) as much or more than you do in your ordinary life. There is no electricity in the FD tents, no iPods or laptops, the table is lit by candlelight and oil lanterns, so the pace of life slows way down and you actually interact with your family (for better or worse!).

The project also sprang out of the question, how do we Americans need to eat differently? We need to reconnect with our food sources, support local growers, and make sure our kids understand that eggs come from chickens, not the supermarket.

THE OA: In its inaugural season in the US, Feather Down Farms has three locations: two farms in Upstate New York and one in Illinois. What are your plans to add more farms in other regions of the US? To what extent have farms in the South embraced this idea?

PD: By next spring, we plan to have fifteen to twenty farms, including several on the West Coast in Oregon, California, and Washington. We’ll expand more in the Northeast and Midwest as well. Right now, we are not seeking farms in the South because the concept works better in cooler weather (the wood-burning stove and campfire are much more appealing when there is a nip in the air). But once we’re established, I would absolutely push for a winter season that would include the Texas Hill Country and various areas in the South because I love the people and the diverse regions, and because that’s home these days!

THE OA: You once worked as a chef in Italy, the birthplace of the Slow Food Movement. What can Americans learn from that Movement?

PD: It’s so basic but so true: Life is so much better and people are so much happier when they slow down and enjoy a great meal with people they care about.

THE OA: You seem to be always wearing cowboy boots—what is the message of cowboy boots on a female?

PD: When I lived in New York, I used to wear my darkest red lipstick when I needed to feel extra confident. These days, I wear my cowboy boots. I truly feel that there are few things I can’t handle when I’m walking tall in my well-worn Luchese boots.

The OA Ten: Questions we ask of every interviewee. Weeeeee!

1. What superstitions do you have?

PD: I never, ever answer my phone, but that’s more about my closet agoraphobia. In terms of superstitions, I never toast with a glass full of water, as I’ve completely embraced the notion that it’s bad luck to do so. Of course, this is a good excuse to always have wine in my glass. Once, a fortune-teller told me to always wear lipstick, so I try to stick with that little nugget, too.

2. What would you like to change about yourself?

I would like to go to Whole Foods or Central Market just once and not spend $100 or more. Is this too much to ask?

3. What are you still trying to accomplish in your professional career?

Over the last few years, I’ve used my background in food to write about other things that really interest me—people and music and kids and kid goats and cowboys and so forth. I’d like to fully embrace this evolutionary process and have the guts to write about all sorts of things that don’t require a recipe to be attached.

4. What is your hidden talent?

I have a jaw-dropping hook shot, and I am a master at the forgotten art of the prank phone call. Although caller ID really cramped my style in that regard.

5. What subject causes you to rant?

Industrialized agriculture, parking lot rage, people yapping (and knocking over their booze cups) at indoor concerts or movie theaters, suburban sprawl, bad food in a pretentious setting.

6. What is the biggest mistake you ever made in your professional life?

Lord, my professional life has been riddled with mistakes and kitchen disasters and typos to boot. And you know what: I’ve learned from all of them. I frequently have gotten myself in over my head (e.g. cooking at a château in France or a ranch in the Hill Country), but I’m a better cook and I’ve had a richer life because of that chutzpah.

7. What is one thing that you used to dislike but that you now like?

It's a tie: soft sliced sandwich bread (our kids have given us an excuse to love it again) and undereye concealer (Lordy Lordy look who’s...). Also, the smell of marigolds.

8. What profoundly underrated book, album, or movie would you like to champion for us?

The world would be a better place if everyone owned a copy of Caught in the Act by Francis Faye. She’s a 1950s lesbian cabaret singer with the most brilliant onstage banter ever. I’d also like to raise my Bic lighter high for Taking Care by the brilliant Joy Williams, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, and Plainsong by Kent Haruf. Are they underrated, or am I just sheltered? My favorite film is Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, but I think everyone knows how wonderful that is.

9. What is your favorite line from a song?

Of course, I’ve been waiting my entire adult life to be asked this question.

I’ll go with what first came to mind:

“The mill got out at a quarter to five/And you could have supper with any family you like” —Tift Merritt,“Laid a Highway”

“He wore his gun outside his pants/For all the honest world to feel.”  —Townes van Zandt, “Pancho and Lefty”

(Then again, who can resist “He even wrote a country song with Julio Iglesias, and that’s not easy to do...”  —Bruce Robison, “What Would Willie Do?”)

10. What was your favorite childhood toy?

I guess my basketball or softball glove, although my brother and I spent hours and hours playing Monopoly and Battleship.

Raise a highball glass for Paula’s Chocolate Whiskey Cake. You’ll want a double shot.

Chocolate Whiskey Cake

(makes a 10-inch cake)

Like spurs, a caliche-dusted pickup, and pearl-snap shirts, whiskey became a way of life when we moved to Texas. It was only a matter of time before it found its way onto the dessert menu. A dark, dense, and super rich chocolate cake was the best choice. The flavor of this cake deepens if it’s made at least one day ahead. Because I’m a gingerbread freak, I’ve added the faintest whiff of ground black pepper and cloves. The chocolate chips dissolve when they’re baked, making the texture fudgier and the flavor deeper and more intense.

Need I suggest serving this with a shot of whiskey (preferably a single-barrel bourbon like Knob Creek) or a cup of coffee-spiked whiskey?


12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) UNSALTED BUTTER, cut into 1-inch pieces, plus more to grease the pan
¾ cup plus 3 tablespoons unsweetened (not Dutch process) COCOA POWDER
1 ½ cups STRONG BREWED COFFEE
½ cup WHISKEY
1 cup GRANULATED SUGAR
1 cup DARK BROWN SUGAR
2 cups ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR
1 ½ teaspoons BAKING SODA
¾ teaspoon SALT
¼ teaspoon freshly ground BLACK PEPPER
1/8 teaspoon GROUND CLOVES
3 large EGGS
2 teaspoons pure VANILLA EXTRACT
1 cup MINI CHOCOLATE CHIPS


1. Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325ºF. Butter a 10-inch springform pan and then dust with 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, tapping out the excess.

2. Heat the coffee, whiskey, butter, and remaining ¾ cup of cocoa powder in a heavy medium saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted, whisking occasionally. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat, transfer the mixture to a large bowl, and cool.

3. While the chocolate cools, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, black pepper, and cloves in a large bowl. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Beginning with a slow drizzle, whisk the eggs into the cooled chocolate mixture until combined. Add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth (but don’t overmix), then stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean, about 50 minutes to 1 hour.

4. Cool the cake in a pan on a rack (if you’re going to leave the cake in the pan overnight, cover it with a dish towel so it doesn’t dry out). Using the tip of a knife, loosen the cake from the pan and remove the outer ring. Wrap the cake in plastic so it doesn’t dry out. After 1 day, store it in the fridge, where it will last up to 1 week.