Edward Espé Brown
Personal life
Born	(1945-03-24)March 24, 1945 (age 80)
Nationality	American
Religious life
Religion	Zen Buddhism
School	Sōtō
Lineage	Shunryu Suzuki
Senior posting
Teacher	Sojun Mel Weitsman
Website	www.peacefulseasangha.com

"Kainei" Edward Espé Brown (born March 24, 1945) is an AmericanZen teacher and writer. He is the author ofThe Tassajara Bread Book, written at theTassajara Zen Mountain Center, as well as the co-author ofThe Greens Cookbook, withDeborah Madison.

Brown's mother died when he was three years old. Three days after her death, his father decided to send Brown and his older brother Dwite to an orphanage inSan Anselmo, California, because that was the only way he could visit them regularly (the alternative was to send the boys to live with relatives inSouth Dakota). Brown's father remarried four years later, and then the boys returned home.^[1]

In 1955, Dwite and Brown flew toFalls Church, Virginia to visit their aunt Alice. It was her homemade bread baking that inspired Brown,^[1] who called her bread "fabulously delicious". He wondered why other people weren't eating the same thing instead of "foamy white bread" bought in a store. Brown resolved to learn how to bake bread and to teach others how.^[2]

When he got home he asked his mother to teach him to bake bread. She said, "No, yeast makes me nervous." Brown eventually learned to bake bread, eleven years later, from two chefs at Tassajara. Brown later asked his brother if he remembered their trip to visit Alice. Dwite said yes he did, "What I remember was theSmithfield ham, but it didn't change my life".^[2]

Brown wroteThe Tassajara Bread Book in 1970 with a $100 advance from the publisher. As of 2003, 750,000 copies were in print, with 3,000 copies still selling every year.^[1] From the mid-1960s to the mid-'80s, Brown lived, cooked, taught or was a manager at theTassajara Zen Mountain Center,Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and theSan Francisco Zen Center.^[3]

ADharma heir ofSojun Mel Weitsman,^[4] in 1971, Brown was ordained as a Zen priest byShunryu Suzuki, who gave him theDharma name Jusan Kainei ("Longevity Mountain, Peaceful Sea").^[5] He edited Suzuki's bookNot Always So in 2002 after Suzuki's death in 1971.^[6]

Brown helped to found the vegetarianGreens Restaurant inSan Francisco.^[5] He and founding chefDeborah Madison wrote the vegetarian cookbook,The Greens Cookbook in 1987.^[7]

Brown leads the Peaceful Sea Sangha inFairfax,Marin County, California and is a member of theSoto Zen Buddhist Association.^[8] Brown makes his living by teaching meditation in his home and by giving baking and cooking workshops at Zen centers in theUnited States,Canada andAustria. Brown tells his students that "every dough is different, just as every day is different". He also says that baking and living both come down to the same thing: "developing attention and awareness".^[3]

He combineszazen withqigong,yoga, andhandwriting change, so that some critics call his teaching style "Zen Lite". Brown told Carol Ness, writing for theSan Francisco Chronicle, "I'm not insistent on the forms. We're not all serious and sober. We sit and we talk."^[3]

Brown is the subject of the 2007documentary filmHow to Cook Your Life byDoris Dörrie,^[9] in which he and Dörrie suggest embracing joy and spirit within food habits.^[3] "When you’re cooking, you’re not just cooking, you’re not just working on food...you’re also working on yourself, you’re working on other people." He also appears inSpiritual Revolution (2008), a less well-known film by Alan Swyer.^[10]

• The Tassajara Bread Book.(2011) [1970]Shambhala Publications. Written at theTassajara Zen Mountain Center.^[11]
  • 1970 first edition:ISBN 0-87773-025-3,ISBN 978-0-87773-025-5.
  • 1995 25th anniversary edition:ISBN 1-57062-089-X,ISBN 978-1-57062-089-8.
• Tassajara Cooking. (1986)Shambhala Publications.ISBN 0-87773-344-9,ISBN 978-0-87773-344-7.
• Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings: Recipes and Reflections. (1997)Riverhead Books.ISBN 1-57322-673-4,ISBN 978-1-57322-673-8.
• The Tassajara Recipe Book. (2000)Shambhala Publications.ISBN 1-57062-580-8,ISBN 978-1-57062-580-0.
• The Greens Cookbook, withDeborah Madison. (2001)Random House Broadwayimprint.ISBN 0-7679-0823-6,ISBN 978-0-7679-0823-8.
• Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen. Lectures byShunryu Suzuki (2008) [2003] (ed.)HarperCollins.ISBN 0-06-095754-9,ISBN 978-0-06-095754-4.
• The Complete Tassajara Cookbook: Recipes, Techniques, and Reflections from the Famed Zen KitchenShambhala Publications. (2011).ISBN 978-1-59030-672-7
• No Recipe: Cooking as Spiritual PracticeSounds True (2018).ISBN 978-1683640547ASIN B073ZVZR63
• Brown, Edward Espe; Parker, Danny S. (2019).The most important point : Zen teachings of Edward Espe Brown. Boulder, Colorado.ISBN 978-1-68364-160-5.OCLC 1042356769.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

• Edward Espe Brown website, Peaceful Sea Sangha.

• 1945 births
• Living people
• American religious writers
• American Zen Buddhists
• Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area
• People from San Anselmo, California
• Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area
• San Francisco Zen Center
• Soto Zen Buddhists
• Vegetarian cookbook writers
• Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area
• Zen Buddhism writers
• Zen Buddhist spiritual teachers
• Chefs from San Francisco

• Pages using religious biography with multiple nickname parameters
• CS1 maint: location missing publisher