600+ cookbooks and passion brought this Colorado home chef to the national stage
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Inside her Centennial home of three decades, Abbe Odenwalder has quite the collection — bear figurines, windchimes, and cookbooks. The more than 600 cookbooks are truly where her heart lies. They helped her get to where she is now: a contestant on the second season of "The Great American Recipe" on PBS.
“Being on 'The Great American Recipe' was something I had never anticipated, never thought of,” Odenwalder explained. “And honestly, I feel I have a new family for life now.”
"The Great American Recipe" is a competition cooking show that features home chefs from around the country who make dishes representing their region and roots. The winner has one of their recipes featured on the cover of The Great American Cookbook, which also includes recipes from other contestants and the show’s host and judges.
Even though there is just one winner at the end of the season, the show's producers told Odenwalder "the stories count just as much as the recipes and the cooking.”
Abbe Odenwalder's cooking story
Odenwalder’s story starts in the small town of Kankakee, Illinois, about an hour's drive south of Chicago. She grew up as a first-generation Jewish American and the daughter of a butcher and grocery store owner. In middle America, she was exposed to a lot of diverse foods but didn’t start her cooking journey in earnest until she went off to college. In 1976, she transferred to Colorado State University. Her family gave Odenwalder her grandmother’s cherished cookbooks.
“[My grandmother] used to write little notes in her cookbooks. So, I still feel like she is here with me when I'm looking through her cookbooks, and every now and then I find pencil handwriting in these cookbooks. It's marvelous,” Odenwalder said with a smile.
She views a lot of older recipes like a mystery to solve or a snapshot in time. Odenwalder said one of her grandmother’s recipes involves Nesquik cocoa powder, which she was surprised to see in a recipe from the 40s. But sure enough, she discovered it was developed in 1948.
Odenwalder’s curiosity and recipe-sleuthing only grew from there. She has become what she calls a “cabinet” or “refrigerator cook,” meaning she can whip up anything from what she has on hand. She is never afraid to try a new recipe.
Abbe Odenwalder stands in her home kitchen where she has crafted thousands of new recipes over the last three decades. Photo by Amanda Horvath, Rocky Mountain PBS.
“Literally, I will have people over just to have something new to try because I'm not afraid,” explained Odenwalder. “You know what I figure? If it's so bad — my food — we will order pizza.”
Having people over to eat food is Odenwalder’s favorite way of getting to know people. Sharing stories and histories of food is what she believes can connect people.
“Stories of food are incredible. They bring people together, you learn about everyone's heritage, you learn good food, bad food. But recipes also are alive in the sense that they keep changing; they keep evolving as they go along,” said Odenwalder.
In 2011 when her kids went off to college, she said they kept calling her and asking for recipes. It was then that her daughter encouraged her to go digital and start a blog, so they didn’t have to keep exchanging recipes over the phone.
That is how the “This is How I Cook” blog was born. More than a decade later, Odenwalder has more than 700 recipes on her blog that range from Jewish to Mexican to Asian dishes and much more. There is a story behind each dish.
“When I think of the food that I cook, it reminds me of all the places I've been — New Orleans, San Francisco, China, Israel… I want it to taste like I was there,” said Odenwalder.
Her blog and then ultimately her Instagram is how the producers of The Great American Recipe found her. Last summer, Odenwalder said she received a direct message about being part of a cooking show. She initially wrote it off as spam but later discovered it was the real deal. After interviews over the course of several months, she was eventually cast for the second season of the show.
She flew out to the east coast for three weeks of intense filming in a barn where the cooking stations were set up. Often filming for 12 hours a day, Odenwalder said it was quite an experience to see the behind-the-scenes effort to create a show like this.
What dish is Colorado known for?
Part of Odenwalder's experience filming the show was a debate she had with the producers over which dish would represent the Rocky Mountain region, a task that may have been easier for her counterparts from other regions of the country, becuase Colorado doesn’t have the clearest answer.
Odenwalder submitted a Mexican hamburger recipe for her Colorado dish. She said through her research she found it was created here in the ‘60s and it has green chili, a burger and a tortilla — all elements that, to her, represented our state.
“Then, maybe a week before the show, they said ‘No, can't do the Mexican burger. We'd like to see something more Colorado.’ I said, ‘What might that be? Let me guess, are you thinking Rocky Mountain Oysters?’” Odenwalder explained.
Sure enough, the producers loved the idea of Rocky Mountain Oysters, the delicate way of referring to deep fried bull testicles. Odenwalder put her foot down, explaining that the "oysters" are more of a joke dish than one that Coloradans often eat. Odenwalder and the producers went through different mountain wildlife foods like lamb, steak, fish, etc. and finally settled on a trout dish.
“But what is the quintessential Colorado dish? I'm still looking,” said Odenwalder. “And if you can find one, let me know.”
Odenwalder combined her Jewish heritage with some Colorado flavors to make blintzes with trout and a green chili cheese filling. Photo by Peter Vo, Rocky Mountain PBS.
On the day Rocky Mountain PBS visited her home, Odenwalder decided to bring together her Jewish heritage and some typical Colorado ingredients to create a new dish. She made blintzes with trout, a green chili cheese filling, and a side salad. Traditional blintzes are a bit sweeter with just a cheese filling and, sometimes, fruit. Despite the savory addition it was delicious — a review that left Odenwalder smiling.
“I like people that like to eat … if you don't like food, you're not going to be a good cook. You have to want to taste it and eat it,” she said.
For Odenwalder, so many issues between people could be solved over a good meal and good conversation.
“If you meet someone and you want to learn more about them, have them over for dinner,” said Odenwalder. “[That] was something I always have enjoyed, and I'm not afraid to try something new when I cook.”
As she is constantly trying new recipes or versions of recipes, she truly doesn’t have a favorite food to eat or cook. Odenwalder said her favorite dish is whatever is put in front of her that day.
“I cannot imagine my life without food. I cannot imagine my life without flavor,” she explained. “I can't imagine my life with food that has no flavor.”
Finished blintzes filled with trout and a green chili and cheese mixture. Photo by Peter Vo, Rocky Mountain PBS.
Amanda Horvath is the managing producer at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at amandahorvath@rmpbs.org.
William Peterson is senior multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at williampeterson@rmpbs.org.
Peter Vo is the journalism intern with Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at petervo@rmpbs.org.