Cooking career began with ‘nice Jewish college boyfriend’

Given her background as a cooking instructor, certified holistic health counselor and UCLA Anderson School of Management alum, Pamela Salzman takes the concept and practice of home economics to a new level of organization. 

“I always have a schedule of my meals,” Salzman said one afternoon over tea at the Brentwood Country Mart, after she had just wrapped up leading one of her private cooking classes. “I wouldn’t be able to focus on our conversation if I didn’t know what I was making for dinner tonight,” she joked. 

Salzman’s career teaching nutrition and cooking was “a total fluke,” she said, and yet all of her experiences, personal and professional, seemed to prepare her for this particular vocation. 

A Long Island native Italian-American whose father was born in Italy, she grew up eating and preparing food she describes as “simple, straightforward and always homemade.” Her family grew much of its own produce and spent days in the summer months canning tomatoes to last through winter. 

She “followed her nice Jewish college boyfriend” from the University of Pennsylvania, where they met, to his hometown of Los Angeles, where he went to graduate school at USC. After settling here and establishing a career in corporate public relations, Salzman, now 45, went on to earn an MBA at Anderson and worked in film entertainment marketing.  

As for family, when it came time to integrate herself into her Jewish in-laws’ holiday celebrations, she took cooking matters into her own hands and pitched in. “I didn’t have the real Jewish mentor,” Salzman said. So she found a copy of “The Jewish Holiday Cookbook: An International Collection of Recipes and Customs” by Gloria Kaufer Greene, read it cover to cover, and cooked her way through it, somewhat in the style of the “Julie & Julia Project.”  

Salzman quickly found she loved cooking and updating traditional Jewish foods. She took over cooking for and hosting many of the major Jewish holidays, and now she typically hosts two meals for Rosh Hashanah (one dinner, one lunch), and both nights of Passover seders, serving different menus for each.

It took Salzman a little longer to merge her work life with her kitchen prowess. “I never wanted to be a chef,” she said. But whenever she participated in group cooking activities and classes, “I was always telling people what I would do,” instead of what the instructions suggested. 

Salzman was also keenly aware of the fact that “there are a lot of great chefs, but they can’t teach in an accessible way.” Given her experiences feeding her family in a particular way, she was invited to teach a cooking class for a group of new moms, and inspiration struck. 

Almost seven years ago, Salzman set out to combine her entrepreneurial leanings, organizational skills, cooking know-how and desire to promote healthy eating into a business that’s flexible and conducive to family life. She quickly built a reputation around food that’s nutritious, organic, practical and delicious. She also built an online presence for herself, regularly posting original recipes, tips and videos on her website, pamelasalzman.com. 

Like any good teacher, Salzman is tuned in to her students’ needs for seasonal ideas. November classes focus on Thanksgiving menus, while December means sweets and hors d’oeuvres that people want to serve at holiday parties. She likes to teach breakfast recipes in June. But she’ll modify agendas based on client requests, too. Regardless of the theme, Salzman’s mission to crusade against the Standard American Diet and promote alternatives to processed foods remains at the heart of her work. 

She leads approximately 16 sessions per month in private homes, including her own kitchen, and each class lasts three hours or so, enough time to prepare a full menu and serve lunch. Salzman prefers to work demonstration style, meaning not every student has an individual setup to get his or her hands dirty. Instead, with the help of an assistant, she simply cooks the recipes while the participants watch and ask questions. (Occasionally, however, some techniques are better taught hands-on, such as wrapping Vietnamese-inspired stuffed summer rolls.)

In 2006, the Salzmans moved from Beverly Hills to Manhattan Beach, where her family attends Congregation Tikvat Jacob Beth Torah. Her husband, Daniel, is a principal of South Bay Green Design, a design-build firm. Together they designed their large kitchen to suit their family’s needs — they have three children between the ages of 11 and 18 — as well as to serve as Pamela’s classroom. 

Salzman fans often become regulars at her classes. “I’ve never met anyone with so much knowledge,” said longtime client Nicole Hirschberg. Plus Salzman’s experience cooking at home for her family is a bonus. “Pamela is inspiring to all moms in the kitchen trying to feed all different tastes and palates. She teaches you how to improvise and make it work for your family and always gives you different options,” Hirschberg said.

The one downside of her career? Often friends are too intimidated to invite her over for a meal, which is a professional hazard for many food pros. “I’m still a home cook,” she   said with a shrug.

“It’s been so organic how it’s grown,” she said of her work. Salzman especially likes to use ingredients that people might have read about or eaten in restaurants but don’t know how to cook. She recalled how kale and quinoa were mystifying foods just a few years ago. Now that they’re bona fide mainstream, Salzman said she’s eager to see which items to tackle next. 

WILD HALIBUT IN PARCHMENT WITH GREEN HERBS

• 1 to 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (extra pinch if you like salt)
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Spinach or other quick-cooking vegetables (optional; see note below)
• 6 (4- to 6-ounce) pieces halibut (or salmon or mahi-mahi) defrosted, if frozen
• 6 (12-inch) squares unbleached parchment

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Place the garlic, herbs, salt and pepper in the bowl of a mini food processor and process until the herbs are finely chopped. Add the olive oil and process until well combined. Add lemon zest and pulse once or twice.

If using, place handful of spinach or other vegetables in the center of one sheet of parchment. Arrange one piece of fish atop vegetables. Spread heaping spoonful of herb mixture atop fish.

Bring 2 opposite sides of the parchment together and fold. Continue to fold all the way down until you reach the fish. Twist both ends of the parchment so it looks like a hard-candy wrapper. Repeat for each piece of fish. Place packets on a baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, based on the thickness of the fish.

Transfer each packet to a plate and use caution when opening — the steam will be very hot.

Note: You can also add to the packets quick-cooking vegetables such as julienned zucchini or finely diced tomatoes. For longer-cooking vegetables, blanch or steam them first, then add to packets.

Makes 6 servings.

EGGPLANT CAPRESE

• 2 medium eggplants, unpeeled, sliced crosswise into 3/4-inch slices
• 2 tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing eggplant
• Sea salt 
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups chopped, seeded tomatoes
• 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 small handful fresh basil leaves, julienned
• 4 ounces (or more, to taste) fresh mozzarella, cubed

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Line 2 baking pans or cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the eggplant slices on the paper and brush them generously on both sides with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper, then roast for 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool.

Mix together the tomatoes, garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the basil.  Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. Set aside.  

To serve, arrange the cooked eggplant slices, slightly overlapping, on a serving platter.  Scatter the mozzarella cubes on top and spoon the tomato mixture on top. Remove the garlic cloves.

Makes 6 servings.

RISOTTO-STUFFED TOMATOES

• 8 medium, firm-ripe tomatoes on the vine with small stems
• 4 tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra- virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2/3 cup medium-grain white rice
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus an extra pinch
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Instructions

Cut tops from tomatoes about 1/2 inch from stems (keep leaves and small stems attached) and set aside. Working over a food processor and using a teaspoon, carefully scoop out tomato pulp and juices, leaving only the outer walls. Purée pulp and juices, then measure; add enough water to get to 2 1/4 cups. If necessary, trim a very thin slice from base of tomatoes so they sit flat (if you poke a hole, patch from the inside with a tomato slice).

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add rice, sea salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, stirring to coat. Stir in tomato purée and water mixture.

Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to the surface of rice, 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook, stirring once or twice, until rice is cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450 F with a rack in the top third of oven. Grease a shallow baking dish with some of remaining oil. Stir parsley, basil and cheese into risotto. Divide risotto evenly among tomato shells, mounding it a bit, and set in oiled dish, rice side up. Brush reserved tomato tops with oil and loosely set on tomatoes. Sprinkle tops with sea salt if you like.

Bake until tomatoes soften a bit, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 4 main-dish servings, 8  side-dish servings.