Luncheonette by Steven Sorrentino

Steven Sorrentino was in his early 20's, happily living in New York City, going to auditions, dreaming about performing on Broadway, meeting eligible men, and just generally heading his life in the direction of his choosing when he goes home to New Jersey for a Christmas that will change his life forever. He's met at the door by his mother who tells him that something is wrong with his father. What follows is a medical nightmare that ends with his father paralyzed from the nipples down and Steven putting his own life on hold to take over running dad's luncheonette, abandoning his Broadway dream, and stepping firmly back into the closet required of suburban New Jersey in the early 80's.

This memoir of the years Sorrentino spent at the luncheonette, becoming bitter and frustrated as his father faced more and more health setbacks with smiles and grace is an instructive one. He never glosses over his anger about his situation and his disbelief at his father's relentless cheer in the face of so much loss and while it is clear from the book that he has learned a lot from his father's approach to life, Sorrentino lets the reader see just how difficult and hard fought it was for him to come to understand and appreciate the lesson his father taught him about life and persevering in the face of adversity. He is unafraid to come off looking less than his best. To the outside world he was a wonderful and dutiful son but inside he was seething and unhappy.

Cliff Sorrentino is not a fatalist and he goes about living his life to the fullest, without bemoaning his fate. He runs for mayor and triumphs, his paralysis not holding him back, even as Steven continues closing himself off to any attempt to break free of the stultifying, joyless life he's leading behind the luncheonette counter. Sorrentino has a real talent at drawing the character of the regulars at Cliff's Corner. They start out one dimensional as he hopes that his tenure at the luncheonette will be short-lived but he fleshes them out as he gets to know them over the intervening years. Their little ticks and eccentricities go from being mildly entertaining to annoying as Sorrentino's patience with his lot decreases. There's no epiphany here for Sorrentino and his luncheonette years will probably always be tender like a wound but in the end, this is a loving tribute to the man who taught him by example and gave him a new way to live, no matter how hard following that example might have turned out to be. Fans of unconventional memoirs will quite appreciate this book.

Review: Jam Today by Tod Davies

I am not an intuitive cook. I need a recipe. I pull out recipes for things I've been making for literally years. I don't like to fly blind in the kitchen. Is this a control freak thing? Am I so very constrained because I am a perfectionist and don't want to feel compelled to eat a dreadful failure? (Not that following the recipe always guarantees great success, mind you, although I prefer to find the cookbook at fault rather than the cook.) And I think the ability to improvise and pull together a delicious (and edible) meal from seemingly disparate ingredients, just knowing that things will work, is an incredible talent. It's one I wish I had. So the concept of cooking with what I had on hand, as Davies' cookbook cum discussion of her food philosophy book asserted intrigued me no end.

The recipes here are intentionally inexact as she wants to encourage cooks to experiment and to understand that for some things, there's no way to mess up. Now I admit I flagged many of these inexact recipes and intend to go out, buy the ingredients, and do the best I can with every last ounce of guidance that she gives. But I was also inspired to go out on a limb the other night and create something from the things in my pantry, hanging around in my fridge, and on the table in the fruit bowl. And shock of all shocks, it turned out deliciously! (Well, my kids didn't think so but I sure did and the kids are philistines so we tend to ignore their bland, uneducated palates around here).

What was charming about the book itself was that it was written in a cozy, friendly manner, as if the reader was sitting with Davies in her kitchen as she threw together things that were destined to be good. There are loads of vegetarian options here as Davies' husband is a vegetarian but since he travels and she eats meat herself, there are also plenty of suggestions for carnivores. Her recipes focus on using fresh ingredients, appropriate to the season, and local if at all possible. I'm sure her produce, pulled from her own garden moments before inclusion in recipes is far tastier than mine but the overabundance of veggies in her meals inspires me to try and add more into our own diets. My chief complaint about the recipes is more a taste thing than anything else. I loathe eggs and mushrooms where Davies loves them and includes many recipes for both. But there are enough other recipes to keep me happy too so that's really a minor quibble. I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to trying some of the tagged recipes.

In the meantime, here's my off the cuff, had it lying around recipe, as inexactly as I made it (and anyone who comments that there was no way I could have messed it up with this combination of ingredients is banned from the blog in perpetuity--although they have gotten into the spirit of the book):

Citrus Noodles with Chicken and Pecans

Take a half box of Thai stir fry noodles and boil them until they are ready to stir fry. Toss them in a wok with whatever oil you happen to have on hand (I had the dregs of Canola in my pantry). Add in a roughly chopped half (or more if you like it) of an onion and a chunk of butter. Stir in the leftover chicken you have in a container in the fridge, especially if the chicken is getting close to having to be pitched and everyone is tired of eating it in all its other incarnations. Pound the pecans remaining in the bag after the Christmas baking is completed and toss those in as well (pecans, not Christmas baking). Grab a tangelo bought from your neighbor's daughter for a fundraiser. Zest the entire thing into the dish. Then squeeze it into submission and add all the juice and any pulp in the strainer (try to catch the seeds though) into the wok as well. If your concoction is starting to look a bit dry as your stir it around (mine was), slosh a glug of half and half into the mess. Heat through and top with grated pepper. Serve immediately. Now that I think of it, fresh (or even dried if there's no fresh in the crisper) parsley would have made a nice addition too. I'll have to try that small adjustment when I reheat the leftovers tonight.

Really, you can't screw this up, short of having it burn to the pan. If I can learn to cook intuitively, anyone can. And that is a gift for which I give thanks to Ms. Davies, even if she does like fungus just too much for one person's good!

This post has been a part of Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking meme. Check out her blog for other people writing about food, cookbooks, and food-related novels this weekend.

Review: Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser

More a food diary with recipes than a proper memoir, I was reading this as I was preparing Thanksgiving dinner. It gave me a chuckle to realize just how horrified Hesser would be to have to eat at my house, what with the frozen blocks of squash pried out of their boxes and thawed, the boxes of dried corn torn open and rehydrated, the bag of processed stuffing cubes dumped into a bowl before being crammed into the turkey. While I might not be a gourmet cook, I do all right and we enjoy it. Hesser would, however, find the amount of real butter I used making that meal to be perfectly acceptable, I think. In any case, she did earn my respect by admiting that she has made the mistake of trying to speed up the mashed potatoes by using a mixer, at which point the potatoes turn into something with the consistency of silly putty (her description). I've done that too (only once). But this is not a book about her life in the kitchen per se, but more about her attitude towards food, eating, and how, as a published foodie, that permeates her entire life.

Ostensibly arranged around first meeting her boyfriend and then forging a lasting relationship, this book is composed of short chapters finished off by recipes either inspired by the story in the chapter or fitting the theme in some way. There are interesting tidbits here but not a real narrative line, which is only a problem if the reader goes into the book looking for more memoir, fewer philosophical musings on food, its preparation, its consumption, and its importance beyond simple nurishment. As the pieces were mostly written as installments for the New York Times Magazine, the episodic feel to the book is understandable even if it might have been more appealing had it held together a bit more. It was a decent enough piece of writing but left me slightly disappointed that it hadn't turned out to be more--more of a memoir with a few recipes or more of a cooking narrative with only a few personal asides. That it tried to straddle these two things instead of committing to the depth of one or the other weakened it as a whole. I have yet to try any of the recipes (see Thanksgiving comments above) but I do have some flagged to try. Of course, given my obviously plebian tastes and Hesser's more sophisticated palate, we could have a misconnect food-wise but I'm hoping the recipes make up for the otherwise tepid reading.

Review: The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel

This is a big, gorgeous, appealing mix of a book. It's an epistolary novel. It has recipes. It has pictures and doodles. In short, it is a beautifully designed, lovely feeling book. All of it wrapped up together should have equalled a book I'd rave over. And it was good, it just wasn't great.

Opening with childhood friends Lilly and Val reconnecting after years of silence, the friends start exchanging e-mails, thrilled to be speaking again. Until they have to face the issue that originally tore them apart, where it becomes obvious that each is still laboring under a cloud of hurt and recrimination and their versions of what destroyed their friendship in the first place are diametrically opposed. Before things get acrimonious between them again, they did recall fondly the Recipe Club they created as children whereby they sent each other letters and recipes on a regular basis.

The second part of the book takes the reader back to the beginnings of the Recipe Club and to the innocent times of their childhood. As they exchange letters through the years, their characters are revealed more fully as are their perceptions of their parents and others around them. The recipes included with the letters refer to something discussed in the letter or created as a reaction to an event. And the letters from these girls turning into young women continue on until the betrayal that is too big to be forgiven.

The third section of the book initially eschews the letter and e-mail format of the previous sections, instead using third person narration whereby Val discovers that Lilly's father has passed away. And this is the catalyst for a second reconnection between the women and the exposure of an explosive secret that changes everything. Lilly and Val must come to understand and forgive events far beyond their own control if they want to have any kind of relationship at all.

I love the premise of the book and the presentation but I thought the letters exchanged by the girls early on were a bit too sophisticated and in depth for their ages. I wrote letters to friends from the time I was in 3rd grade and saved all of their letters to me and the letters from Lilly and Val seem far more introspective and thoughtful than the letters my friends and I exchanged. The argument could certainly be made that Lilly and Val were just more sophisticated girls than my friends and I were but the fact that the letters never change in tone or point to emotional maturation on Lilly and Val's parts would then be incredibly troubling given their ages at the start of their Recipe Club.

The narrative arc of the story is well managed and the gaps in the narrative, while frustrating, would be true of a friendship based mainly on letters. As time went on in the story, the recipes did become more sophisticated, as would be expected. I flagged many of the recipes and they look really tasty. The theme of family and friendship and how they are created and maintained, how they inform and shape a person, and how they can break down is strong here. Having lost several very close friends over the years, I empathized with Lilly and Val's plight. But I had a tough time getting past Val's neediness and Lilly's superiority. Obviously this is a personal reaction to the characters as they are drawn and other readers might react entirely differently. I so wanted to be wowed by this book but was left vaguely disappointed and feeling just a little flat.

Thanks to Caitlin of FSB Associates for sending me a review copy of this book.

Review: The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark

In late 15th century Venice, Luciano, a street urchin is collared by the doge's chef when he tries to steal a pomegranate. With this lucky instance, he is plucked from his hard existence in the streets and apprenticed to the chef. Using the cunning he used to survive on the streets, he soon discovers that there are more secrets and lies in Venice than he ever imagined and that his Master is so much more than he ever dreamed. Meanwhile, rumors circulate in Venice about a book containing no one knows what. Some people believe that it contains the secrets of alchemy. The doge thinks it has the information to cure his syphilis. Luciano is certain that is has a love potion that will make the little novice to whom he has given his heart love him back. People in power are willing to kill to possess the book, offering staggering awards for it. And so amidst the treachery and political manuvering that is Venice, the race to find and possess the book is on.

Caught up in the frenzy surrounding the book, Luciano eavesdrops in the palace, reports to his friends on the street, talks to the novice, and of course, starts to learn to cook. Watching the chef, he learns the importance of food, wondering if the meals that issue from their kitchen are changing the course of history and the fate of Venice. One of Luciano's first private lessons with the chef teaches him about the beauty of an onion, intricate layer upon intricate layer upon intricate layer. This is a beautiful metaphor for both the Venice Newmark has created as well as the story as a whole. As Luciano's apprenticeship continues, he not only learns to cook but to conspire and the grave importance of secrets kept and secrets spilled. Told in relatively short chapters, the reader will want to keep racing to the end of each, eager for the small revelations that will allow another piece of the puzzle about this fabulous, much-coveted book to fall into place.

Told from Luciano's point of view, the characters are fully fleshed out and human. And while the reader can see the pitfalls in certain characters long before Luciano recognizes that not everyone is worthy of his good heart's affection, this serves to illustrate Luciano's character better than had we been told of the traits that make him the perfect apprentice of the chef's. Newmark builds the suspense well and the final denouement is balanced and inevitable. In all honesty, before I got the book, I wasn't too certain this was going to be the book for me but as I continued to read the description, I couldn't escape the tug of intrigue and I am so very glad I didn't! I thoroughly enjoyed this lively historical fiction. I studiously ignored some of the factual inconsistencies (and Newmark addresses some of this in the author's afterword) because after all, this is fiction and allowances for the fantastical do not go amiss. I'd have loved for the chef to cook for me after all those mouth-watering food descriptions. Like the movie Seducing Beauty, this was an appealing, satisfying, and vividly tempting glimpse into the mysteries, politics, and depravities of long ago Venice.

To find out more about author Elle Newmark, check out her author website.

Thanks to Tracee from Pump Up Your Book Promotions for my copy of the book.