Former soldiers from the Hive Mind have been running a restaurant together - The Last Chance. The day the top restaurant critic is due for a visit, thFormer soldiers from the Hive Mind have been running a restaurant together - The Last Chance. The day the top restaurant critic is due for a visit, there is a big explosion at TwiceFar Station and they escape in a bioship owned by an uber wealthy customer. It is space opera, found family, and foodie all together, so I bet this will work for many readers. I'm hoping we get more of the story! ...more
Edelweiss backlog... I don't have any specific interest in Stanley Tucci other than vague awareness of him as an actor. I haven't seen his food or traEdelweiss backlog... I don't have any specific interest in Stanley Tucci other than vague awareness of him as an actor. I haven't seen his food or travel shows or used his cookbooks.
Taste is a lighter read combining memoir and food writing. Tucci spans topics from a childhood spent inside a southern Italian immigrant community all the way up to his personal experience with cancer and the pandemic. The focus is not on his career at all, but sometimes the people and places he encounters because of various roles are pathways to food memories - meals, restaurants, or chefs.
There are a few recipes scattered throughout the text from drink standards to elaborate holiday dishes like Timpano, but this is not a cookbook....more
I didn't know about The Lost Kitchen, an apparently acclaimed restaurant in Maine. I knew less about the owner/chef and her story, but apparently therI didn't know about The Lost Kitchen, an apparently acclaimed restaurant in Maine. I knew less about the owner/chef and her story, but apparently there is a show about her on a network I do not have, so I missed that context. (If you know, you know.) If you like food or recovery memoirs, this is one to try. Something about the pacing (or maybe the level of detail) made it take me a while to finish, but it's nice to read the story of a woman who fights to take control of her own life and finds work that is deeply fulfilling on the other side....more
Nesto has relocated to Ithaca with his food truck of Afro-Caribbean cuisine and meets Jude, a youth librarian - sparks fly, obviously. And it was greaNesto has relocated to Ithaca with his food truck of Afro-Caribbean cuisine and meets Jude, a youth librarian - sparks fly, obviously. And it was great - these are all in hoopla.
One "Karen" villain threatens both Nesto and Jude. Jude has to deal with being hurt in the past by his fundamentalist family and a previous relationship, but he has a strong friendship with another librarian. Nesto is strongly supported by his friends and family, but is a bit of a workaholic. They have to work through these situations to pursue the relationship and it felt pretty realistic to me.
It looks like the Dreamers series features Nesto and his childhood friends, all from different places in the Caribbean, with a strong bond from growing up together in New York. I wanted to get to the Christmas one by December, which is #5, so here's to more!...more
Lila is helping out in the family restaurant when her ex-boyfriend dies of what looks like poisoning. Lots of Filipino food and family, and some secreLila is helping out in the family restaurant when her ex-boyfriend dies of what looks like poisoning. Lots of Filipino food and family, and some secrets only known to the people who have stayed in the small community. I hope we see more in this series because there are some unresolved relationships at the end of this! A few recipes in the back, which will send me on another hunt for pandan leaves.
I had a copy of this from the publisher through NetGalley....more
Michelle Zauner writes about losing her Mom to cancer, what it was like to grow up Korean-American, how she connects to her family through food (and dMichelle Zauner writes about losing her Mom to cancer, what it was like to grow up Korean-American, how she connects to her family through food (and discovers this while caring for her mother.)
Near the end of the book she talks about finally finding success as a musician, which she never expected, in her band called Japanese Breakfast. The cover of Psychopomp has her mother reaching a hand out.
I was expecting something a bit lighter, maybe a bit more snappy, but I also enjoy grief memoirs, so even though it was slower paced than I expected, I felt a true sense of the author by the end. I also liked hearing her stories about Eugene, Oregon, since that's not too far from where I grew up. I may have spent some time watching the food YouTube videos she mentions, and reading articles about the many H Marts in Oregon. My youngest sister took me to a Korean market in Beaverton that had Koreans upstairs and a kimchee tasting table, but I don't think it was an H Mart.
Thanks to the publisher for providing access to this title through NetGalley. It came out April 20, 2021.
Set in the UK, this is the everything is fine, hashtag vanlife, hashtag digital nomad, baked goods and old books, romance and friendship book. It cameSet in the UK, this is the everything is fine, hashtag vanlife, hashtag digital nomad, baked goods and old books, romance and friendship book. It came out on the 16th and is an antidote to the burnout you've been feeling. Recommended for a feel-good read!
I had access to a copy from the publisher through NetGalley....more
I was going to skip this chef memoir but then someone in my Around the World group pointed out that he spent a hefty chunk of his childhood and young I was going to skip this chef memoir but then someone in my Around the World group pointed out that he spent a hefty chunk of his childhood and young adult years in Andorra. Books from Andorra translated into English are very hard to come by so this may be as close as I can get.
I know of Eric Ripert of course, first from his friendship with Tony Bourdain and second from Jen-on-Top-Chef who worked for him at Le Bernadin, a restaurant that has consistently been given top awards and reviews, but closed early in the COVID wave and has remained closed since (I hope they are able to reopen someday.) I knew he was a long-practicing Buddhist and that he started around the time he arrived in New York. I knew the same year Tony died, Le Bernadin was awarded the top restaurant in the world! So I realize I know more than I thought, but I didn't know about his childhood. I had the impression that he grew up in the Alps, skiing and eating cheese.
This memoir is only the years up until he leaves for New York, from his idyllic childhood until his father dies. He confronts some challenges with a bullying stepfather and a year in boarding school, but he also has a mother who taught him about quality and perfection (and great food), knew good chefs and farmers as friends, could walk out the door and go hiking (and did), and wore designer clothing because of his mother's boutique. His family connections get him into a school that trains chefs/cooks but also waiters, a much more respected career in France than other places, and also get him a cush job when his military service comes up (where he worked as the officer's waiter after rejecting his cook job due to low quality ingredients.) I feel his privilege should be recognized because although it is indisputable that he has worked incredibly hard and endured incredible challenges, many of the opportunities that feel like "right place right time" really weren't, even if he took advantage of them to their finest. Kudos to him for sticking through the challenges; that is fortitude few of us would have.
All because of this, by his mid-20s he had worked both at La Tour d'Argent AND at almost every station in Joël Robuchon's restaurant, during the time it was given three Michelin stars. The descriptions of the precision and demanding atmosphere of that time are worth the entire book, and honestly I've worked in restaurants and can't fathom what you have to put yourself through to get to that level of speed and accuracy (and keep your sanity.) (Check out this Eater article that shows a few pictures of the perfect dishes, it's the one with the dots that is narrated in detail in the book.)
As for Andorra, it would be impossible to read this book and not understand how important that place is to Chef Ripert's internal strength and integrity, a hearty place full of real people to keep him grounded.
"It would take time for me to see that my mother had given me a gift by bringing me to Andorra. Growing up in a small town, with a mother whose business was central to the city, meant that I was surrounded by characters like Jacques and Madame Amparo. They knew me, and what’s more, they watched out for me, and dreamed for me of a life beyond the mountain range. Ask me now what I own and I can tell you with confidence that among my richest possessions are the memories I have of the people of Andorra, people like Madame Amparo, who made our village not just a place between France and Spain, but also a bridge between the stark reality of my present and the rich possibility of my future."
"...Each task was a lot like hiking in Andorra. There was only one way to go—up. All of those years of climbing mountains had given me an instinct for the ascent, a sense of how to pace myself, how to structure my approach—not through sprints to the top, but slowly and over time."
"In Andorra in the fall, I also helped my mother put up the wild mushrooms that we harvested in our special spots in the mountains around our home."
"You’re going to America and you will never come back to Andorra in the same way.” ...more
One of the first cookbooks I was given when I got married in 2000 was Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. My family was worried that I was marrying a vegOne of the first cookbooks I was given when I got married in 2000 was Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. My family was worried that I was marrying a vegetarian and wanted me to be prepared.
Deborah Madison has long been connected to vegetarian cooking although she isn't a vegetarian exactly, she has just found herself in spaces that have a lot of produce to offer and where people don't eat a lot of meat. Her spiritual practice at the SF Zen Center included a long stint running the kitchen which would eventually lead her to open Greens in cooperation with the center, and somehow in between there she also worked at Chez Panisse, a job she just kind of fell into.
All along the way, she's been writing cookbooks that captured several decades of vegetarian cooking in America, from the hippie dippie years of brown breads and lots of cheese to where we are now with our coconut everything and broader access to ingredients.
The memoir chronicles her journey with food, ingredients, cooking, restaurants, cookbooks - and also a deeper exploration of what is enough, what nourishes, and the importance of community.
This book came out November 10 from Knopf; I had a copy from the publisher through Edelweiss....more
Squeezing this in for Nonfiction November - this book looks at American cheese (all cheese, not just the bright orange variety I always called "plastiSqueezing this in for Nonfiction November - this book looks at American cheese (all cheese, not just the bright orange variety I always called "plastic cheese.") The author examines the industry, visits cheese conventions, cheese competitions, and follows people who are training to be cheesemongers. He visits small producers trying to make names for themselves, including Rogue River Creamery before they won the award for best cheese in the world...I blame this book for the taste of it that I felt compelled to order! But the author is hitting the American Cheese stride right as the world is starting to pay attention, so that's good timing, or it would have been, if only tariffs hadn't gone up that negatively impacted the export of cheese, the import of the manufacturing equipment required to make it, and more people are forgoing travel at all much less culinary travel to obscure cheese producing locations. (We have traveled some of the WNC Cheese Trail so we know obscure mountain cheese locations!)
This book is more about the people surrounding cheese and the obscure culture of the beliefs and practices of those people. It's like an ethnography of a separate culture living amidst the rest of us. And while you will learn about some of the cheeses of America at the same time, it's not really the focus. The author was funded to travel to write this book so he threw in a trip to France as well (smart although his description of the French cheese made me more curious about their cheese than ours, particularly some of those Alpine cheeses. Sign me up!)
I still enjoyed most of the book aside from a few strange word choices (kibbutz for a not even obscure use but unknown and I don't think it works; yeet in a way that should not be used unless you are a tiktok teenager- how will the old people who buy this book at Costco know what he means? I had a review copy so perhaps they fixed it.)
A similar book to this, about French cheese and really focuses on the cheese that I would recommend, perhaps as a companion book to this one, is The Whole Fromage: Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese by Kathe Lison, which remains my favorite single ingredient book I've read.
I had a review copy of this from the publisher through Edelweiss. It came out October 6, 2020. You will be amazed how much cheese you can order off the internet to have delivered to your house because this book will make you hungry....more
Nikki relocates to Maui after her father's death to help her mother run a food truck serving Filipino food, and has an encounter with the new (hot, EnNikki relocates to Maui after her father's death to help her mother run a food truck serving Filipino food, and has an encounter with the new (hot, English) food truck owner who parks in her space.
I like the foodie elements and the location, the tension between the characters, but sometimes it's like the author gets sidetracked (random trip to London! Luxury resort!) and adds elements to the story that actually detract from the central romance. I also do not like epilogues especially in romance. Give me my happy ending and walk away!
Still when I needed something to read during election week insomnia, this was a fair distraction.
I had a copy of this from the publisher through NetGalley; it came out October 13, 2020....more
I devoured this memoir by Chef David Chang. I have enough of a background in the culinary world to know how hard it is, how few people succeed, how eaI devoured this memoir by Chef David Chang. I have enough of a background in the culinary world to know how hard it is, how few people succeed, how easy it is to completely burn out. It can be such hard work when you're only responsible for yourself; taking on the risks of managing and opening a restaurant are unfathomable to me.
Every once in a while you find someone who despite those same struggles pulls off something amazing and changes the landscape forever, and that is this story. Even if you aren't into food but you have an interest in the creative process, in how to fail and use it as fuel, this will be inspiring on that level too. The irony is that he is not trying to be inspiring, but just to talk about what happened and how. He also discusses struggles with his own mental illness and how this line of work almost manifested as its own addiction (that's my diagnosis/connection and may not be what he really said.)
I know the pandemic has gutted the restaurant industry and his brand didn't escape it either. I cried the night he posted about closing one of his restaurants. In some ways the memoir captures the hopeful period right before all this happened, and maybe that is one reason I kept finding reasons to listen to it. I've followed so many of his endeavors over the years from Lucky Peach to the tv shows; I even remember watching a televised report on the foraging competition (Eat it Raw) in 2010. I've never been to his restaurants because I've never been to NYC but after listening to this audiobook I feel like we've been on that journey together. Such a creative thinker, such a world builder, I finish this book astounded even more than I already was.
As for the title, I know most will assume it comes from The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock ("I grow old ... I grow old ...I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled...Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?") but I like to think it's a more obscure reference to Nicolas Cage in Face Off ("I could eat a peach for hours..")...more
I picked this to have a lighter read and it fulfilled that role; I always meant to read the author's earlier book - "Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and FoI picked this to have a lighter read and it fulfilled that role; I always meant to read the author's earlier book - "Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune" - but haven't yet. I think they are related but I didn't feel lost in this one. Vanessa has the family gift of telling fortunes and it happens against her will, often when she drinks tea. She's fought it but soon discovers she may have no choice. She moves to Paris with her aunt to train her abilities while her aunt opens a tea shop.
There is some romance in the book but that isn't the central story. I would say I liked the central story; sometimes the writing left a little to be desired, especially a few awkward food and tea descriptions. But overall a not quite realistic, rompy little read of self-discovery. And I definitely craved tea for days.
I had a copy from the publisher through netgalley and it came out August 4....more
I can count the number of pastry chef memoirs I have read on one finger - this one! And Lisa Donovan is my kind of chef, "uncomplicated and thoughtfulI can count the number of pastry chef memoirs I have read on one finger - this one! And Lisa Donovan is my kind of chef, "uncomplicated and thoughtfully prepared - nothing flashy, just good, just delicious, and ultimately, just comforting." She writes about her life starting with an unexpected pregnancy and an abusive partner, struggling to make ends meet, how she found her pastry feet in Nashville, and how she pulled elements of her family background into her craft.
For those that love chef gossip there is some about Sean Brock and the Husk years as that's what she is most known for, but she has had significant experiences before and after. (You can watch her make her most known dish on The Mind of a Chef.)
I actually think what will be most interesting is what she does next. There is a sense in the book that she is only now really stepping into claiming her power.
The memoir came out August 4 and I had a copy from the publisher through Edelweiss. I also saw the author speak at the Southern Festival of Books. ...more
I found this collection in Hoopla - tiny little personal stories of food and comfort. Spoiler alert - it is rarely fancy food. This isn't a cookbook aI found this collection in Hoopla - tiny little personal stories of food and comfort. Spoiler alert - it is rarely fancy food. This isn't a cookbook although some of the essays include recipes (one is for just-add-water brownies.) It was good for my mood! ...more
Jenny (Reading Envy)
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