A few things I cook, when I cook

The stories behind some of my most relied-upon recipes

Who knows when I first tried shepherd’s pie—it surely wasn’t in my mother’s (quite limited, and I say that with love) repertoire when I was growing up in Texas, so probably it was first served to me at my Massachusetts boarding school, where it was likely made with mashed potato flakes, low-grade hamburger, and rubbery peas and carrots, and was something close to inedible. The head chef was named Armond, and rumor had it he was under orders to put saltpeter in the coffee to calm our wild hormones (which, if he did, it didn’t work).