Consider the Herbalist

Food Encyclopedist Gary Allen

by Amy Giezentanne and photographs by Jennifer May, October 25, 2007

Ear flower, Arabian num-num, mugwort, buckbean. They sound like names from a magical potion out of Harry Potter, but they’re actually just a few of the herbal ingredients in culinary historian Gary Allen’s The Herbalist in the Kitchen (University of Illinois, 2007), an encyclopedic collection of herbal facts.

Allen researched herbs and compiled notes for 12 years, then organized them into a reference work containing 105 botanical families—from agavaceae to zygophyllaceae. The families are broken down into individual, varietal sections, and then each of the varieties are described in detail for ease of reference. Ylang-Ylang, for instance, is a tropical tree with origins in Asia and Australia. Its extract has a sweet, flowery taste that contains benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, cadinene, and eugenol. Ylang-Ylang extract is used in the kitchen for baked goods, icings, and candy, and can even be used in chewing gum. Some of Allen’s other herbal entries contain substitute suggestions: mugwort, for example, is sometimes used in place of hops when making herbal beers. He’s even listed nearly every name by which the herbs are known around the world. Mexican mint marigold, for instance, is known as Mexican tarragon, Spanish tarragon, sweet mace, and tzitziqi, just to name a few. Allen offers these other names to clear up possible confusion and provide a little background knowledge for his readers.


Allen does all of the cooking at home and has learned some neat tricks incorporating herbs into dishes in novel ways. One of them is to use crisp, fried herbs as a garnish—basil, parsley, sage and tarragon work best. He also likes to use basil-flavored olive oil instead of butter for corn-on-the-cob. If you’re looking for an interesting way to grill shrimp, chicken or pork, he recommends using the woody stems of rosemary as skewers. Although Allen now uses herbs for cooking instead of primarily for research, his work on the book hasn’t ended.

As if its detailed listings weren’t enough, The Herbalist in the Kitchen will soon offer a Google-based index to help readers search the 483-page book for any words mentioned within. For instance, if a reader were to use a recipe calling for dog fennel, they could search the Google index to find the location of “dog fennel” in the book and learn that it’s also known as chamomile. A book with so many useful features will enhance any foodie’s library, but Allen recommends that buyers with less experience use it in conjunction with Craig Claiborne’s Herb and Spice Cookbook, as Claiborne’s recipes are written with experimenting novices in mind. It’s the sort of recommendation you’d expect from someone like Allen, who seems to enjoy using his work as a coaching vehicle for other food enthusiasts.

Allen’s an amiable fellow with a ready grin and sense of humor; it doesn’t take long in his presence to realize he enjoys people and has a curious mind. He’s also a man of many talents who began his early career as a painter. His painting led to jobs as an illustrator, graphic consultant, and art director for various publications, and organizations—including the Culinary Institute of America. He’s illustrated movie posters and films (including Woody Allen’s Zelig), children’s books, and dozens of textbooks over the years. He’s even collected accolades ranging from solo and juried exhibitions to First Grand Prize in the Faber-Castell Drawing Competition. His successes as an illustrator couldn’t quash his curiosity and passion for food, though, and Allen wanted to sharpen his writing skills for the work he did at the CIA. Enrolling in correspondence classes at Empire State College, Allen earned a degree in Writing and Design of Gastronomical Literature. Thus began his official foray into food writing.