You were born on Thanksgiving Day.
That's right. Right after turkey dinner.

In Louisiana — what part?
I was born in Alexandria, which is right in the middle of the state and then we moved to a town called Jonesville, where my father was a Baptist minister for 40 years.

In that part of Louisiana did you get much Cajun influence?
Some. Everybody makes gumbo, plus we took regular trips to New Orleans, about once a month, sort of have a night on the town, eat some good food. My parents loved spicy things, strong coffee, all those south Louisiana things.

My dad was a good cook. He was a great barbecuer. He made the best barbecued chicken I ever had. My mother is still a good Southern cook. Lots of wonderful vegetables. Sweets are her specialties. And then my grandmother was a great cook.

A lot of cooking from scratch?
Most everything. Vegetables right out of the garden. Being the minister, everyone would bring my dad wonderful things: bushels of corn and beans, sides of beef. We ate very well.

I lived in Louisiana until I was almost 30. I went to a Baptist College near my home. Then to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where I earned a master's and spent two years working as public relations director for the Southern Baptist Convention. And then I taught school four years in New Orleans, was an interior designer for a year and then headed to New York in 1969.

That would have been an interesting time to be in New York.
It was. I had a lot of friends in the theater so I got to sit on the stage of “Hair” one night. Sat with the band and watched the show. I was at the opening night of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and at the cast party. It was really a fun time.

At what point did you know that food was going to be an interesting part of your life?
I had always known that food was going to be an interesting part of my life. I never thought it would be professional. It sort of grew into that after a move to California in 1974.

I started writing for Ortho, the chemical people, doing garden books. Then they decided they wanted to do a book where you would grow your own vegetables and turn them into pickles. And they said, ‘Would you like to do that book?’ That’s how I did, “All About Pickling.” And I enjoyed the food writing so much more than the garden writing, I never went back. I did about five food books for Ortho. One of those was called “The Complete Book of Picnics.” I decided from that that I would start a catering company that would stage outrageous picnics. Connected to that was a gourmet take-out store. When that closed, the recipes that I had done for the store led to my first cookbook for Chronicle Books in 1985, called “Cold Pasta.”

Was it more work or less going from catering to writing cookbooks?
There are periods in writing cookbooks when you’re working nonstop, meeting the deadline and it’s exhausting. Then there are periods when you can relax, when you’re researching, developing a new recipe. You have time to take walks and play with the dog.

What were your impressions of Napa Valley the first time you visited here?
I would say love at first sight. Living in San Francisco, I started coming up on day trips in 1975. But that was like once a year. When I was invited to judge the first Burger Cookoff in 1990 I spent several days here. The idea started growing in the back of my mind that I’d like to live here someday. Then the following year, my partner died and I came up on Labor Day to spend the day with my sister; she had just moved to St. Helena. And my dog Zeke, who was nine months old, got out of the car that night and disappeared. He was lost for ten-and-a-half weeks in Napa Valley. And I spent so much time here that I decided, ‘This is the time to do it.’ I needed the quiet peacefulness, the solace, of Napa Valley. And I bought a house up on Meadowood Lane. And to make a very long story short, I got Zeke back at the exact hour that I opened the door to my new home.

Does it matter that you live here, in terms of the kinds of books you’re producing, the ideas you’re dealing with?
I am influenced of course by wine and by the casual elegant lifestyle. I’m writing about simpler food than I was, say, in the ‘80s. Just taking advantage of fresh, wonderful ingredients. And not mucking them up too much.

Where do you get the recipes?
Research. And one of the best ways for a cookbook author to research is going to restaurants. Eating out. Taking notes either mentally or literally. Trying to replicate that at home.

Say you’re in a restaurant eating a dish you really like — do you have the ability to analyze what’s in it?
I usually do. Sometimes I’m fooled. But I usually come close to it. I come home and play with it. Sometimes I improve it; sometimes I give up on it. And there are some chefs I feel comfortable asking questions about recipes. I always try to give credit in the books as to where the ideas came from.

You’ve written a lot of books. What’s the latest count?
I have just published my 40th cookbook, which is “Afternoon Delights.”

How did “Afternoon Delights”
come about?
Andrew Moore, my partner, has helped me on the last seven or eight books. He’s also a wonderful food editor and he runs the test kitchen. So what we did was everywhere we’d go around the country, we’d check out the coffee houses and all the local places, tea shops, to see what they served in the afternoon. We compiled a list of what everyone had in common and we created what we considered the best recipe for things like lemon bars and brownies, chocolate chip cookies and carmelitas. So that’s what it is. Things that go with coffee and tea.

So you and Andrew have gotten to go around the country to a bunch of coffee shops eating all this food.
[Laughs] Not a bad way to make a living.

What’s next for you?
I’m not sure. In the back of my mind, I have this growing desire to write about my heritage. I included Louisiana recipes in all of my other books. But I have a lot of stories from growing up, and food was such an important part of culture and life in Louisiana, that I would really like to do a big book on that.

I was interested in the Southern Baptist minister part of your background. There’ve been a lot of people who’ve begun as a priest or a minister, who’ve gone on to do other things.
Bill Moyers.

Yes. I just wonder if there’s something that translates from one kind of work into another. Translates into a different kind of gospel?
Well I think I’ve spread the gospel of good food. And a friend of mine who’s known me forever, he said, ‘I think you’ve really ministered to more people teaching them to cook and bringing their families together around a table than you would have standing behind a pulpit.’