Richard McCarthy

Richard McCarthy

Executive Director, Slow Food USA

https://www.slowfoodusa.org/
Richard McCarthy embodies the phrase “think globally; act locally.” He joined Slow Food USA as Executive Director in January 2013, having previously served as Executive Director of Market Umbrella, an internationally recognized non-profit mentor organization for farmers markets, community building and sustainable economic development. After Hurricane Katrina, Richard played a key role in restarting the local agricultural economy in the New Orleans area, aiming to help provide returning residents with a sense of normalcy and resilience through the revival of farmers markets. From 2005 – 2007, Richard served as a founding President for the Farmers Market Coalition, the national voice for farmers markets, which contributed to the development of the US Department of Agriculture Farmers Market Promotion Program, yielding32 million over seven years to farmers market innovation and professionalism. Richard was named a “Hero of the New South” in 2012 by Southern Living Magazine and a “Public Health Champion” in 2004 by the Tulane University School of Public Health. He earned his master’s degree at the London School of Economics and is a graduate of The American University of London. When he’s not dreaming up new projects, he enjoys playing squash, gardening and cooking vegetarian meals with his family at home.

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Richard's favorite cookbooks

Rose Elliot's New Complete Vegetarian

Rose Elliot's New Complete Vegetarian

Rose Elliot

Have had this book for ages. An English author, she helped to remove the intimidation of cooking, and especially of vegetarian cooking. Clearly, from the age that predates the vegan v. paleo age.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Deborah Madison

Now in its second edition, this is one of the more useful cookbooks to own (if you only have room for a few). It was given to me by a farmers market shopper many, many years ago. My copy is smudged with all sorts of cooking and baking excess.

The Angelica Home Kitchen

The Angelica Home Kitchen

The incredibly simple dips and pastes come in so handily for last-minute entertaining. The lentil dip makes anyone look like a genius in the kitchen.

César: Recipes from a Tapas Bar

César: Recipes from a Tapas Bar

Grabbed this book in a cookbook swap. Written by Chez Panisse alums whose tapas restaurant next door is the basis of this book, César is packed with simple Spanish bar food. When you’re inspiration is tapped out, thumbing through this book gets you going again.

Available on ckbk now
Mrs Beeton's All About Cookery

Mrs Beeton's All About Cookery

Isabella Beeton

Important English cooking icon of an earlier age provides ours with a glimpse into the kinds of homecraft skills useful in the kitchen. It’s a great read: Really, people lived like this!? And some very useful recipes.

The Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook

The Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook

This tastes of home and of 20 years of my life working with amazing fishers and farmers and chefs and home cooks. From Creole Cream Cheese to gumbo des herbes, it’s still a go-to-guide for how to best leverage the taste of place.

The Art of Simple Food

The Art of Simple Food

Alice Waters

This is my favorite of Alice’s books. It gets to the heart of what cooking should be: simple and clean. Even the very design of the book does that.

Eastern Vegetarian Cooking

Eastern Vegetarian Cooking

Madhur Jaffrey

As a student in London in the 1980s trying to decipher whether Chinese parsley and cilantro were the same things, Jaffrey’s book become my bible for Indian cooking. Still use it.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi

As a student in London in the 1980s trying to decipher whether Chinese parsley and cilantro were the same things, Jaffrey’s book become my bible for Indian cooking. Still use it.