A Culinary Library

On a recent trip to California, I met an older woman named Jean Fortenbery, who introduced herself as a Culinary Librarian. She had me at 'culinary.'

When she gave me a business card with "It's All About Food"--the name of her library--prominently displayed, I had to check it out. Her culinary collection is housed in a stand-alone building on the site of her daughter's bed and breakfast in Watsonville, Calif.

After she gave me a very thorough tour of her books, her husband Kenneth showed me around the beautiful Victorian house he redid after the 1989 Earthquake (you can view virtual tours of both the library and the house).

Jean, 84, began amassing cookbooks while traveling around the country in her job transforming traditional recipes for microwave cooking. Today, she writes about food for the Register-Pajaronian and her collection has swelled to more than 20,000 books. The variety is impressive, ranging from wild foods to cooking for wild animals (she's holding one on feeding birds that she finds amusing).


Her library has sections with labels like "Nitty Gritty" and an abundance of Italian and French cookbooks. "I swear every person in Italy and France has written a cookbook," Fortenbery told me.

My favorite part was the closet of older cookbooks dating back to 1835 that I wish I'd had more time to peruse. But I also enjoyed seeing someone so proud of a life's work.

Not to say that she's done. There are stacks of books to be sorted and she's culling all her "doubles." She sent me home with an extra copy of The Thrifty Cook (1974).

If you're ever in Watsonville (between San Francisco and Monterey), stop on by. Just don't come hungry.