Foodie Soulmates
Seven years ago, Ferguson was in full swing with Modern Family when he attended a dinner at a pop-up restaurant alone—a little half-heartedly, he admits. Tanous, 39, then a new mom taking a break from baby duty, was also there solo and found an empty seat next to Ferguson. As the two chatted, they discovered a mutual passion for great food, good cocktails and cooking. “It was like love at first sight, an instant connection,” she says. Ferguson wasn’t necessarily looking for a new pal, but Tanous was hard to resist. “I do think there’s a point in your life when you become a certain age and you just stop taking on new friends because it’s too much work,” he says. “Like, ‘I have my six or eight people that I really love.’ Julie snuck in like Indiana Jones, rolling herself into a little ball, getting in before the gate closed on no more friends.” “I made the cut!” she says with a laugh. The pair soon started cooking together. Ferguson was eager to learn from Tanous, a graduate of New York’s prestigious Institute of Culinary Education, an alum of Saveur magazine’s test kitchen and a seasoned recipe developer. Much as he loved cooking, he still struggled in the kitchen. “I knew nothing about knife skills or how to spatchcock a chicken,” he says. “I was asking Julie, ‘How do we really dice an onion like the way they taught you in school?’ I was learning a lot of really great basics that I still use to this day. I don’t know that Julie learned anything from me.” “That’s not true,” says Tanous. “I learned a lot. I learned that there is someone just as indecisive as me. We were making a cocktail once and I was like, ‘Should we add another ice cube?’ It was a five-minute conversation—‘another ice cube?’” “‘No…let’s leave it as is,’” Ferguson recalls. Like many aspiring cookbook authors, they launched a blog. And like any blog, it was a work in progress as they fine-tuned what they thought tasted good and shared their food on social media. He’s all about the Southwestern fare he grew up with in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while she’s rooted in the Southern cooking of her native Cullman, Alabama. “I’d never met anyone that had this connection to New Mexico,” says Tanous. “A lot of these recipes organically came together because our Southern and Southwestern ingredients just go together so well.” They began by updating favorite childhood dishes, poring over their moms’ recipe cards —“Everything was on recipe cards back then,” Ferguson notes—and quickly developed regional mashups that lend special flare to recipes in the book: Her Southern-style spoonbread is spiced up with Southwestern chile peppers; he riffed on the concept of old-school chicken pot pie, but with Hatch green chiles for heat and tortillas in place of pastry dough.
A Delicious Duo
Their different styles in the kitchen also complemented each other. She’s a confident, wildly creative improviser. “I definitely am more of a rule follower,” says Ferguson. “But when you’re developing recipes, you have to break rules and tread new ground. I look forward to the day when I can just sort of wing it and not freak out if I forget something.” She admires his tireless work ethic, even as they were testing recipes last spring in the midst of the pandemic (convening by FaceTime before they deemed it safe to cook together again) and into the summer, when Beckett arrived. “Jesse is very thorough,” says Tanous. “He pays attention to detail. Bless his heart, there were some recipes, both of us had fails, and he just pushed through and did it, even when his baby was born.” Her veteran parenting advice to him as a new dad that first week: “Stop cooking.” Perhaps the most valuable lesson Tanous has learned from Ferguson is how to have fun cooking with someone else. Before connecting with Ferguson, she was an avowed loner in the kitchen. “Jesse’s probably the only person I want to cook with in the kitchen all day,” says Tanous. “When we have a bad day, we make it funny. And we just have a cocktail.” We’ll drink to that!
His and Her Ingredients
Chiles: A true son of New Mexico, Ferguson always has both Hatch green chiles (fresh during their fleeting late-summer season or canned year-round) and dried red New Mexico chiles on hand. He makes sauce with each to use in everything from enchiladas to scrambled eggs. Mexican oregano: This variety boasts deeper, woodsier, earthier flavor than its Mediterranean cousin, says Ferguson (though he says you can always use regular oregano in the recipes). Look for dried Mexican oregano at your supermarket or online Try Penzeys Mexican Oregano (from $2.50, penzeys.com). Sorghum syrup: Tanous is on a mission to make this buttery, caramelly Southern sweetener, made from the sorghum plant, as common as maple syrup in American kitchens. Try Muddy Pond Sorghum Mill Pure Sorghum Syrup ($15 for 24 oz, amazon.com). Butter: “When we first started cooking together, our goal was to make a lot more healthy dishes,” says Ferguson. “To Julie, from the South, the most evil words you could say to someone are ‘No butter.’” Tanous has long since won him over to butter. They slather it on roast chicken and use it in abundance for flaky biscuits and pie crust.
Top Gear
A sturdy Dutch oven is both functional and beautiful. “It’s so versatile,” says Ferguson. “It sits on your stove, looks cute and you just look like a chef.” He’s a fan of The Dutchessby Great Jones ($155, greatjones.com). Ferguson also loves the colorful chef-favorite Aprons made by Los Angeles–based Hedley & Bennett – so much so that he worked with them to design their Santa Fe apron ($95, hedleyandbennett.com). His mother-in-law gave him one embroidered with “Jesse Stewart” because, she contends, his cooking is just as good as Martha’s. (He loves the apron but demurs from the comparison.) Tanous often reaches for her Cast-Iron Skillet from North Charleston, South Carolina–based Smithey Ironworks (from $100, smithey.com). Its super-smooth finish is virtually nonstick. One of Tanous’ go-to tools: the sturdy spatula (like the Vollrath 10-Inch High Heat Rubber Scraper/Spatula, $9, chefstoys.com) that came in her culinary school kit.
Modern Classic
Ferguson garnered five Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Mitchell Pritchett on ABC’s Modern Family. How Jesse and Mitch are alike: “I’ve always said that he’s basically a version of me. When I auditioned for the part, I didn’t put on a character. I just sort of came in as myself and offered that as a version of Mitchell.” How they’re not: Mitchell is more high-strung, says Ferguson. “He’s probably also a little bit more intelligent than I am. He’s a lawyer. I didn’t even take college.” Relationship how-tos: “I think [Mitch] is a really caring father,” says Ferguson. “I hope to be as good as he is.” He also learned a lot from working with his TV spouse Eric Stonestreet (Cameron), especially how to mesh their different acting styles for a believable onscreen marriage. “It was a very collaborative process that had to be a lot of give and take,” he recalls. “I think those tools helped me in my real relationship when that came around.” Family dynamics: “The hardest part about ending the show was not being able to see these people who really became my second family.” But the cast remains close. Ed O’Neill, patriarch of the Pritchett family, accidentally dialed Ferguson’s phone recently. “I talked to him for about a half hour,” says Ferguson. “It was like my dad checking in. He just butt-dialed me and I answered, because that’s what a son would do.” His TV sister, Julie Bowen, touches base often to see how he’s doing with baby Beckett. Universal appeal: Ferguson loved that Mitch and Cam resonated with gay and straight viewers alike. “I loved when straight couples would come up to us and a husband would say, ‘My wife is such a Mitch and I’m such a Cam.’ They really related to these two people.” Will there be a spinoff for Mitch and Cam? “It would have to feel really special and different than Modern Family,” says Ferguson. “Eric and I are certainly open to the idea, but we’re letting the writers figure out if that’s exciting to them. If they feel there’s more to tell, then I’m willing to listen.” Next, Ty Burrell Gets Real About the Modern Family Finale
