Food books are always a lot of fun to read. I am a passable home cook but within limits (we eat food every day but it's rarely AMAZING, lucky to get something both boys will eat that isn't hot dogs or mac n cheese). I make meals because we need to eat, not because I get any great joy out of it. It's purely a function of needing food. I AM much more excited about making desserts or mostly any food that isn't healthy. In moderation, sure, all of that has it's place but you can't regularly consume only ice cream for supper.
Since I am seemingly not going to magically acquire better kitchen skills over night, I do at least enjoy reading about people who make me wish I was more competent in the kitchen. Not wish enough to really try to improve my skills, but just appreciate that there are people who do have those skills, and if I could magically get them that would be great. (This is also greatly hindered by the fact that I am not an adventurous eater of any sort and have a rather long, internal, list of items I will not eat.)
If I can't be a good cook in real life at least I can live vicariously through my reading!
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Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
This is probably the one on this list that I read first, AND the book I was rereading the days where I found out we were picked to be Luke's parents and meeting him (I did not remember that fact, thank you, Goodreads). This is a memoir of a woman named Julie who decides to cook the entirety of Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking in one calendar year. There are more than 365 recipes in that book and so she's packing them in to get through them all. I found this to be an astounding and overwhelming task, one of which I could never do solely for the way she describes hacking into bones. BUT, if she could do all of this from a tiny NYC kitchen, I should be able to experiment a bit more from my sure to be larger kitchen, right?
The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks by Kathleen Flinn
Another memoir, in which the author describes her time teaching cooking lessons out of her home for 9 true kitchen novices. I felt pretty good about my cooking skills compared to theirs in the beginning but they greatly overshadowed me by the end! It made me realize that, if I put the time into learning, I could be more than competent at feeding my family. This class seemed like a lot of fun but also, useful! I read this years ago but there were a lot of good tips in here alongside the stories!
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Another about a cooking school but this one fictional, about a woman who is running evening, weekly, cooking classes out of her restaurant. There are 8 students and each chapter is from one of their points of view. This is one of the most beautifully written books I've read but that doesn't mean it's boring! I was captivated with all their stories and how their lives intermingled over the weeks they were in cooking class together. There's quite a bit of connecting the dots around the stories since you are picking up from a different person each chapter. I remember staying up too late in bed to finish reading this one!
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl was the food critic at the New York Times and thus, every big restaurant in NYC was on the lookout for her. She realized that to properly review these restaurants she needed to be in disguise so she would get the service that a non-critic would get. She describes the lengths she went to disguise herself as well as all the wonderful food she ate. She was doing this in the 1990s maybe (at one point I believe she eats at the Windows on the World at the original World Trade Center) and so many dated references (I thought the recession she was referring too was 2008 then realized it was much longer ago) but still so much fun to see NYC food through a professional's eyes.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradel
This is a book that I very much remember finishing the weekend immediately after school shut down in March 2020. I remember finishing it on the window seat in my office while an older cousin came to take Luke to the nearby playground with other cousins and just wondering about how much life would be changing soon. This has nothing to do with the book but I didn't realize how many of these books I have very clear memories of the reading experience!
First, "The Great Midwest" here mostly means Minnesota, I was really hoping for an Indiana setting (nope). The story starts with a father and his young daughter, whose wife/mother has just left them. The father decides to pass on his love of food to his daughter, this daughter who went on to be a famous chef. Another one where each chapter was a different person and also a different dish. The characters intertwined with each other so beautifully that made for a delightful reading experience, figuring out all the connections. Also, pointing out many of the weird things about Midwest food.
Brooklyn in Love: A Delicious Memoir of Food, Family, and Finding Yourself by Amy Thomas
I enjoyed her earlier book, Paris, My Sweet, where she covered many delicious sounding treats in Paris and in New York. I only regret that I read that after we went to Paris so I wasn't able to do any sampling myself. In this one she is firmly in New York, living in Brooklyn, and trying to adjust to new life circumstances. AND, I am much more likely to be back in New York before I am back in Paris and this showcases some of the New York food scene so beautifully. This doesn't make me wish I was a better chef, more than I had endless time to just eat my way through New York.
The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
There are countless World War II novels but I have also learned so much from so many of them. This one follows three women in Britain who are competing to be a radio host on a new BBC radio show, teaching other women how to make the most of their rationed food. I am certainly glad I am not living on rations but the creativity and genius of these women, to make the most of the few supplies they had, is admirable and astounding. I am much less creative with so much more! Also, a lot of good female friendship which I always appreciate.
The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
If I had to pick, this would be one of my all-time favorites, I think. It's one of Elin Hilderbrand's earliest books and the format (following one character the whole novel) is so different from her more recent books that bounce around between many characters. This one follows Adrienne who is escaping a bad boyfriend and no money in the ski scene in Colorado for somewhere to work and earn money fast. She ends up on Nantucket and kinda falls into a hostess job at a restaurant. And not just any restaurant, The Blue Bistro, one of the most famous and legendary restaurants on the island. And also one that is closing at the end of the season and few know why. I love the fast paced restaurant scenes and the food sounds amazing (I am always sad that it is a fake restaurant, not that I've found myself on Nantucket yet). The hours of restaurant work sound horrible but so fun to read about on the page. And those pages just keep flying by as you keep up with the busy summer nights at The Blue Bistro.
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