The Accidental Fishmonger

You hear the name Ingrid a lot in the French Laundry kitchen. Ingrid, the Scallop Lady. Or Thomas will ask one of his brigade, “How are Ingrid’s lobsters?” Everyone knows Ingrid, the Maine fishmonger. What they don’t know, however, is that she has been a Fulbright scholar for the past three years, spending most of each year in Russia, writing and teaching English at the State University of St. Petersburg. For a brief time, in the 1970s, she was a famous author, having penned the controversial tract on human sexuality called Combat in the Erogenous Zone, and a few years later a novel.