First and foremost, don’t let the author’s name, Slutty Cheff make you believe this is some kind of very smutty read…it is not, and neither is she. That is her Instagram name, and she has kept herself anonymous for some time. Her posts of food and restaurants never include her face. And her posts as well as her personal story are delectable!
Tart is her autobiography of sorts. She decided to make a transition from her 9-to-5 corporate job which she hated to something in the food industry because she loved food. As she was taking a course on cooking, she got her first job as the lowest cook in a restaurant and has not looked back since. Well, she did take a few mental illness, need to figure things out “vacations”.
As she began her restaurant jobs, she fell in love with the hustle and bustle, but so much more. The cooking, the comradery between employees, the after-service drinks at the bar…and yes, even falling for a bartender and a few chefs!
As she takes the reader into the kitchens where she is working, we see not everything is exciting. When she was starting out, she was basically the only woman in the kitchen and unfortunately was looked down on a bit. As the male chefs stripped off their clothes to get into their cooking outfits, she would just stand there awkwardly and wait so she would be able to change. Many chefs who for whatever reason could not fathom a woman in the kitchen, made sure she knew how they felt. And let’s not get into the bullying which would have any human resource department’s head spinning! But she got used to this and she endured.
She loved the work and the long hours and the food. She also explains in the book how she fell in love with a couple of chefs, and this is a part of her story as well. Parts which would break anybody’s heart and have them retreat and never want to step foot in a restaurant again. And she does give herself a break, only to realize cooking and food are in her blood and no matter what she knows this is where she truly belongs.
Tart will amusingly immerse you into the world of a woman chef who through her wit explains her loves of food, hard work, loss and bravery. It will also make and keep you very, very hungry!
Thank you #NetGalley #S&S/MarysueRucciBooks #SluttyCheff #Tart for the advanced copy.
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is the delicious second book of the translated into English Japanese series which revolves around a father and daughter (and their cat Drowsy) who own a diner called The Kamogawa Diner but are also known to be food detectives for people who have somehow learned about them and come to them to try and recapture a food dish with a memory, sometimes good and sometimes bad attached. It is up to Chef Nagare and his daughter Koishi to work their magic and try to discover and then cook the dish which their clients sometimes desperately need to continue on their journey or make peace with their past.
The stories are lovely and beautiful and are filled with delicious delicacies and mysteries. Nagare will scour the earth to help anyone who needs his special service and Koishi will take care of all the paperwork. And of course, Drowsy their beloved cat will always make their guests feel better.
Another is an Olympic Swimmer who is looking for the special Beto Box his father who he is estranged from use to make for him daily.
The most poignant story to me was Christmas Cake in which a married couple comes to the diner to look for a particular cake their late son used to love, but they never tasted as it was given as an offering at the time of his death and neither wanted to try it. This story shows the love of the parents for their lost son, but it also shows the love of the young son to his parents as past and present collide.
Every story has a beginning, middle, and moving ending the last few sentences always an homage to Nagare and Koishi’s late wife and mother.
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is a feel good, gloriously happy read with mouthwatering delicacies and mysteries to be solved for those seeking answers through food.
Thank you #NetGalley #G.P.Putnam’sSons #HisashiKashiwai #TheRestaurantofLostRecipes for the advanced copy.
I have always enjoyed Ina Garten. Her cookbooks and television shows, her soft-spoken funny approach to cooking and her obvious love for her husband Jeffrey have fueled me on at times to try recipes I probably would not or more realistically should not have tried. So when she came out with her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, I hesitated at first to reading it. What on earth after following her for years could I possibly learn about her that I don’t already know? Well, everything actually!
In this fascinating, very open and honest book, she really delves into what her life was like as a child, and that was sad to read, how when she met Jeffrey when she was in high school and he college, her life truly began and since that meeting their lives which have had ups and downs has been what I would call a magical cooking ride. What a life this woman has lived!
Her childhood was not happy. Her mother did not mother and her father was a strict disciplinarian who abused both her and her brother. Structure and order was how the house was run. Her mother, a nutritionist, never allowed a carb in the house. It would be years into her life when Ina would eat her first bowl of pasta. Her parents kept her under their strict rules and when she would explain what she wanted to do with her life they would always tell her no. You are getting married and running a household. Sadly, Ina thought everyone’s parents were like this.
But, that all changed when she met her husband Jeffrey, accidentally at the college her brother was attending. That meeting would change the trajectory of not only Ina’s life but of Jeffrey. And the question Ina is grateful she never has to answer is what if she had not met Jeffrey?
Her parents were hesitant to allow her to date him, but Jeffrey in his calming intellectual way was able to make them love him. But when it came time to ask for Ina’s hand, well that was tough. And for the first time in her life, Ina put her foot down and made the decision to marry and told her parents whether they liked it or not it was going to happen.
And then they married and that’s when the magic truly set in. They decided to take the summer and go camping in Europe. And by camping it was on the ground in a little green tent with one pan. They lived on five dollars a day. But for Ina this was when she truly discovered her love for cooking as they would go each day to the farmer’s markets and gather ingredients for their meals for the day and sightsee and meet new people. As they continued the adventure that summer, Ina told Jeffrey someday she wanted to go to Paris and live there. Again, a dream which came to fruition years and years later.
But reality set in and they moved to Washington D.C. where Ina worked writing bills which were never passed, and she was bored out of her mind. What she would spend most of her time doing during the day would be creating menus for their dinner parties which they would have every weekend. And some of them were pretty epic and hysterical!
Then one day while at work she saw an advertisement for a specialty store in the Hamptons which was for sale called The Barefoot Contessa, mentioned it to Jeffrey and of course, that would once again change the trajectory of their lives forever.
But buying the store and working up to 16 hours a day, and with Jeffrey still working in Washington, put pressure on their marriage and at one point she told Jeffrey she felt they needed to separate for a while. And once again, Jeffery with his wisdom told her if that’s what she really wanted then they would. But as we all know they did resolve their differences.
Ina had complete control of the menu at Barefoot and created delicious concoctions the tourists during the summer would line up for. During this time she had been approached by Martha Stewart to do a cooking show but that did not go very well.
When Ina felt she had completed her task of creating what she wanted at Barefoot, someone suggested she write a cookbook of all the recipes from the store. And with that the real Barefoot Contessa was born. And over time there was television which she very reluctantly stepped into.
Ina has worked hard all her life, but to her it’s playtime. When another offer comes in, she analyzes it and sees how she feels. Childless by choice, her baby is her love of food and her love of making people happy by eating and of course, Jeffrey. She and Jeffrey who is a dean at a college comes home on weekends and oh yes, she built her own apartment in Paris where they travel to constantly.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens is a rollercoaster ride of the life, love and stories of a woman who was determined to do what she wanted not to matter what the outcome with the love of her life by her side. To add to this amazing story, she has included her most popular recipes for all of us to try. How good is that?
Lisa's Cubby 