Author Satisfies Taste Buds Through Home Grown Recipes

Candace Braun

By looking at Brian Yarvin, a tall, slender man of 49, one would not imagine that he loves food.

On the contrary, he can be found munching on a snack at any given moment of the day. In fact, he claims, half-seriously, that he has eaten 10 times just on his drive to the Town Topics office for an interview.

"There are not enough meals to eat all the food in," he said, expressing at his great love of all types of food, particularly those harvested in New Jersey. "There's always something new to explore, something new you have to try."

Mr. Yarvin is the author of Farms and Foods of the Garden State: A New Jersey Cookbook, which contains more than 100 recipes, and profiles farms found throughout the state.

A four-year resident of Edison, the author spent most of his life in different parts of New York City, where he worked as a professional food photographer before writing his first cookbook. But after moving to what he considers the "country," and after spending so many years in a place where food is more often bought at a take-out restaurant than cooked in the kitchen of a cramped apartment, he decided to try his hand at cooking.

While testing different combinations of foods to create new recipes for his family and neighbors, he began to wonder where the food he was purchasing was coming from. He started visiting and talking to owners of farmers' markets in New York City, and was surprised to learn that many of the markets were bringing food to the city from New Jersey.

It was this fact that inspired him to write his book.

"I was fascinated with the food scene here," he said, adding that he wrote the cookbook because he felt it "needed to be written."

The ethnic mix and large array of agriculture in New Jersey "doesn't exist to this degree anywhere else," he said.

Farms and Foods details recipes of Mr. Yarvin's own making, from potato pizza to chicken liver risotto. In his introduction, the author tells about the many crops grown in New Jersey that extend well beyond tomatoes and corn, to eggplants, peppers, potatoes, beets, zucchini, pumpkin, and cabbages, as well as fruits such as apples, peaches, pears, and strawberries.

Through his research, including visits to 30 farms at least once, and various farm markets at least twice, Mr. Yarvin found that farmer's markets can be discovered in many unusual parts of the state.

"New Jersey is a place where city and country come together and overlap to create a very unique set of products," he said. "What makes New Jersey special is that it's this very compressed environment where farmers, consumers, and middle men exist in close proximity to one another."

Among the farms mentioned in the cookbook are the Stony-Brook Millstone Watershed in Hopewell Township, and Terhune Orchards in Lawrence Township, which he visited four times.

"There are very few other places where you could lease land, buy some cows, and sell cheese at $25 per pound," he said, alluding to the fact that farmers in this state are often privileged enough to be in close proximity to affluent communities where they can sell their products and turn a profit. "Only in New Jersey do you have that."

Mr. Yarvin recalls that one of the farms he was most impressed with was Simply Grazin' Farm in Hopewell, an organic meat producer at the "epicenter of New Jersey's agricultural revolution."

While the farm's owners, Mark and Karen Faille, told him that raising livestock was the furthest thing from their minds when they purchased the property seven years ago, today they produce free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, and naturally raised pork.

The author said he found that many of the farms in the Mercer County area pride themselves on owning a community resource, in particular Simply Grazin', where the meats are used in restaurants such as Mediterra, although the owner's greatest aspiration is to have his food sold in school cafeterias.

"[Each farm] expresses it differently because they are different people, but they all have the same goal: to offer 'real food.'"

Unusual Pairings

At first glance some of the book's recipes, such as boiled buffalo tongue, may not appeal to the readers. However, Mr. Yarvin notes that it was once considered a great delicacy, and is still a popular dish at Jewish delis, as well as households in Italy and South America.

Fish and shellfish recipes can also be found in the book, including recipes for tilapia, trout, and oysters, from the traditional Manhattan-style oyster chowder, to the odd pairing of oyster pancakes, made from oysters, scallions, and buckwheat pancake batter.

"I'm not a great cook," said Mr. Yarvin, adding that what he can do well is measure and record precisely what he mixes together, which is what makes a good recipe writer.

He added that while his wife, Maria, is Italian, and was often a recipe taster for the cookbook, she wasn't much assistance in the kitchen.

"Italians grow up with the mistaken belief that they can cook just because they're Italian," he joked, adding that his wife was a "superb researcher" for the background information he needed to write Farms and Foods, including the book's ingredients glossary and shopping guide.

While the author's interest in cooking and creating recipes came about unexpectedly, Mr. Yarvin said he plans to continue with his newfound passion. He is currently working on a second book about the foods of Turin, Italy, Cucina Piemontese, to be published in time for the Winter Olympics.

Calling Turin "the most culinary site where the Olympics have been held," Mr. Yarvin said he was inspired to write the book because his wife is originally from that part of the country.

A third book is also in the works, on dumplings and the different cultures where the food can be found. Ironically, he is doing most of the research for the book in Central New Jersey, as ethnic restaurants with foods from around the world can be found here, he said.

"I wouldn't have to leave the state."

Since moving to New Jersey, Mr. Yarvin said he feels he has found a new territory to explore, where hungering taste buds will never go unsatisfied: "We have the greatest variety that anyone could ever imagine right here."

Mr. Yarvin is a professional photographer, as well as a food writer and instructor of food and commercial photography at the Washington School of Photography in Bethseda, Md. Farms and Foods of the Garden State: A New Jersey Cookbook can be purchased in area bookstores, or by visiting www.hippocrenebooks.com.

For more information on Mr. Yarvin, visit www.BrianYarvin.com.