School of Essential Ingredients: Erica Bauermeister

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Erica Bauermeister's new book, The School of Essential Ingredients (Putnam 2009), makes a gentle yet daring foray into the heart through the mouth without forgetting the stomach. A cooking school serves as her foil (a la Thornton Wilder's famed, second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Albert & Charles Boni 1928). Here, Chef Lillian's alchemy works magically upon her students. After an introductory glimpse of Lillian as a child, we meet her latest students. One by one, we learn their stories: Claire the new mother Carl the good-hearted cuckold Antonia the earthy Italian Tom the bereaved husband Chloe the lost goth-chick Isabelle the mind-wandering sweetie Helen the nearly unhappy and Ian the technically gifted (and technically challenged) The stories are intimate and personal, like personal tastes that make each cook unique. Bauermeister takes her time but does not dawdle. Rather, in her writing she lets the reader enjoy and experience her characters, in part as they learn to enjoy and experience cooking. Her range includes the erotic: Charlie had loved garlic... When she was done, she would trace lines with her fingertips between her breasts, along the base of her skull and up behind her ears. Trails for you to follow, she would say to Tom with a wink. -- No GAAAH-lick by Emeril here! Bauermeister is self-deprecating. She says of her book, "It's about food and people and relationships – about taking those 'unimportant' bits of life and making them beautiful." Don't be fooled: food and relationships are essentials. Hearkening back to James Joyce in the vignettes of Dubliners (B. W. Huebsch 1916), through food each of her characters come upon moments of epiphany. Previous articles: [Cookbooks Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, cookbook reviews --> back to Super Chef