12 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
James Beard,
Gearhart legend
sun peaking through the trees and
the sound of surf in the distance,
it’s not hard to see why.
MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM
Beard, along with his fam-
ily and neighbors, had regular
chef friend gave me rather
picnics on the beach. They swam,
loose directions to find the
clammed and raked crabs from
Gearhart cottage where
the tide pools. They explored the
James Beard spent summers as a
rivers and forest, caught crawfish
child.
and picked buckets full of berries.
I knew I was close, but I
They returned home to host regular
couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
I asked a woman who was out gar- lunches and dinner parties — hun-
dreds of them.
dening if she could
In Beard’s auto-
help. Pointing
biography, “De-
around the corner,
lights and Prejudic-
down E Street, she
es,” memories are
knew exactly the
traced back through
place.
food. A momma’s
“James Beard is
boy, Beard paid
a Gearhart legend,”
keen attention
she said.
and found kinship
And while
in the reverent
others of great
cooking of his stal-
fame and note have
wart, independent
decamped to the
mother. Communi-
idyllic enclave,
ty gathered around
perhaps none
their table, their
have been greater
fires on the beach.
ambassadors for
And the North
James Andrew Beard
the place than
Coast provided an
Beard. The titanic
abundance to share.
and influential gourmand, critic,
“(W)hat a treasure house of
writer, teacher and socialite was
good food this part of the world
effusive when it came not only to
Gearhart’s “isolated charm,” where was for us!” Beard wrote in ‘De-
lights and Prejudices.’ “The sandy
“commercial life has been kept at
a minimum,” but the bounty of the soil was perfection for vegetables
and small fruits; the evening dew
North Coast.
and the temperate climate were
Having explored high cuisine
good for growing and ripening.
in Europe, and treated as royalty
The nearby waters provided an
in the best restaurants of New
inexhaustible supply of fish.”
York City — keeping a table at
“The Pacific’s greatest blessing,
the storied Four Seasons — Beard
though, was the Dungeness crab, to
remarked that “those busy days on
my mind unequaled by anything in
the Oregon Coast left their mark
the shellfish world,” Beard wrote.
on me and no place on earth has
“I will match a good Dungeness
done as much to influence my
against the best lobster in America
professional life.”
and against the best langouste in
Standing in front of the cot-
Europe.” (Langouste is a spiny
tage — built in 1910, when Beard
lobster.)
would’ve been just 7 — with the
Story by
THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
A
PHOTO BY THE MOUTH
James Beard’s childhood cottage in Gearhart
Fresh, never frozen, boiled
crab, Beard believed, if allowed to
cool and eaten with “rich home-
made mayonnaise, good bread
and butter, and beer or a very light
white wine” yields a meal “that the
gods intended only for the pure in
palate.”
Salmon, too, was a staple in
Gearhart, delivered the day it was
caught. Beard and his mother were
particularly fond of the cheeks.
At the time an afterthought often
tossed out with the heads, the fatty,
rich cheeks would later become a
delicacy as “scarce as white caviar
and nearly as expensive.” As for
the rest of the salmon, it was pre-
pared just about every which way:
poached, baked, pickled, grilled
and smoked. The Beards cooked
it as natives had before them: over
an open flame, splayed on forked
branches of spirea that don’t burn.
Beard rejoiced in sturgeon,
crawfish, trout and “mussels by
the ton.” Oysters were sautéed in
butter, sometimes lightly breaded,
just cooked warm through. Razor
clams were fried for breakfast,
scalloped and souffléd. Of the “su-
perb” razors, which he wrote have
“a rich flavor, somewhat akin to
scallops, and a delicacy of texture
that is different from any other
clam I know,” Beard declared he
was “certain that if the razor clam
existed in France, the recipes for
them would be classic.”
“It’s no wonder we hardly ever
touched meat,” Beard wrote of his
summers in Gearhart. “Save for
picnics and occasional dinners,
we existed almost entirely on the
riches of the rivers and the sea.”
There were fruits and vegeta-
bles, too, of course, like strawber-
ries, huckleberries and blackber-
ries, as well peas from a neighbor’s
garden that were “even better than
the petits pois of France.”
In “Delights and Prejudices”
Beard includes the recipes of his
stories, including those from his
mother as well as other Gearhart
residents, friends of the family.
You’ll find dishes like clam fritters,
huckleberry cake, Mother’s Clam
Soufflé, Gravad Lax and Grammie
Hamblet’s Deviled Crab.
Beard’s recipes are remarkable
for their simplicity. Most are but
a paragraph long and include only
a handful of ingredients. While
some are surely more difficult
than such brevity suggests, many
appear quite approachable. Indeed,
Beard’s cooking was largely ele-
mental, trusting that fresh, fine —
and yes, local — ingredients would
carry the day.
Occasionally, the Beards were
invited to dine out, though his
mother demurred, preferring her
own fresh cooking to the “horrible
stuff out of jars and cans” from
nearby restaurants that she said left
her with indigestion.
And while Beard continued to
visit his beloved Gearhart and
the North Coast almost until his
death in 1985, only toward the
end, in the early 80s, would he
discover a restaurant that truly
satisfied his taste, paying proper
homage to the abundant bounty
of the region. It was The Ark —
later Nancy & Jimella’s Cafe &
Cocktails.
This is the first in an inter-
mittent series on James Beard,
exploring his history and influence
in the region. CW