Love & Saffron

 

Love & Saffron : A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love by Kim Fay

Fiction

2022 G. P. Putnam's Sons

Finished on January 23, 2023

Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding)

Publisher's Blurb:

The #1 Indie Next Pick, in the vein of the classic 84, Charing Cross Road and Meet Me at the Museum, this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine.

When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter--as well as a gift of saffron--to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she's never tasted fresh garlic--exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.

Food and a good life--they can't be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen's decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen's friendship--a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.

A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.

Wow. Three 5-star reads in the first month of the year! I'm on a roll, thanks to all the great recommendations from fellow book lovers. There are so many wonderful things about living on the Oregon coast, but we are in dire need of a good bookstore, so unless we're on a road trip in the RV, I never get the opportunity to wander around and admire the new releases, or pick up a book based solely on its attractive cover art. I've grown to depend on bloggers, Instagrammers, Goodread's friends, and Ann Patchett's laydown diaries (on Parnassus Books' Instagram feed). I'm pretty sure that I heard about Love & Saffron from more than one of these platforms. 

Easily read in a single sitting, I forced myself to slowly savor the book, reading it over the course of two evenings. Going into the story cold, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's comprised entirely of letters between the two main characters. (No, I didn't even read the book blurb, which would have revealed this fact.) I'm a huge fan of epistolary novels, and as I read, I envisioned scenes from 84, Charing Cross Road (starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins). Like those two characters from Helene Hanff's marvelous book, Joan and Imogen not only exchange letters, but gifts of unique food items and recipes. Spanning the years between 1962 and 1966, the historical details are an added bonus (although I momentarily felt that Fay was working from a mental checklist--almost to the point of distraction--including the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy's assassination, the Beatles, a new TV show called The French Chef, starring Julia Child, etc.), as are the women's comments about their current reading material. In addition to 84, Charing Cross Road, Love & Saffron brings to mind the correspondences and friendship between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. (Coincidentally, Imogen's husband discovers the joy of cooking and purchased a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.)

There is so much to enjoy about this book (which I had to remind myself is fiction and not a culinary memoir). My love of the Pacific Northwest, and familiarity with Seattle and the surrounding area, is just one aspect of the story I relished. The sweet friendship between the two women reminded me of the importance of the special friends in my own life, and how one comes to cherish those kindred spirits.

Love & Saffron will enchant fans of Laurie Colwin, Ann Hood, Helene Hanff, and Erica Bauermeister. Highly recommend!

Looking Back - Home to Harmony

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley

Fiction

2000 Multnomah Publishers

Finished on June 9, 2001

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

In the fictional small town of Harmony, Indiana, Sam Gardner becomes the pastor of his hometown church, Harmony Friends Meeting. In this delightful, first-person novel, Sam describes in a warm, down-home style the moving and humorous adventures he encounters his first year home to Harmony. Bestselling author Philip Gulley tackles the sticky issues of grace, faith, and forgiveness through skillful storytelling -- subtly introducing lessons on the power of relationship with each other and with God. Come to Harmony -- where the characters are wise yet fallible, the mishaps familiar yet funny, and the moral of the story is always heartwarming and faith-inspiring.

My Original Thoughts (2001):

This reminded me a lot of Jan Karon's books, which are much better and less preachy. I didn't realize Home to Harmony is Christian fiction until I was almost finished reading the book. Not terrible, but too sentimental for my liking. 

My Current Thoughts:

I'm surprised I finished this book. It doesn't sound like something I'd normally read.

Looking Back - Chocolat

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Fiction

2000 Penguin Group (first published in 1999)

Finished on May 14, 2000

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

When the exotic stranger Vianne Rocher arrives in the old French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique called “La Celeste Praline” directly across the square from the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock. It is the beginning of Lent: the traditional season of self-denial. The priest says she’ll be out of business by Easter.

To make matters worse, Vianne does not go to church and has a penchant for superstition. Like her mother, she can read Tarot cards. But she begins to win over customers with her smiles, her intuition for everyone’s favourites, and her delightful confections. Her shop provides a place, too, for secrets to be whispered, grievances aired. She begins to shake up the rigid morality of the community. Vianne’s plans for an Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate éclair?

For the first time, here is a novel in which chocolate enjoys its true importance, emerging as an agent of transformation. Rich, clever, and mischievous, reminiscent of a folk tale or fable, this is a triumphant read with a memorable character at its heart.

My Original Thoughts (2000):

Don't read this book if you're hungry! My mouth didn't stop watering the entire time I was reading it. Entertaining.

My Current Thoughts:

I remember quite a bit about this book and think it would be fun to give it a second reading. The second book in Harris' trilogy (The Girl with No Shadow) is equally entertaining, but somehow I missed Peaches for Father Francis. It might also be time to watch the movie version of Chocolat again, which includes Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp and Judi Dench. 

A Place at the Table

A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White
Fiction
2013 Touchstone
Finished on February 7, 2017
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A rich, beautiful novel about three unlikely, complex characters who meet in a chic Manhattan café and realize they must sacrifice everything they ever knew or cared about to find authenticity, fulfillment, and love.

A Place at the Table tells the story of three richly nuanced characters whose paths converge in a chic Manhattan café: Bobby, a gay Southern boy who has been ostracized by his family; Amelia, a wealthy Connecticut woman whose life is upended when a family secret finally comes to light; and Alice, an African-American chef whose heritage is the basis of a famous cookbook but whose past is a mystery to those who know her.

As it sweeps from a freed-slave settlement in 1920s North Carolina to the Manhattan of the deadly AIDs epidemic of the 1980s to today’s wealthy suburbs, A Place at the Table celebrates the healing power of food and the magic of New York as three seekers come together in the understanding that when you embrace the thing that makes you different, you become whole.

Eager to a read a foodie-type story, I pulled a dusty ARC of A Place at the Table from the shelf, glanced at the cover and dove in cold without bothering to read the publisher's blurb. I wasn't disappointed. Told in three narrative voices (yet not in alternating chapters), A Place at the Table moves from one character's story to the next, which had me wondering if (and when) they would ever cross paths. In spite of the lack of marked passages, I thought this was a very good read, although now that almost a year has passed, I have only a vague recollection of the book. The story was entertaining and the writing impressive enough for me to give it a 4/5 star rating last February, but sadly not memorable. 

Looking Back - Like Water for Chocolate

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel
Fiction
1989 (English translation 1992) Anchor Books (Doubleday)
Finished on March 30, 1996
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

With more than two million copies in print, Like Water for Chocolate has taken its place alongside such beloved first novels as The Joy Luck Club and How to Make an American Quilt as a treasured part of America's literary memory.

Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit.

The number one bestseller in Mexico and America for almost two years, and subsequently a bestseller around the world, "Like Water For Chocolate" is a romantic, poignant tale, touched with moments of magic, graphic earthiness, bittersweet wit - and recipes.

A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her. For the next twenty-two years, Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.

My Original Notes (1996):

Wonderful! I read it in one day! Very quick, easy and light. A happy ending, too. Some interesting mystical, almost unbelievable events or interpretations. Very well done.

Rented the video - Terrible! Dubbing instead of subtitles. Made the acting seem forced. Disappointing! 

My Current Thoughts:

This may have been my first exposure to magical realism. I still have my copy and after thumbing through a few pages, I know I can (and will!) easily read this again in a day or so. I haven't read anything else by Esquivel. Any recommendations?

Delicious!

Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
Fiction
2014
Finished on September 23, 2014
Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)




Publisher’s Blurb:

Ruth Reichl is a born storyteller. Through her restaurant reviews, where she celebrated the pleasures of a well-made meal, and her best-selling memoirs that address our universal feelings of love and loss, Reichl has achieved a special place in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of readers. Now, with this magical debut novel, she has created a sumptuous, wholly realized world that will enchant you.

Billie Breslin has traveled far from her home in California to take a job at Delicious!, New York’s most iconic food magazine. Away from her family, particularly her older sister, Genie, Billie initially feels like a fish out of water—until she is welcomed by the magazine’s colorful staff. She is also seduced by the vibrant downtown food scene, especially by Fontanari’s, the famous Italian food shop where she works on weekends. Then Delicious! is abruptly shut down, but Billie agrees to stay on in the empty office, maintaining the hotline for reader complaints in order to pay her bills.

To Billie’s surprise, the lonely job becomes the portal to a miraculous discovery. In a hidden room in the magazine’s library, Billie finds a cache of letters written during World War II by Lulu Swan, a plucky twelve-year-old, to the legendary chef James Beard. Lulu’s letters provide Billie with a richer understanding of history, and a feeling of deep connection to the young writer whose courage in the face of hardship inspires Billie to come to terms with her fears, her big sister, and her ability to open her heart to love.

It’s been many, many years since I first read Ruth Reichl’s witty memoir, Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table. As I recall, I enjoyed the first half of that book much more than the second half, laughing aloud at some of her childhood memories, as well as her anecdotes about her mother, “the notorious food-poisoner known forevermore as the Queen of Mold.” When Delicious! first appeared on the shelves at Barnes & Noble, I knew I had to give it a try, especially after reading so many glowing reviews by fellow bloggers. I quickly fell into Billie’s new life in New York, enjoying all the foodie details and atmosphere of both the city and the publisher’s offices, when the narrative shifted abruptly. As is my custom, I hadn’t read the publisher’s blurb prior to reading the novel, so I wasn’t prepared for the sudden demise of the fictitious magazine, Delicious! While I enjoyed the letters between Lulu Swan and James Beard, I preferred the foodie aspect of the novel more than the contrived World War II storyline.

Final Thoughts:

Part culinary fiction, part historical fiction (with a predictable mystery thrown in for good measure), this ambitious debut novel was a bit too bland for this reader. Good but definitely not delicious!

The Lost Art of Mixing

The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister
Fiction
2013 G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Finished on 1/30/13
Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)






 


Publisher’s Blurb:

In this luminous sequel, return to the enchanting world of the national bestseller The School of Essential Ingredients.

Lillian and her restaurant have a way of drawing people together. There’s Al, the accountant who finds meaning in numbers and ritual; Chloe, a budding chef who hasn’t learned to trust after heartbreak; Finnegan, quiet and steady as a tree, who can disappear into the background despite his massive height; Louise, Al’s wife, whose anger simmers just below the boiling point; and Isabelle, whose memories are slowly slipping from her grasp. And there’s Lillian herself, whose life has taken a turn she didn’t expect….

Their lives collide and mix with those around them, sometimes joining in effortless connections, at other times sifting together and separating again, creating a family that is chosen, not given. A beautifully imagined novel about the ties that bind—and links that break—The Lost Art of Mixing is a captivating meditation on the power of love, food, and companionship.


Just like a delicious meal at one of my favorite restaurants, Erica Bauermeister’s novels are consistently pleasing and something to which I look forward with great anticipation. I received an ARC from the author several months in advance of its publication, but held off reading it until I had the chance to reread The School of Essential Ingredients. After listening to that lovely novel, I eagerly picked up this sequel and quickly devoured it, in spite of my efforts to savor it as slowly as possible.

Readers of Bauermeister’s previous works will recognize the short story-like style, in which she intertwines the individual stories of her characters to create a cohesive and satisfying novel. There weren’t quite as many culinary references this time around, but I was nonetheless happy to return to Lillian’s restaurant, with its familiar cast of characters, as well as the new additions to the group. As is her fashion, Bauermeister describes the method in which a recipe is created, rather than simply including the ingredients and written instructions. My mouth began to water as I read the following passage. Even without specific measurements and quantities, I think I can recreate this chowder without too much difficulty:

Lillian collected the salt pork and butter and heavy cream from the walk-in refrigerator, thyme from a pot on the windowsill, dried bay leaves from a glass jar in the row arranged along the wall. She turned on the heat under the pot and added the salt pork, which softened and began to brown. Her stomach grumbled; she remembered she hadn’t eaten breakfast and cut a slice of bread, taking occasional bites as she sliced through the hard white flesh of the potatoes.

She removed the cracklings from the pot and added butter and chopped onion, the smells rising up—onion never her favorite thing in the morning, but sometimes a chef didn’t have a choice. She poured in chicken stock then dropped in the potatoes, bringing the liquid to a boil and stepping away while they cooked. No point in pot-watching.

She returned to the walk-in refrigerator, using the intervening minutes to assess the food inside while her mind played with menus for the week. Leftover roasted red peppers and zucchini could be the beginnings of a pasta sauce; extra polenta could be sliced and fried in butter and sage. For all the glamour of restaurants, the underlying secret of the successful ones was their ability to magically repurpose ingredients, a culinary sleight of hand that kept them financially afloat and would have made any depression-era housewife proud.

Sensing the time, Lillian grabbed a package wrapped in butcher paper and headed back to the prep area. The chunks of potatoes had softened. She smashed one against the side of the pot to thicken the broth, and then unwrapped the package.

As the white paper folded back, the smell of cod rose sinuously toward her, briny and green, the essence of old fishing nets and ocean waves.

Check out all these wonderful events! (Logo and list borrowed from the author’s website.) It’s times like this that I wish I lived in the Pacific Northwest. We’re actually going to be in Oregon in late May and Seattle (Kingston) in mid-June, but unfortunately it looks like our timing is off by just a hair. If I could, I’d head over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. The Griffin bookstore is a delightful shop!

EVENTS & APPEARANCES

Seattle, Washington
It’s About Time Writer’s Series
talk on The Writer’s Craft (Turning Memories in Memoir)
Ballard Branch Library
Thursday, March 14th, 6 pm

Bellevue, Washington
Literary Lions
fundraising dinner for King County Libraries
Hyatt Regency Bellevue
Saturday, March 23, 6 pm
details: http://www.kcls.org/literarylions/

Cannon Beach, Oregon
Get Lit – Author Weekend
Panel, Q&A and other assorted activities
Cannon Beach Book Store
April 12-14

Bellevue, Washington
Cooking class
Sizzleworks Cooking School
Monday, April 15th, 6 pm
details: http://www.cookingschoolsofamerica.com/sizzleworks/index.php?page=classes#575

Kirkland, Washington
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Parkplace Books
Monday, April 29th, 7 pm

Port Townsend, Washington
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge and Carol Cassella
The Writer’s Workshoppe
Saturday, May 4th, 7 pm

Eugene, Oregon
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
University of Oregon – Duck Store
Wednesday, May 8, 6:30 pm

Portland, Oregon
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Annie Bloom’s
Thursday, May 9, 7 pm

Welches, Oregon
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Wy’East Bookshoppe
Friday, May 10, time tbd

Sunriver, Oregon
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Sunriver Books
Saturday, May 11, 5 pm

Corte Madera, California
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Book Passage
Monday, May 20th, 7 pm

San Juan Island, Washington
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Griffin Bay Bookstore
Saturday, June 1, 7 pm

Wenatchee, Washington
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Wenatchee Library
June 13, 7 pm

Leavenworth, Washington
Reading and conversation with Jennie Shortridge
Leavenworth Library
June 14, 7 pm

Leavenworth, Washington
Signing with Jennie Shortridge
A Book For All Seasons
June 15, 1-3 pm

Quillisascut, Washington
Special weekend cooking class opportunity
Quillisascut Farm
July 18-21
more details at: http://quillisascut.com/workshops/essential-ingredients-school/

The School of Essential Ingredients

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Fiction
2009 Penguin Audio
Reader: Cassandra Campbell
Finished: 11/30/12
Rating: 4.75/5 (Terrific!)



Product Description:

Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian's restaurant for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.

The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian's soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. One by one they are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love, and a garlic and red sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian's cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected, and always delicious.

It's been over three years since I first discovered this lovely book. After receiving an ARC of Bauermeister's follow-up novel (The Lost Art of Mixing), I knew it was time to re-read The School of Essential Ingredients. I thoroughly enjoyed re-visiting Lillian's restaurant and Cassandra Campbell's excellent narration didn't disappoint. 

You can read my original review here and purchase The Lost Art of Mixing at your local bookstore on January 24th!

The Recipe Club

The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship by Andrea Israel & Nancy Garfinkel
Fiction - Epistolary
2009 Polhemus Press
Finished on 10/4/09
Rating: 3/5 (So-So)
ARC from FSB Associates





Product Description:

Lilly and Val are lifelong friends, united as much by their differences as by their similarities. Lilly, dramatic and confident, lives in the shadow of her beautiful, wayward mother and craves the attention of her distant, disapproving father. Val, shy and idealistic—and surprisingly ambitious—struggles with her desire to break free from her demanding housebound mother and a father whose dreams never seem to come true.

In childhood, “LillyPad” and “Valpal” vow to form an exclusive two-person club. Throughout the decades they write intimate letters in which they share hopes, fears, deepest secrets—and recipes, from Lilly’s “Lovelorn Lasagna” to Valerie’s “Forgiveness Tapenade.” Readers can cook along as the girls travel through time, facing the challenges of independence; the joys and heartbreaks of first love; and the emotional complexities of family relationships, identity, mortality, and goals deferred.

But no matter what different paths they take or what misunderstandings threaten to break them apart, Lilly and Val always find their way back together through their Recipe Club . . . until the fateful day when an act of kindness becomes an unforgivable betrayal.

Now, decades later, while trying to recapture the trust they’ve lost, Lilly and Val reunite once more—only to uncover a shocking secret. Will it destroy their friendship, or bring them ever closer?

I finished this epistolary novel over a week ago and I'm still struggling with my review. I love to cook and I own dozens of cookbooks. I also love getting long, chatty letters in the mail (not that that's happened in forever!) and enjoy epistolary works. So you'd think this book would've been a big hit with me. Meh, not so much. The characters rubbed me the wrong way, perhaps just a little too clichéd or one-dimensional. Their story (which begins in 2000, flashes back to 1964-1973, and wraps up between 2002-2003) just barely held my interest and if it weren't such a quick read, I probably would have given up. I only spotted a few recipes that might be worthwhile (Peanut Butter Blondie Bars, Chocolate-Dipped Heart Cookies, and Lovelorn Lasagna), but to be fair, I should note that unlike the published book, the ARC doesn't include photographs of any of the dishes. That's a big selling point for this cook and I'll be sure to check out the published copy to see if there are any other tempting recipes.

About the Authors

Andrea Israel is a producer/writer for ABC’s Focus Earth. She was a producer/writer on Anderson Cooper 360, Dateline, and Good Morning America (which garnered her an Emmy Award). Her story In Donald’s Eyes was recently optioned for a film. Ms. Israel is the author of Taking Tea. Her writing has appeared in many publications.

Nancy Garfinkel is co-author of The Wine Lover’s Guide to the Wine Country: The Best of Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino (Chronicle Books, 2005). A creative strategist, design consultant, writer, and editor for magazine, corporate, and non-profit clients, she has won a host of graphic arts and editorial merit awards. She has written extensively about food and graphic arts.

The School of Essential Ingredients

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Fiction - Culinary
2009 J. P. Putnam's Sons
Finished on 3/14/09
Rating: 5/5 (Outstanding!)




Product Description:

Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian's restaurant for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.

The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian's soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. One by one they are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love, and a garlic and red sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian's cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected, and always delicious.

Anyone who knows me well or has been following my blog knows how much I love to cook and try new recipes. Well, this was certainly my kind of book! I loved the mouthwatering descriptions of the various dishes the students learned to create in their eight months at The School of Essential Ingredients. The author does a marvelous job weaving each character’s background history into the monthly classes, revealing their hopes and dreams, as well as the pain and sorrow in their private lives. I fell in love with each and every character and as I turned the final page, it was with great sadness, as I knew I would soon find myself missing the characters and Lillian's restaurant.

The cooking class was held in a restaurant named Lillian's, on the main street of town, almost hidden by a front garden dense with ancient cherry trees, roses, and the waving spikes and soft mounds of green herbs. Set between the straight lines of a bank and the local movie theater, the restaurant was oddly incongruous, a moment of lush colors and gently moving curves, like an affair in the midst of an otherwise orderly life. Passersby often reached out to run their hands along the tops of the lavender bushes that stretched luxuriantly above the cast-iron fence, the soft, dusty scent remaining on their fingers for hours after.

Those who entered the gate and followed the winding brick path through the garden discovered an Arts and Crafts house whose front rooms had been converted into a dining area. There were no more than ten tables in all, each table's personality defined by nearby architectural elements, one nestled into a bay window, another engaged in companionable conversation with a built-in bookshelf. Some tables had views of the garden, while others, hidden like secrets in the darker, protected corners of the room, held their patrons' attention within the edges of their tabletops.

Doesn't this sound lovely? Oh, how I'd love to take a cooking class in a restaurant such as this, especially one taught by such a down-to-earth person as Lillian.

I first discovered The School of Essential Ingredients when it arrived in the bookstore. The beautiful cover art, graced with a lovely blurb by another favorite author, caught my attention:

A delicate, meltingly lovely hymn to food and friendship. Lillian's kitchen is a place where the world works the way it should. You'll want to tuck yourself into one warm corner of it and stay all day. (Marisa de los Santos, author of Love Walked In)

Reading those words, I knew this was a book I had to buy. But as luck would have it, I won an autographed copy after entering a contest over on Lisa's blog. The inscription in my copy reads, "For Lesley, who loves books and food... Erica Bauermeister"

I found myself wishing Erica had included recipes for all the wonderful dishes described within this gem of a book. I was practically drooling on the pages as the students learned how to bake crab in a lemony-wine sauce (with garlic and butter, of course). The Thanksgiving meal is one I'd love to try my hand at! Imagine how delicious a meal such as this would taste:

Pumpkin ravioli
Stuffed turkey breast with rosemary, cranberries, and pancetta
Polenta with Gorgonzola
Green beans with lemon and pine nuts
Espresso with chocolate biscotti

Doesn't that sound like a refreshing alternative to the traditional meal, heavy with mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls and gravy? And who doesn't love cheese? After reading the description of a cheese fondue dinner, I was ready to run down to the corner market to buy a block of Gruyere and Emmenthaler and a huge loaf of crusty artisan bread. Mmmmmmmmm. As you can imagine, this is not a book to read when you’re hungry and dinner is several hours away.

On owning a restaurant:

Lillian loved best the moment before she turned on the lights. She would stand in the restaurant kitchen doorway, rain-soaked air behind her, and let the smells come to her--ripe sourdough yeast, sweet-dirt coffee, and garlic, mellowing as it lingered. Under them, more elusive, stirred the faint essence of fresh meat, raw tomatoes, cantaloupe, water on lettuce. Lillian breathed in, feeling the smells move about and through her, even as she searched out those that might suggest a rotting orange at the bottom of a pile, or whether the new assistant chef was still double-dosing the curry dishes. She was. The girl was a daughter of a friend and good enough with knives, but some days, Lillian thought with a sigh, it was like trying to teach subtlety to a thunderstorm.

On chocolate:

The hard, round cake of chocolate was wrapped in yellow plastic with red stripes, shiny and dark when she opened it. The chocolate made a rough sound as it brushed across the fine section of the grater, falling in soft clouds onto the counter, releasing a scent of dusty back rooms filled with bittersweet chocolate and old love letters, the bottom drawers of antique desks and the last leaves of autumn, almonds and cinnamon and sugar.

On weather in the Northwest:

Helen and Carl walked up the main street of town to the cooking class. It was a clear, cold evening in early February, the end of a miraculously blue day blown in from the north like a celebration. People in the Northwest tended to greet such weather with a child's sense of joy, strangers exchanged grins, houses were suddenly cleaner, and neighbors could be found in their yards in shirtsleeves, regardless of the temperature, indulging a sudden desire to dig in rich, dark dirt.

On love:

More than anyone he knew, Antonia carried these things with her, in the million sweet and careful rituals that still made up her life, no matter what country she was in. He saw it in the way she cut bread, or drank wine[...] Antonia made celebrations of things he had always dismissed as moments to be rushed through on the way to something more important. Being around her, he found even everyday experiences were deeper, nuanced, satisfaction and awareness slipped in between the layers of life like love notes hidden in the pages of a textbook.

The School of Essential Ingredients is one of those books that could have easily been consumed over the course of a weekend. Well aware that this is a debut novel (with no backlist to satisfy me until Bauermeister's next release), I chose to savor it as slowly as possible. And, it's definitely going on my keeper shelf for future re-reads. Fans of Marisa de los Santos, Joanne Harris, Elin Hilderbrand, and Elizabeth Berg will not be disappointed. I know I wasn't!

For those of you in the Seattle area, you're in luck! Erica has three events lined up and if I lived within driving distance, I'd plan to attend the April 28th event. In addition to hearing Erica speak, I'd also have a chance to hear Shauna Ahern (of Gluten-Free Girl)! Here are the dates and times:

Seattle
Ballard Library
Monday, April 20th
6:30 pm
reading/signing
5614 22nd Ave. NW,
Seattle, WA 98107

Seattle
Cooks and Books
Tuesday, April 28th
6:00 pm
"What We Talk About When We Talk About Food"
with Erica Bauermeister, Kathleen Flinn, Shauna Ahern,
Mathew Amster-Burton and Molly Wizenberg
Tom Douglas Palace Ballroom
appetizers and special cocktail of the night
Tickets: $25
reservations: 206-632-2419
www.kimricketts.com

Seattle
Santoro's Books
Friday, May 8th
7:00 pm
signing
(in conjunction with Phinney Ridge Art Walk)
7405 Greenwood Ave
Seattle, WA 98013

Be sure to check out Lisa's review here.