Fame is like caviar, you know – it’s good to have caviar but not when you have it at every meal.
-Marilyn Monroe
I’d be willing to try having caviar with every meal.
It’s not every day that there’s a New Yorker profile about you and your company. I loved it, but of course with an article that long and a subject as personal as beans, there are a few problems. But they’re insignificant and I forever will be grateful for this passage:
Watching Sando and Lupe cook, I realized what I’d been doing wrong. I’d been trying so hard to make my family love beans that my dishes had got more and more complicated, like the ones in Oklahoma. I’d added bacon, brown sugar, kielbasa, and Southern ham, whole heads of garlic and bunches of sage; I’d made minestrone, pasta e fagioli, and Brazilian feijoada. Good recipes, but poor psychology. Instead of showcasing the beans, I’d camouflaged them, turned them into a suspect food—an element to be rooted out, like the spinach that parents hide in pizza. “I hate recipes,” Sando said. “I always tell people to cook beans simply, and they always say, ‘Oh, I did. I just used a ham hock and chicken stock.’ Well, in that case you might as well use commercial pintos.”
I have been stressing this from the day I started. I know many folks want more recipes, but I suggest you first start with a bowl of perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned beans and have them with everything: rice, a steak, a stir fry, a burger- whatever makes you happy. Beans are the perfect side dish and heirlooms deserve their moment in the spotlight as the star, not just another ingredient.
I also love this quote from me, which I don’t remember saying but it’s true!
Sando is a rather sheepish addition to that history. He’s uneasy about import regulations, fretful of cultural appropriation, and well aware of his fumbling grasp of Mexican custom. “I’m not the Indiana Jones of beans,” he told me. “I’m the Don Quixote.”
In the end, despite all the personal information about me, it’s about heirloom beans, and that’s what it should be. I only wish somehow that my joy of being in Mexico was conveyed. The feeling of carnitas fat running down your chin, the small freeze your body feels as you take that first sip of mezcal, the thrill of having your Mexican goddaughter sit on your lap and explain all the dinosaurs to you as she drips paletas juice on your guayabera, looking at a huge plate of breakfast thinking you could never in a million years and then finish every drop by sopping it up with a well-made tortilla, climbing pyramids and archaeological sites mostly in silence and best of all, sitting in the cab of Gabriel and Yunuen’s truck and planning and dreaming and loving that two of my best friends are from this magical place and I’m the fucking luckiest guy in the world. This didn’t make it into the article, and perhaps I don’t express this easily, but this is exactly why I keep my passport renewed and watch the airfares to Mexico City.
People are quick to tell me that I don’t really look like a bean. No worries. I am too old to have this kind of vanity and it clearly was poetic, not literal. Again, I think it’s a great article and Burkhard is a great writer and I was happy to share a slice of my life with him and the rest of the world.
And as if this all weren’t wonderful enough, I’ve discovered that Puddles Pity Party is a Bean Person. Applause. Slow curtain. The end.
You can read the complete article here.
sitting in the cab of Gabriel and Yunuen’s truck and planning and dreaming and loving that two of my best friends are from this magical place and I’m the fucking luckiest guy in the world. (Tears)
Would love for you to see it one day with me!
well done, old bean.
Thanks. Something was gnawing at me. The article is great but something was missing. Then it hit me: Mexico!
Don’t worry, for this reader your love of Mexico and the Mexican people came through loud and clear.
Thanks!
Oh, heavens, I’m crying/laughing all over again reading your take on the article. YES…carnitas fat running down your chin, paleta juice on your guayabera…your besties…this is YOUR Mexico and I thank you for sharing it.
Just one thing: Check flights into BJX too, ok? I’ll come pick you up.
Thanks. Yes, will check out BJX.
I would be so happy for a nice long trip!
No more tears! Unless it’s from chiles.
Hi, I enjoyed the article, I would have been uncomfortable with the personal stuff too, I think it’s a uniquely American journalism thing though. Just wanted to say I was really surprised that the Mexican beans are less popular than the European varieties. I love the bean club so much precisely because of the Mexican varieties…I hope you keep offering them (although of course I want you to be safe in your travels as well!)
I read this article with pinto beans simmering on my stove. I have often said that if I could choose a last meal, it would probably be pinto beans and cornbread and yes, my “people” are from Tennessee.
I love almost all beans and…Mexico. And thus, this article made me so very happy.
Thank you for doing the work you do. It is inspiring and it is inspired. I do believe that.
How apropos I downloaded the New Yorker to read on the plane! I am adopting the nutritarian diet lifestyle and beans are powerfully good. I’m so happy to find you and Rancho Gordo. Three of your cookbooks are arriving today! I can’t wait to try your beans, especially those grown in Mexico. Your love came through loud and clear.
This article was awesome! I read the entire article, then the next day my husband saw it on Flipboard and started reading clips from it, picking out some of my favorite quotes. I didn’t tell him for a while that I had already read it. 🙂 Afterwards he sent me a selection of beans he wanted me to order, so with his choices and mine, I just placed an order. We love beans and can’t wait to try some of your heirlooms!!! Thank you!
Thanks. There were a few little nitpicks I have but on the whole, I think it got a lot of people excited about beans.
Imagine my surprise “Rancho Gordo Steve” in the New Yorker. I love the above above where hubby says which beans he wants to order 👍 We gave ourselves the 20 as a present, now it’s when we’re both home to make beans, groan. We’ve been customers for a while, happy for your success.
I’m 90 percent through the article, finding it very fascinating, and I had to digress to go look at your site. I’m excited to explore further. Thank you for what you’re doing in raising awareness of all these heirloom varieties, Mr. Sando.
I was just welcomed to the Bean Club. Thank you! After reading the New Yorker article, I knew it was the right place for me. I’ve been writing about beans and collecting bean books for many years, and eating them most of my life. Convincing people to grow beans and cook them is part of it all. I love to look at my jars of beans on the shelf.