Cal Peternell

Cal Peternell is the bestselling author of A Recipe for Cooking and Twelve Recipes, which the New York Times called “the best beginner’s cookbook of the year, if not the decade.” He grew up on a small farm in New Jersey and earned a BFA in painting from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Cal was inspired to pursue a cooking career while living in Italy with his wife, the artist Kathleen Henderson. After working at various acclaimed restaurants in Boston and San Francisco, he began a nearly twenty-two-year stint as the chef at Chez Panisse, first in the café and then in the downstairs restaurant. Cal’s culinary education podcast, Cooking by Ear, launched in 2018. Cal and Kathleen have three sons and live in the Bay Area.