Even
as a child Mark Miller was strongly
attracted to foods with bold flavors,
a wide variety of textures, and a
whole world of origins.
By 1974 he was writing a newsletter, called "The Market Basket", featuring
articles about foods such as vinegar and tofu--subjects
which at the time were not well known or
understood by Americans.
Then Miller started working at Chez Pannise
restaurant, where the menu changed daily.
Faced with preparing over five hundred different
dishes in a year he learned to trust
his own perceptions to achieve success.
Growing up in Maryland, he recalls
a wealth of experiences with food.
Summers on his uncle's oyster farm
in Chesapeake Bay, watching his mother
cook--and making suggestions. His parents'
cosmopolitan social life took him to dinners at homes
still steeped in ethnic traditions.
Whether Russian, Mexican, or French,
these meals weren't toying with world
cuisines, they were authentic home cooking.
Miller thought he found his life calling
when he saw an exhibit of Arnhem Land bark painting.
Despite his family's almost weekly
trips to the Peabody Museum, he found he
was more interested in "primitive art" than
in European Classicism. The art of traditional societies drew
him in with its energy and spiritual expressiveness.
He studied cultural anthropology at the
University of California at Berkeley.
While a student there,
he faced the ugly prospect of life away from home
and a diet of hamburgers and french fries.
He started to learn cooking.
But he
also found he enjoyed the life style of fine
restaurants, and found that there was plenty of
opportunity to be involved in teaching,
if not with books, then with the palates of his clients.
