Food for Thought

I don't read much fiction, but The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister was recommended on a blog I follow so I though I'd give it a try. This turned out to be a lovely story. Set in a restaurant cooking class, each chapter focuses on one of the students and how the food they prepare is a reminder of something important in their lives. The book has an easy pace. Bauermeister has a beautiful way with descriptions (the sort of writing often described as "lush") and there were many paragraphs I went back and read again just for the sound they made. The theory that food has magical qualities and is a reflection of the soul isn't new, but when handled correctly can be a great reminder of the many levels of nourishment we receive at the table. If you liked Chocolat (the book, not that pathetic excuse for a movie) or Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (note to self: read more Anne Tyler) you will like this book.

Eat, Memory is a collection of essays from the Sunday New York Times. The authors of these stories were given a simple task: write about an important event in your life that involved food. The results include the heartbreaking (cooking for a dying mother), the hilarious (a summer job spent in the B&M baked bean factory) and the historical (Julia Child's failing her Cordon Bleu final exam). Fun to read, but if you always read the Times Magazine you've seen them all before. Edited by Amanda Hesser with lots of recipes.

The subtitle of this book is "A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes." Sigh. In The Year of Eating Dangerously, British food critic Tom Parker Bowles travels the world looking for extreme things to eat. It's been done before, and done better. At least Parker Bowles comes straight out and admits that he's no Bourdain. Tom seems like a nice enough man, and he writes very well, but I just didn't need another story about durian and dog. For me, the most interesting part was the introduction when he talks about the food his mother cooked (Camilla, as in wife of Charles, as in Prince) and the crap he was fed at boarding school. If you haven't OD'd on food/travel literature the way I have give this one a try.