Cooking with Andy Kohut

One of my favorite memories of my father Andrew Kohut in his last few years was when he cooked for food writer Marian Burros, who wrote about the meal for Politico. I just learned that Marian died at age 92, ten years to the month after my father, so this seems like a good time to reshare that piece. The original link has been dead for ages, so I’m taking a chance and reprinting it here. Drop me a line if you’d like a copy of his cookbooks.

“I can’t come home from work and just sit down; I’m all hopped up,” said Andy Kohut, whose role as president of the Pew Research Center means he’s the guy who interprets all those numbers in opinion polls. While others may unwind with a run, yoga or a bunch of “Seinfeld” reruns, Kohut prefers cooking. “It’s my way of cooling off, decompressing, changing my way of thinking. It gets me out of my intense focus on my work.”

Kohut’s wife Diane Colasanto, a retired president of Princeton Survey Research, has described him more than once “as an even better cook than a pollster.”

As he stirred the portobello mushrooms for pasta sauce in the striking black and white kitchen of their Georgetown home, Kohut explained why cooking is a more than just a hobby—it goes beyond his love of good food, particularly Italian.

“Cooking is totally different from what I do, different in the sense that it’s a matter of taste and not a matter of numbers. The only similarity is that it involves organization, and I have some confidence in the area. It’s the only thing I’ve done that comes naturally. I’m pretty good at it, better than the way I play tennis or play the guitar,” he said.

Kohut, who is 67, has a unique kind of palate that few people have. “I’m able to recreate what I taste,” he said, adding that perhaps that was immodest.

Not at all! Though others will be jealous to hear it.

He attributes his interest in cooking and his fine kitchen skills to three things common to many good cooks: Italian heritage, the opportunity to eat around the world and finding pleasure in the alchemy of mixing a few things together to create something savory and satisfying.

His Italian mother and aunts were all good cooks.

“Food is very central to Italians; it’s a very important part of their cultural lives,” he said. Italian cuisine is also distinguished by its simplicity.

Living alone in Washington for 11 years allowed Kohut to hone his skills. During the week, he entertained himself by cooking. Later, he broadened his knowledge of various cuisines as work took him around the world. Once a year, he goes to Italy with his wife. They are particularly fond of the food in Puglia and Abruzzo, and Santa Margherita Ligure on the Riviera coast.

He also credits the legendary Pierre Franey’s “60 Minute Gourmet” cookbook with giving him guidance.

Kohut does about 75 percent of the cooking that’s done at his house. “I like certain kinds of things, and I was the person in the household who could cook them. Diane is a good cook, but she humors me,” he said. She also makes the desserts. The night POLITICO visited, it was a delicious apple crisp.

Husband and wife both admit that Kohut’s dishwashing skills are quite another matter.

Diane: It’s an easy thing to let him cook; he’s a pretty good cook.

Andy: You just don’t like the quality of my dishwashing. I’m not qualified to put dishes in the dishwasher.

The first course that night was a pasta dish with Portobello mushrooms that had been sautéed for 45 minutes with garlic—a process that brought out the mushroom’s intensity. They were combined with sautéed cherry tomatoes and some Greek goat cheese. There was also Parmigiano Reggiano on the side for those who wanted it.

Chicken piquante, Kohut’s riff on a dish he had at Marislio’s in Trenton, N..J., came next: lightly floured sautéed chicken thighs with pancetta, green olives, capers, garlic, balsamic vinegar, wine and chicken broth. (This was the dish that prompted arriving guests to ask, “What smells so good?”)

Continuing the garlic theme, as good Italian food must, there was also sautéed garlic in the broccoli salad. The oil in which the garlic was cooked was perfumed with lemon zest and drizzled on the broccoli. A full-bodied Spanish red,’07 Tempranillo, accompanied the meal.

From a cooking perspective, Kohut misses the quality and variety of New York and New Jersey supermarkets and Italian specialty shops. But he gives high marks to Vace in Bethesda for its Italian products. He also prowls the farmers markets.

What he does cherish in Washington is his kitchen, the central room of the house, which boasts a six-burner range (plus griddle) and two ovens– one gas, one electric. There’s a sofa for guests who like to talk to the cook while he is working—and for Roscoe, the new puppy, too. He and his wife entertain every few weeks.

Kohut keeps a pretty detailed record of what works and what doesn’t and has compiled two cookbooks, “Some Sauces from Andy” and “Some Entrees from Andy,” based on recipes that come from hundreds of notes he has made over the years. Another book is underway. Lucky recipients include family and friends, who get this advice from the introduction to the entrée book:

“I am a strong believer that fixed recipes don’t work, because the variation in ingredients is often substantial. Taste, correct, modify if needed; that’s the way I do everything—from new dishes to the things I cook on a regular basis.
I hope it works out for you. I take no responsibility.”