Tag: Food

Family, Food & Drink, Magical, New Releases, World Literature

Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

We all hold lost recipes in our hearts. A very special restaurant in Kyoto helps find them . . .

Tucked away down a Kyoto backstreet lies the extraordinary Kamogawa Diner, run by Chef Nagare and his daughter, Koishi. The father-daughter duo have reinvented themselves as “food detectives,” offering a service that goes beyond cooking mouth-watering meals. Through their culinary sleuthing, they revive lost recipes and rekindle forgotten memories.

From the Olympic swimmer who misses his estranged father’s bento lunchbox to the one-hit-wonder pop star who remembers the tempura she ate to celebrate her only successful record, each customer leaves the diner forever changed—though not always in the ways they expect . . .

The Kamogawa Diner doesn’t just serve meals—it’s a door to the past through the miracle of delicious food. A beloved bestseller in Japan, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is a tender and healing novel for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

My Thoughts

What an absolute gem of a book! The concept is fascinating – a restaurant and chef that recreate recipes from your past. We all have some dish that evokes special and strong memories – maybe a memorable meal you had with a loved one, or, like the first dish in this story, a simple (or not-so-simple) lunch made for you by your parent every day for years.

The power of food and taste is explored in delicate and colorful prose, offering up poignant and heart-warming vignettes for the people who are lucky enough to find the Kamagawa Diner. This would make a wonderful TV series. I hope Netflix picks it up.

What is YOUR “lost recipe?”

Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Published By: Penguin Group Putnam
Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy

Food & Drink, Historical, Magical, Women, World Literature

The Book of Perilous Dishes by Doina Rusti

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

1798: A magical, dark adventure. Fourteen-year-old Pâtca, initiated in the occult arts, comes to Bucharest, to her uncle, Cuviosu Zăval, to retrieve the Book of Perilous Dishes. The recipes in this magical book can bring about damaging sincerity, forgetfulness, the gift of prediction, or hysterical laughter. She finds her uncle murdered and the book missing. All that Zăval has left her is a strange map she must decipher. Travelling from Romania to France and on to Germany to do so, Patca’s family’s true past and powers are revealed, as is her connection to the famous and sublime chef, Silica.

My Thoughts

Over the last few years, I’ve deliberately tried to widen my reading to include more translations and fiction from other parts of the world. What a treat it’s been to discover authors and stories new to me, very much like The Book of Perilous Dishes.

The translation here is extremely well-done, but it’s the story that shines with a beautiful use of language, a fascinating plot, and characters who are by turns terrible, silly, and enchanting people. Patca and Caterina are especially wonderful, although Cuviosu and Maxima piqued my curiosity as well.

To be sure there are some odd things that are not explained outright – what is it about Patca’s teeth and who, indeed, is Cat O’Friday?! – but keep reading and it all becomes clear. I understand this author is well known and loved in her native country and it’s easy to see why. I hope there is more of the author’s work to be translated!

Publication Date: February 2017; May 21, 2024
Published By: Neem Tree Press
Thanks to Book Sirens for the book

Food & Drink, Historical

The Lost Supper by Taras Grescoe

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

In the tradition of Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain, and Mark Bittman, an exciting and globe-trotting account of ancient cuisines—from Neolithic wines to ancient Roman fish sauce—and why reviving the foods of the past is the key to saving the future.

Many of us are worried (or at least we should be) about the impacts of globalization, pollution, and biotechnology on our diets. Whether it’s monoculture crops, hormone-fed beef, or high-fructose corn syrup, industrially-produced foods have troubling consequences for us and the planet. But as culinary diversity diminishes, many people are looking to a surprising place to safeguard the future: into the past.

The Lost Supper explores an idea that is quickly spreading among restaurateurs, food producers, scientists, and gastronomes around the world: that the key to healthy and sustainable eating lies not in looking forward, but in looking back to the foods that have sustained us through our half-million-year existence as a species. 

Acclaimed author Taras Grescoe introduces readers to the surprising and forgotten flavors whose revival is captivating food-lovers around the world: ancient sourdough bread last baked by Egyptian pharaohs; raw-milk farmhouse cheese from critically endangered British dairy cattle; ham from Spanish pata negra pigs that have been foraging on acorns on a secluded island since before the United States was a nation; and Neolithic wines from long-lost grapes uniquely capable of resisting quickly-evolving pests and modern pathogens.

From Ancient Roman fish sauce to Aztec caviar to the long-thought-extinct silphium, The Lost Supper is a deep dive into the latest frontier of global gastronomy—the archaeology of taste. Through vivid writing, history, and first-hand culinary experience, Grescoe sets out a provocative case: in order to save these foods, he argues, we’ve got to eat them.

Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

My Thoughts

Aimed at serious foodies and food historians, Grescoe’s work made me cringe, do some research, and share interesting bits with everyone around me as I read. There’s a bit of the “serious foodie” pretentiousness here that Grescoe smooths over with a sincere concern over the future of food and nutrition on our planet. I mean, is he seriously trying to get his young sons to make insects a daily part of their diet? I’m curious to know how that worked out, despite the clear evidence he provides of the nutritional value of insects.

And he doesn’t stop at insects, friends. He delves into other fascinating nutritional powerhouses among different cultures and describes his adventures in colorful and appealing detail.

This is a highly readable foray into the history of food and civilization from Neolithic times to the present day. I had not been exposed to the theory that agriculture is the root of the downfall of humans in history, which I found a fascinating thread through Grescoe’s travels across the globe.

“THE GREATEST MISTAKE in the history of the human race,” according to American geographer Jared Diamond, was farming. “With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.”

This would make a awesome book club selection and would generate some lively discussion, made even better by an accompaniment of chapulines for snacking.

Publication Date: September 19, 2023
Published By: Greystone Books
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy