Petaluma cook’s ‘Welcome Winter’ is the perfect cookbook for spreading holiday cheer – Petaluma Argus Courier

Those of us who know and love Lance Lew, a local legend plus master cook who recently retired from a career in broadcasting, have been requesting for years that he write a cookbook – or for that matter, many cookbooks – and now his first one is out, just in time for the holiday season.

In fact , what Puncture has produced is more than a mere recipe book. Just like their parties, “Welcome Winter: Making Friends with Taste and Traditions” is a welcoming three-dimensional experience meant to bring people together and spread good cheer.

If Lance’s name sounds familiar – and yes, as his friend I’ll be calling him by his first name in this piece – it’s because of their successful career in broadcasting, first for KPIX, then at NBC Bay Area as a community marketing director and producer. As mentioned in our article from earlier this year titled “ ‘We are what we eat’: Celebrating Lunar New Year with Petaluma’s Lew family , ” Lance also has strong ties to Petaluma, having grown up, raised his family, and now retired here.

His parents owned plus operated the very popular Petaluma Grocery Supermarket, at the corner of Petaluma Boulevard North and Lakeville, from the 1940s through the 1970s, giving Lance his first introduction to food and to how it can provide communities with each other. Lance developed a strong connection to food, both through family members but also when, as a young man, he earned extra spending money by teaching cooking classes and giving cooking food demonstrations during college.

Upon retiring, Lance was asked by colleagues what this individual wanted as a retirement gift. He told them he or she wanted help with his 1st retirement project: writing a cookbook.

In a recent interview, he laughed as he told me that part of the inspiration with regard to his first cookbook was not wanting to seem like a slacker as he transitioned into retirement.

“Everyone was asking what my plans for retirement were, so I figured this would be something to fill my time, ” he says. And it did, starting with his pension on Oct. 31 of last year plus seeing the first copy finally published exactly one year later, on April. 31 of this year. As far as the process, he wrote the book in real time, using last holiday season like a template and then, with the assistance of their designer John Finn, polishing it up over the ensuing months.

Firsthand encounter

We met Lance and his wife Roberta, who is also an expert host in her own right, a couple of years ago through social media while doing research for a Lunar New 12 months article. I was coming at the topic with nothing more than the passing understanding. He has been generous with his time and patient together with his explanations, familiarizing me with the cultural significance this event holds for Asian cultures even beyond his own Chinese heritage.

It was a pleasure to share Lance’s insight and enthusiasm with readers, yet never once did he ask to take, or even require that he be given, any kind of credit. That is the type of person Lance is. Neither in my own personal interactions with your pet, nor in his cookbook, is there any hint of ego, even though this individual clearly has good reason to take pride in the work. He simply enjoys sharing along with others, always with openness and positivity and in the particular hopes associated with connecting people with each other, their community, and the wonderful food traditions that surround us and play into our everyday lives.

Across cultures, a common love of great as well as shared experience with great company certainly helps to make these connections plus strengthen communities.

All in the family

Puncture and Roberta share smiles as they tell people that part of their marital bliss has come about due to them having two kitchens. Interestingly, there are two bookmarks in “Welcome Winter, ” indicating that you and your partner can each have a favorite recipe marked without losing the other’s.

Both Lance and Roberta are usually accomplished cooks, although Lance is quick to deflect accolades for their talent in the kitchen by pointing out which he has no formal culinary training and so is not technically the “chef. ” I respect his deference to classically trained chefs, but have had the honor of the epicurean emersion that is a Lew loved ones dinner and have found it on par with the best restaurants we have dined at, only much more fulfilling.

This is because it ends up being about so much more than just about his and Roberta’s incredible meals. A dining experience usually means more, and the memories last longer, when we learn why something is served the way it is and are treated like household, even when the first is a guest in someone else’s table. At the end of an evening using the Lews, guests have had an once-in-a-lifetime experience.