Jesse Ziff Cool

Author and Chef/Owner
Flea Street Cafe
Menlo Park, California

Early Years

While the rest of the world celebrates National Organic Harvest Month during September, Jesse Ziff Cool has been celebrating Organics every month for over 20 years. This passion for pure produce began in a small Pennsylvania town where Cool learned from her father to reject anything chemical while her Italian mother and grandmother taught her about cooking.

In the true spirit of the 60's, Cool hitchhiked across the country in 1968, arrived in Palo Alto, California, and not long after started her "professional" culinary career waiting tables at The Good Earth restaurant. Here she met her future husband and with a third partner opened her first restaurant, Late for the Train, across from the Menlo Park Caltrain station. Although they frequently found it difficult to find organic produce, they felt a responsibility through the restaurant to work with the purest food. Regular visits to the Palo Alto farmer's market to meet the purveyors provided the bulk of their organic needs.

Current Projects

In 1982 the Cool's opened Flea Street Cafe, where Jesse is now sole owner and where you'll find her in the kitchen every night planning the menus and tasting everything. She looks to the seasons in order to serve fruits and vegetables when they are the freshest. The Zagat 1997 San Francisco Bay Area Restaurant Guide refers to Flea Street Cafe as "Vegetarian Nirvana" even though the restaurant does serve meat, fish, chicken, and tofu, with Cool preferring to think of her menu as "vegetarian-friendly".

As a self-described "vegetable princess", Cool has translated some of her passion for produce into two single subject cookbooks, Tomatoes: A Country Garden Cookbook (Collins, San Francisco 1994) and Onions, A Country Garden Cookbook (Collins, San Francisco 1995). Her next effort as an author produced Breakfast in Bed: 90 Recipes for Creative Indulgences (Harper Collins, NYC 1997). Cool was also a contributing author for Picnics (Harper Collins, NYC 1995) and Scones and Biscuits (Collins, NYC 1996), and periodicals that have featured her articles include Fine Cooking, Shape Magazine, and Food and Wine.

Recognition

Through personal and business endeavors, Jesse has been dedicated to sustainable agriculture and cuisine and her work in the food business supports her politics and philosophy. Cool shows this support as a spokesperson and in product development for several prominent organic product manufacturers, in her annual appearance as Guest Chef of the Organic Food Pavilion at the West Coast Natural Products Expo, and especially at Flea Street. It is here where she and her devoted restaurant family can express their passion for pure food and nurture their loyal customers. Flea Street Cafe also supports programs and projects that contribute to feeding the hungry and helping low-income people learn healthy nutritional habits and how to prepare tasty meals inexpensively.

Summing up her motivation for community activity, fund-raising, and teaching, Cool has stated "I actually believe I can change the world". At Flea Street Cafe, diners can taste beautiful food, see beautiful surroundings, and feel the beautiful philosophy of its creator, Jesse Ziff Cool.

• Flea Street Cafe is located at 3607 Alameda De Las Pulgas in Menlo Park, California. It is open for lunch Tuesday-Friday, dinner Tuesday-Sunday, and brunch on Sunday. For more information and reservations please call (650) 854-1226.