Mother of The Month

ABOUT M.O.M.

Through her travels, Chef Lisa came to realize that the best meals of a country are not found in its restaurants. They’re found in its homes, made with love by mothers cooking for their families. So, in addition to Mother’s regular menu where she serves food from mothers around the world, Chef Lisa highlights a different mother each month and features some of her special dishes.

The special mother is called the Mother of the Month (or M.O.M.™), and her photograph, story and menu take a prominent place at the beginning of Mother’s menu. We choose a mother that allows us to take advantage of the seasonal availability of ingredients, such as a Greek mother in the summer months and a Polish mother in the winter months.

If you’d like to nominate a mother to be the M.O.M.™, CLICK HERE and tell us something about her and her special dishes.

M.O.M. Menu

Elaine (“Cookie”) Frances Reynolds

Lunch

Tuna Melt

tuna salad, grilled country bread, open-faced, sliced tomatoes, cheddar, side house salad

12

DINNER

Chicken Paprikash

slow-cooked Draper Valley chicken, onions, paprika, sour cream, spaetzle, braised red cabbage

20

Stuffed Peppers

green bell peppers, grass-fed painted hills beef, onions, garlic, rice, spices, tomato sauce, smashed red potatoes

14 one pepper  I  18 two peppers

Dessert

Lemon Meringue Pie

flaky pastry crust, berry sauce

8

Special cocktail

Mom’s Lemon Drop

house-infused lemon vodka, lemon vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup, up, sugar rim

10

CURRENT M.O.M. STORY

Elaine (“Cookie”) Frances Reynolds

Elaine (“Cookie”) Frances Reynolds was born in San Francisco in 1930. She grew up in an extended family setting with her grandparents, mother, dad and uncle all under the same roof. Her grandmother doted on her and cooked delicious meals for the family every day. When Cookie was 18, her mother, father and brother drove cross country to New York City for a veteran’s convention. Her aunt and cousin had already moved there, and Cookie met her husband-to-be while visiting them. They maintained a long-distance relationship for a short while, but eventually, Cookie moved to New York and married Bob.

After seven years in New York, Bob’s dry cleaning store went out of business and he couldn’t find a job in his field, so they moved back to San Francisco, into Cookie’s parents’ house. After eight months, Cookie was in the hospital giving birth to the first of their three children when her roommate told her about veteran’s housing in an area called Pedro Valley (now known as Pacifica). They bought a small house and moved there to raise their three children. Cookie and Bob eventually divorced and Cookie remarried, this time to someone she had known in the community and who lived in the neighborhood. Cookie and Chuck were married for thirty-six years, though he passed away a few years ago.

Cookie loves to cook, and learned a lot about it from her first mother-in-law who was Hungarian. She always cooked for the family, made breakfast and packed lunches for all the kids and her husband daily. They never ate out at a restaurant unless they were on an occasional family vacation, and even then they rented a room with a kitchen so she could cook. When her kids were teenagers during high school, all the kids preferred hanging out in “Cookie’s
Kitchen” where the pantry was full and there were always freshly baked cookies or cake. As her daughter, Louanne tells us, “Mom is a good cook because she invests every dish with the best of intentions, humility and heart.”

We hope you taste the love in her dishes this month!

Click here to See Former M.O.M.S

Nominate A M.O.M.

The M.O.M. menu has been an important part of Mother’s since we opened in 2000.  This allows our guests to experience both new flavors and dishes from around the world and meals prepared with love by mothers cooking for their families.  Our past M.O.M.’s include a wide variety of individuals- mothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters, friends, and wives- and we’ve even had a few honorary male M.O.M.’s!

If you would like to nominate somebody (or yourself) to be a future M.O.M. at Mother’s, please fill out this form and return it to the host at Mother’s or [email protected].  Once we receive your form, we will contact the nominee (if possible), or you, (if it’s you or if you’d like to be the intermediary) to discuss potential dishes for the M.O.M. menu.

When making menu suggestions, please keep in mind that our M.O.M. menu typically includes an appetizer, salad and/or lunch item, 2-3 entrees (usually a meat, poultry, and/or vegetarian/fish dish) and a dessert.  When making suggestions, feel free to make your list as long as you’d like, but don’t suggest dishes that replicate those on our main menu (even if yours is the best meatloaf in the world, meatloaf is on our regular menu, so couldn’t be offered on our M.O.M. menu).

It’s likely we’ll have a bit of back and forth where I may ask you to list ingredients in a dish to gain a clearer idea of how it might taste, but keep in mind that we won’t need any recipes until after we finalize the menu.

Thanks again for your interest in the M.O.M. program.  Feel free to contact us with any questions you have!