On Saturday, we celebrated our daughter Shannon’s birthday, and the tradition in our house is for the birthday “boy” or “girl” to choose whatever he or she wants for dinner. Shannon’s choice has remained steady for many years, and it is what she picked for this birthday—Asian fish packets, a recipe from one of my Moosewood cookbooks. This recipe can be made with any fish fillet—Shannon’s favorite is salmon—and it is simple but oh so good. You cook rice, make a soy sauce/ginger marinade, then on foil, put together individual packets of rice topped with fish and marinade. Close those little packets, put them on a cookie sheet, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

The tricky part is getting the marinaded fish and rice out of the packets so that the plated meal looks as elegant as it tastes. It’s best done with two people, and over the years, Clif and I have developed a technique where he scoops with a long spatula, and I slide the dinner plate under the fish and rice at what I hope is just the right moment.

The Moosewood cookbooks for my generation—late baby boomers—are what Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking was to an earlier generation. Just as American cooking “before Julia” was, shall we say, a little on the bland side, so was “before Moosewood” vegetarian cooking. In fact, there is a strikingly similar note between before Julia and before Moosewood. Not that there weren’t exceptions, but onion was about the only ingredient used for flavoring in both of the cooking eras before Julia and before Moosewood. No dill, no basil, very little garlic—heck, hardly any parsley. Forget about cilantro or chili peppers. And vegetarian cooking without spices is a pretty grim affair. Onion simply isn’t enough to overcome the bland heaviness of whole wheat flour and brown rice. It is from this time period that vegetarian cooking gained its bad reputation.

Then along came Moosewood Restaurant, which opened in 1973 in Ithaca, New York, and specialized in vegetarian cooking that was decidedly not bland and boring. It was as if they took Julia Child’s principles and applied them to vegetarian cooking—ingredients that were fresh and of high quality cooked with skill as well as with herbs and spices.

Moosewood is a collective, and on their web page, their description of the collective and the restaurant is very impressive. Do read it if you have a chance. I especially liked “[w]e recognize that we’re not all equally good at everything, nor do we have to be. We find ways to accommodate our differences and play to our individual strengths, while keeping opportunities open and accessible.” My philosophy exactly.

From the restaurant came the many cookbooks that guided my generation toward vegetarian cooking that was pleasing to the palate as well as good for the planet. I have three of their books, and I use them often.

According to their website, “Moosewood was named one of the thirteen most influential restaurants of the 20th Century by Bon Appetit magazine,” and this recognition is well deserved. Even though my philosophy is to stick close to home, I would love to make a pilgrimage to Ithaca to visit Moosewood. Perhaps I will someday.

In the meantime, we will cook from their wonderful cookbooks, not only once a year for Shannon’s birthday, but throughout the year as well.

Addendum: The recipe for the Asian Fish Packets can be found in the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, book we have featured in this post.