A culinary misfit's 'Notebook'
VINEYARD HAVEN -- Alice Berlow couldn't care less about fad diets or fads of any sort, vanilla-scented foam, or mastering a brunoise. The voice behind National Public Radio's ''A Cook's Notebook," Berlow is a culinary misfit, a self-taught home cook living in her own world of cravings and simple pleasures. The food that she eats and writes about is soulful and comforting: roasted marrow on toast, grilled quahogs, deep-fried smelts washed down with dark beer.
Berlow's short radio segments are three-minute essays of self-deprecating humor and optimism with a peek at her playful dark side. For three years she has shared details about her life here, her two Maxes -- one is her 12-year-old son Max, the other is Max the dog, an arthritic black lab -- another son Eli, 9, and husband Sam. On radio, she admits to drinking from the kitchen faucet when no one's looking and cooking from crumpled shopping lists she finds at the grocery store. In one story she confesses that she has poured used peanut oil in her neighbor's yard, in another she compares the first tomato of the season to the distant memory of a stirring first kiss, another tells about her joy and sadness baking chocolate cake for her father-in-law, who suffers from Alzheimer's. ''I love how radio moves through the air and then it's gone," she says. ''It's ethereal. It's here and then it just disappears."
Berlow, 40, tall and lithe with wind-burned cheeks and long gray hair, is a grown-up vagabond who still seems more like a cool baby sitter than a soccer mom. She dresses in silver jewelry and denim, windsurfs, deep fries turkeys, raises pigs at a neighbor's farm, and -- after spending time in Kenya on a Fulbright Fellowship -- can haggle over bananas in Swahili.
Life on Martha's Vineyard can seem to revolve around the tony summer crowd, sailing, and parties. Berlow is happiest when she's at home cooking for family and friends. With pancakes frying, ice cream churning, and hot dogs grilling, the Berlow kitchen can seem like a domestic version of the big rock candy mountain. Each Berlow has a favorite snack -- hankerings that Ali Berlow is always game to indulge. The son known around the house as ''Max the boy" gets chocolate chip cookies. For Max the dog, Ali Berlow bakes liver treats, which she writes about in the radio segment ''What to Cook for an Old Friend." Husband Sam loves warmed up leftovers. Eli likes corned beef hash from a can or his own specialty, the Eggo waffle panini, which is a grilled waffle sandwich filled with cinnamon, marshmallow fluff, and chocolate chips.
Berlow, a native of Madison, Wis., cooked her way through the University of Wisconsin, doing posh catered events and working at burger joints. Fifteen years ago she married her high school friend, Sam, the general manager of the Font Bureau Inc., a digital type foundry, and started a family in the Boston area. In 1994, the Berlows moved from Auburndale to the Vineyard. ''At the time, you could actually get more for your money on the Vineyard than you could in Newton," she says. ''It was a good move; Sam was able to telecommute from home, there are good public schools for the kids, and no
The family table falls into three categories; crowd-pleasing favorites, the food that Berlow (but no one else) likes to eat, and disasters. Spaghetti and meatballs, Caesar salad, meatloaf, potato cheese casserole, oven roasted ribs, and homemade pizza are gone as soon as they're served. Hoppin' John with collard greens, beef brisket braised in coffee, and plum pudding are eaten without the same fervor. Occasionally Berlow fails completely, as in undercooked chickens, soggy potato pancakes, or gloppy angel hair pasta. But she laughs it off. ''People can eat around the bad parts. I'm just a home cook, not an expert and not an authority," she says. ''If anything I'm an anti-authority."
All this, of course, is fuel for her radio segments. ''A Cook's Notebook is no Cook's Illustrated," says Julia Kidd, a Vineyard psychotherapist, comparing Berlow to the persnickety Brookline-based magazine. ''Ali tries to get at the human side of food, the tensions that exist between people, and eating as a vehicle for connecting."
Ali and Sam love to have a house full of friends. One recent party was typical of the way guests mill around the kitchen while Berlow holds court. Held to honor Sonoma, Calif., chef and author John Ash, the party had an Asian dumpling theme. A few friends cooked all afternoon, filling the house with all manner of rolled and stuffed dough, stir-fried bok choy, rice porridge, red braised short ribs, and local oysters on the half shell.
By the end of the night, the slate countertops were littered with chopped cilantro and ginger, drops of duck stock, stacks of wonton wrappers. Guests were laughing, satisfied, and happy. So were their hosts.
This night, too, might find its way into Berlow's on-air stories.
''A Cook's Notebook" airs Wednesdays at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WCAI-FM (90.1) and WNAN-FM (91.1), the Cape and Islands NPR stations, a service of WGBH Radio in Boston, or go to www.cooksnotebook.com. 
