Austin, Texas — Nedra Baldori was at the U2 shows from the South America leg of the "Vertigo" tour that went into "U2 3D."
And she worked the band's "Zoo TV," "Popmart" and "Elevation" tours.
Cox News Service |
Nedra Baldori of Austin, Texas, has cooked for U2, Melissa Etheridge, Tim McGraw, Nine Inch Nails, Neil Diamond, Maroon Five, the Beastie Boys, Bon Jovi, Phil Collins and Phish.
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She has cooked for Tim McGraw, Maroon Five, the Beastie Boys, Bon Jovi, Phil Collins, Nine Inch Nails, Neil Diamond and Phish. She can make menus vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, organic or "other."
Rock star and cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge, who is on a special diet, passed along these kudos:
"Nedra creates magic from whole and organic foods every day while never sacrificing flavor, texture, temperature and mouth feel."
It's by no means a calm and predictable life. Baldori, 43, can be on the road for six to 10 months out of the year. (Good thing all her bills are on auto-pay and her dog is a popular houseguest with friends and family.) She also has gone as long as eight months without the phone ringing. The job is, pardon the phrase, feast or famine. Sitting down is something she does at the end of a long day. Like a lot of gigs, it sounds a lot more glamorous than it is.
"Everybody thinks it's great until they spend a day in the kitchen with me," Baldori says. "Crazy stuff happens. Almost daily." Like when the power goes out and she thinks, "How long has that been in the oven?" Or the time a van full of food broke down near Madison Square Garden and she had to load it all into a cab. Or pretty much the entirety of Woodstock '99.
A native of "Michigan's Little Bavaria," Frankenmuth, Baldori got her bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and was valedictorian of her class of 120 at the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute. She was executive chef at an Ann Arbor Italian restaurant, then a partner in a catering company when word came that U2 was coming to the United States for a tour and looking for American chefs.
And that was kind of how it started. Before Baldori had worked as an executive chef for movie productions, including "Twister," "A Thousand Acres" and the 1996 Austin, Texas-shot Denzel Washington-Meg Ryan film "Courage Under Fire," which brought Baldori to the town that she would call her new home. During this time, she was working for touring catering companies, someone from Boston's organization called and asked whether she was available to go on the road with the band. She said she didn't have a rig, a mobile kitchen. The band gave her the money to buy one, which she did in a day. A couple of summers later, Boston guitarist Tom Scholz — a big PETA supporter and the rock star most likely to be confused with Rolling Stone magazine's David Fricke — gave Baldori her rig.
Every day on the road, she shops, almost always organic. She tries to make everything from scratch "because I think it's yummy."
Pretty much everybody likes her soups. And Indian food is hugely popular. With today's Balkanized diets, there's no such thing as a weird request. She's even been asked to cook a marrow bone every day. Baldori's not saying for whom, but we're betting it's Trent Reznor.
She is, in fact, not one to cook and tell, partly because it could be bad for business to be indiscreet (you wouldn't hear her say, "Clarence Clemons could eat a heifer!") and partly because she's maybe saving the good stuff, or at least the recipes, for a cookbook. She won't disclose her weekly rate, only this:
"Let's just say it's a luxury for a band to have me."
She does, however, dish up some recipes and lets us watch as she prepares them in her kitchen. She has made her caramelized onion tart for "just about everybody," and she tops it with cave-aged Gruyère and garlic chives from her garden. She dices carrots, parsnips, celery, potato and a leek for the creamy crab and vegetable chowder, and while those two things are cooking, she puts together a simple but altogether fabulous salad. It's a pleasant way to spend part of an afternoon when she's not waking up in a different city every day. She's got nothing booked until this summer, when she'll work for Etheridge once again. Until then, she'll enjoy camping and hiking, working on recipes for the cookbook. She'll be on the road again soon enough.
"Every tour is my last tour," she says. "I've stopped saying that now."
Mixed Greens With Radishes and Sunflower Seeds
This is a quick and easy salad that features fresh organic salad greens that are so prevalent in the spring. You can go to local farmers markets for the best selection or buy the already mixed variety in a local health-food grocery.
6 cups organic mixed salad greens such as mache, red oak, frisée, spinach, romaine, arugula, leaf and butter lettuce or already-mixed baby lettuce
1 rib celery, cut into thin slices, about ½ cup
4 radishes, sliced into thin rounds
1 carrot, peeled and grated on the large side of a box grater
½ cup cherry tomatoes cut in half lengthwise
1 green onion sliced thin, green parts included
½ cup sunflower seed sprouts (optional)
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons fig or pear balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Tear lettuce into large pieces and arrange decoratively on a medium-sized platter or salad bowl. Alternatively, mound baby greens on a platter or salad bowl. Top lettuce evenly with celery, radish, carrots, cherry tomatoes, green onion, sunflower seed sprouts and sunflower seeds.
Whisk vinegar and olive oil with salt and pepper to make a simple vinaigrette.
Spoon dressing over salad and serve.
Makes 4 servings.
Crabmeat and Artichoke Chowder
This recipe was inspired by a leftover steamed artichoke bottom and lump crabmeat being on sale at the grocery store. A very elegant start to a dinner, it also can be served as an entree for lunch with a nice green salad and some crusty bread. (It can be made gluten-free if thickened with cornstarch instead of flour.)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 cup carrots, diced small, about 2 large
1 cup celery, diced small, about 2 stalks
1 cup leek, white part only, diced small, about 1 medium
1 cup potatoes, peeled and diced small, about 1 medium
½ cup parsnip, diced small, about 1 large
1 tablespoon minced garlic, about 1 large clove
3 tablespoons flour (also could use 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water)
¾ cup dry white wine
6 cups vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
1 cup artichoke bottoms, diced small (use canned or frozen if you don't have fresh); artichoke hearts will work too, diced small,
¾ cup heavy whipping cream or ½ cup Silk creamer
1 pound fresh or frozen lump crabmeat, thawed
1½ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup chopped, fresh parsley
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, leek, potatoes and parsnips and cook until wilted, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, stir, and cook 1 minute. Add flour, stir to coat the vegetables evenly and cook another minute. Add the white wine, stir and bring to a boil. Add stock and bay leaves, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until vegetables and potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally about 15-20 minutes. Skim off any froth that forms on the top.
Add the heavy cream or Silk creamer and bring back up to boil. Add the artichoke bottoms, crabmeat, salt and pepper and bring to a boil again. Again skim off any froth on top. Remove from heat, add parsley, taste and adjust seasoning. If soup seems too thick, add a bit of water to thin it down.
Ladle into bowls, garnish with parsley, and serve. Makes 8-10 servings.
Caramelized Onion
and Gruyère Tart
A traditional fall dish from southern areas of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, this savory tart can be served as an elegant appetizer or a main course. It is usually paired with one of the fresh "new" wines of the season; try a Beaujolais or Riesling.
For the tart dough:
2 cups flour
8 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into 16 pieces
½ teaspoon salt
4-5 tablespoons cold water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the flour, butter and salt in a bowl. With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles a coarse meal with pea-sized lumps of butter or margarine. Add 4 tablespoons of water, and quickly mix into the flour mixture by bringing the dough together with your fingers. If the dough is still dry, add the last tablespoon of water. Do not over-mix! This will make the dough tough and less flaky.
Form dough into a flat disc, wrap in cellophane and freeze for 15 minutes. This allows it to rest and firm up before rolling out. The dough can be made 24 hours in advance and refrigerated. Let dough sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes to warm slightly for easier rolling.
For the filling:
2 medium onions, peeled, ends cut off, halved lengthwise, and cut into ¼-inch slices; about 4 cups
2 tablespoons butter
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream (half-and-half can be used for a lower-fat version)
4 ounces aged Gruyère cheese, shredded on the large whole side of a box grater
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper
Melt the butter over medium heat in a sauté pan large enough to hold the onions. Slowly cook the onions, stirring occasionally until the onions turn brown around the edges. Turn the heat down to low and continue cooking and stirring until the onions are evenly brown and very soft. They will reduce in size considerably. This will take 15 to 20 minutes.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, mustard, chives, parsley, salt and pepper.
Remove the dough from the freezer. Roll dough out very thinly. This tart is best with a delicate, thin crust. Gently, roll dough onto the rolling pin and unroll it into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and 1½- to 2-inch sides. You also can use a ceramic quiche pan with 2-inch sides. Press dough into the bottom and sides of the tart form. Trim off the extra dough at the top of the pan by rolling over it with the rolling pin or cutting it off with a knife.
Spread the caramelized onions over the bottom of the tart shell. Next, sprinkle evenly with the Gruyère. Pour egg mixture evenly over the onions and cheese.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until top is evenly browned and puffy; the crust should be a light brown color.
Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from tart pan. If you are using a quiche pan, serve it directly from the pan.
Cut into eight pieces for an appetizer or six pieces for a main course.
Pear and Blackberry Crisp
You will need one bowl and one round or square 8-inch baking dish with 3-inch sides to prepare this easy-to-make dessert.
For filling:
1½ pounds pears, about 3 large or 4 small pears
½ pint blackberries
Juice of half a lemon, about 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon flour
¼ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
Place all of the filling ingredients in an 8-inch baking dish and mix well.
For topping:
¼ cup flour
¼ cup oats
¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted
Grated rind of ½ lemon, use the fine side of a grater
¼ cup (½ stick) butter or margarine, cut into small pieces
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the above ingredients in a bowl. Using your fingers, rub in the butter or margarine until the mixture is crumbly and has pea-sized lumps.
Spread over the fruit mixture and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 1 hour, or until browned on top and bubbling around the sides. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Makes 6 servings.
Cook's tip: You can make up to a day ahead of time; just rewarm, covered, for 15 minutes.
