The book contains recipes from COA’s dining hall, which consistently ranks among the nation’s best college cafeterias. Desrochers has been Co-Director of Food Services at the college for eight years and shares that many of the recipes she has consistently made over the past years come from mostly handwritten notebooks that have been left to TAB staff by people who were at the college long before she came along.
“Early on in my life, I realized that the pleasure of making and sharing good food was as much fun as eating it,” Desrochers said. “The joy of going to the local farmer’s markets to buy provisions, or stepping out onto my deck to pick basil or tomatoes and then turning that into something delicious, is my idea of a perfect day. The mission of the college food service has always been to use fresh, organic, local, fair trade food whenever possible.”
Desrochers grew up in Southern Maine and has cooked professionally in Bar Harbor for more than 20 years, also as a private chef in Maine and California. This is her second cookbook.
“Lise’s approach to cooking is a model of human ecology at its finest: she mixes culinary history, COA’s institutional culture, international and global approaches to cooking with science, art, nutrition and, best of all, delicious flavors,” said Kate Macko, Executive Assistant & Advisor to the President at COA, but who also helped with certain stages of the cookbook’s evolution. “While cooking from it, you become aware of the careful attention Lise put into creating the meals, the recipes and this book. Her voice and her creative approach comes through in each recipe - whether sweet or savory, and she inspires us to stay curious in the kitchen.”
