Nancy Fuller never dreamed she'd be hosting a cooking program. She doesn't even watch much television. But when the Food Network came calling, she said yes.
Filmed inside the 17th-century farmhouse where she lives in New York's Hudson Valley, "Farmhouse Rules" is now in its fifth season, and she's getting ready to film season six.
At age 66, she's also just published her first cookbook, "Farmhouse Rules: Simple Seasonal Meals for the Whole Family" (Grand Central Life & Style, $30).
Fuller's goal is simple. She wants people to cook real food, and she entices them with simple recipes. The mother of six and grandmother of 13 takes a cue from her own grandmother when she steps into the kitchen. She doesn't skimp on butter, and she's all about taking the intimidation out of cooking real food.
Fuller, who co-owns Ginsberg's Foods with her husband, splits her time between New York and Florida. The holiday episode of "Farmhouse Rules" airs at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 5. Fuller is also a judge on "Holiday Baking Championship" at 9 p.m. Sundays Dec. 6, 13 and 20.
Q.You were already in your 60s when you started working with Food Network. What's your background?
A. My real job has been, we have a food distribution company that was in my husband's family for 105 years. Back in 2006 I bought his brother out, so now David and I own this food distribution company, which is the largest independent in the Hudson Valley.
I was born and raised on a farm, which my father owned and I inherited. That's a 400-acre dairy farm that I have leased to the same man for the last 30 years. He milks the same number of cattle we milked in the '50s, '60s and '70s. The farm I now live in on is a farm I bought probably 10 years ago.
Q.When some might be thinking about retirement, you start a career on television and write your first cookbook?
A. It was scary to me. I've always been very energetic. I used to think, what am I going to do if I retire? Then this fell in my lap.
The cookbook launched and is out, and it has been very successful. ... We sold 8,500 copies in 14 minutes on QVC. But you know what, if this TV business goes away tomorrow, my life isn't going to change. I'm still going to cook.
Q.Did you watch any shows on Food Network before you had your own?
A. The irony of me having a television show is that I don't watch television. I was never one to just sit down in front of it.
Q.How did you get started cooking?
A. On the strings of my grandmother's apron. She was just a farmer, known as a really good cook and the best pie maker in the day when we had church socials and the Grange Hall had Saturday dinners. Back in the '50s in an agricultural community, that's what we did.
Her farm was probably three miles from our farm. I'd actually ride my horse to her house for breakfast, and she made the best fried eggs in the whole wide world.
Q.What did you learn from running your own catering business?
A. I used to make a joke with my husband, well, I know I can cater. I cater to you and six kids. That was a dinner party for eight three times a day. It just kind of evolved.
We were merchandising cattle. We had registered Holsteins and went to a sale. They were serving tuna fish on Ritz crackers. I said, "You cannot ask these prices for these animals and serve tuna fish on crackers!" The organizer said, "Well, what would you do about it?" I think I better cater it. They all knew me as somebody who could cook.
It is like an artist. When you really have a passion for something, or a natural ability to do something, you do it with relish. You do it because you're comfortable with it and you're good at it. I'll never be Picasso, but I can cook like Julia Child.
Q.What have you learned about holiday entertaining?
A. Use as many easy recipes as you can. I wouldn't make something I've not made before, that's a good point. Make something that's easy that you can freeze for dessert and bring out. My favorite thing to make are little shortbread bars that are in the book. You can make them any flavor. I make almond, maybe cranberry.
Just make the simplest recipes and try not to do too much. Every holiday was dressing, turkey, creamed onions, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, always the Jell-O mold. There was so much, I'm not sure we all need as much today.
Q.How do you feel about filming "Farmhouse Rules" in your own home?
A. That house was my house before TV cameras came in my house. I learned to be very resilient. I learned to be very patient.
When they said it is a show about your life, who you are, I said don't bring me any props. I have enough stuff around my house. That's who I am. And 26 people come in and touch my stuff and use all my rooms. I think about the hours we've spent scraping the paint off the floorboards. So I just put mats down. We'll all be happier.
Q.Is there one thing in your kitchen you could never give up?
A. My salt rock thing I have, where I keep my salt for the past 20 years. No one else has one. I found it at a flea market in Europe.
Q.Explain the concept of Farmhouse Rules.
A. The word "rules" was the word for "recipe" years ago, probably the turn of the century. My grandmother had a little spiral book, tiny pages of lined paper, and there was Myra's Rule, and Grandmama's Rule, Mother's Rule. All the people in her life that have given her a recipe that she liked, all those recipes were in this little book. That's where the name Farmhouse Rules came from.
Q.Who has that book now?
A. Me. It is in my 18th-century desk.
Q.Are any of your kids into cooking?
A. I raised six kids, and I don't know that any of them are real cooks. They didn't get their mother's passion for cooking. We tease them unmercifully.
Last Thanksgiving Kimberly made a pumpkin pie. I had just finished (judging) the "Holiday Baking Championship" season one on Food Network. I said to Kimberly, "I would have to send you home, honey."
Q.What do your grandchildren say when they see you on television?
A. I just asked my granddaughter, "OK, Victoria, what do you think about Gigi being on television?" She said, "I think it is really cool." Why is it really cool? "Nobody else in my class has a grandmother on television." That's the 15-year-old. The littlest is 5.
Q.What's the thing that people ask you?
A. They always want to know my favorite recipe. Probably because we had it once a week with my grandmother, it is the Chop Chop in the Pot Roast Chicken.
Q.Where does your catchphrase, "Chop chop in the pot" come from?
A. I don't know where it comes from. I trademarked it. It is mine.
Q.How do you help people stress less about cooking?
A. I just want to tell them, look at the picture. Find the recipe, go get the ingredients, make the recipe. Just do it.
Then make it again and make it your own. Less salt, more flavor, more salt. Play with it. Add things and change it to make it your own.
Q.If people take one thing away from your work, what do you want them to learn?
A. I want them to support a farmer. If every single person would buy one fresh pear or one fresh zucchini or one fresh onion from a farmer, it could keep this industry alive.
About Kristine M. Kierzek
Kristine M.Kierzek is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer. She regularly writes Chef Chat and Fork. Spoon. Life. columns for Fresh.
