Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship

Amazon.com
Her memories, even more than her recipes, will charm readers in food writer Sharon Boorstin's delicious memoir, Let Us Eat Cake. The book is the result of Boorstin's discovery of a 30-year-old notebook containing long-forgotten recipes. As she explains, "Each recipe brought back memories of the woman who gave it to me, of the occasion when we made and enjoyed the dish, and of the friendship we shared." By linking her memories of food, family, and friendship, Boorstin creates a charming hybrid of autobiography and sociology. Readers join her to feast at her parents' dinner table (Dad's fresh salmon loaf, Grandma's cheese blintzes), order the signature "Canlis" salad at Seattle's special birthday-dinner restaurant, cook a college friend's Tandoori chicken, and decorate cakes with her daughter, Julia.

Boorstin's work and friendships as a food writer have given her some names to drop and recipes to boot: Wolfgang Puck's matzo, Julia Child boiling lobsters in a laundry tub, Nell Newman offering papa Paul's angel food cake recipe. Engaging descriptions and vintage photos of family and friends flag several decades of social change--from the "patent leather shoes let boys look up your dress" warning of the '50s to the PalmPilots and tooth whitening of the turn of the 21st century. But Boorstin is at her best in relating funny and touching descriptions of meals with beloved friends. Her vivid portraits will remind readers of their own fond memories of food and friendship. --Barbara Mackoff


From Publishers Weekly
Noted food writer Boorstin was cleaning out her desk one day when she came across a notebook of recipes she'd collected as a newlywed in the late 1960s. Each recipe brought back memories of the women who'd shared it with her and the friendships that resulted. Boorstin threads these recipes for dishes such as Mireille's Halibut in Champagne and Ina's Brownies through her memoir, tracing the evolution of her friendships with women through the years, from her 1950s suburban Seattle childhood (the "Age of Innocence and Frozen Marshmallows") to the days of "women's lib" and the psychotherapy-saturated '70s, when Boorstin marries, has a daughter and begins documenting the California restaurant revolution for magazines such as Bon Appetit. Boorstin shares painful memories as well her sister's mental breakdown, her own broken engagement. As her daughter grows up and parental pressures ease, Boorstin begins to develop cherished relationships with women independent of her family. "When it comes right down to it," Boorstin writes, "a woman really is the sum of all the friends she has had in her life." The result is a charming homage to women's camaraderie. Although perhaps not as penetrating as M.F.K. Fisher's writings nor as sparkling as Laurie Colwin's, there are still treasures to be found in this likeable baby boomer memoir.


Book Description

Every woman has poignant food memories: the times she licked the bowl when her mother baked a cake, or helped her grandmother make blintzes, tortillas, or Southern fried chicken. And how about the times she and her girlfriends baked chocolate-chip cookies or, later, prepared elaborate dinners to impress potential husbands?

One day when looking through an old desk she'd bought as a newlywed thirty years earlier, food writer and restaurant critic Sharon Boorstin discovered a notebook of recipes she'd collected from her mother, relatives, and girlfriends at the time. It inspired her to reconnect with the recipe givers -- some of whom she hadn't seen in years -- and to explore the power of cooking and food in establishing bonds among women.

Let Us Eat Cake celebrates these connections. As a young girl, Boorstin helped her mother make tuna casseroles; on a college trip to Europe, she and her girlfriends compared men and restaurants with equal zest; after she became a food writer, Boorstin bonded with women in the food world including Barbara Lazaroff (Mrs. Wolfgang) Puck, the Too Hot Tamales, and Julia Child. Today, after decades of enjoying food and cooking together, Boorstin and the women in her life have come to understand what truly makes for female friendships.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Food as nourishment, food as love, and food as reflection of a changing sense of self: These are the themes that Sharon Boorstin explores in this baby-boomer memoir -- with recipes -- that celebrates the connection between food and friendship. (Think Ya-Ya Sisterhood, but younger, in the kitchen.)

Sharon Boorstin grew up in Seattle in the '50s, raised on pot roasts, tuna casserole, and her grandmother's blintzes. By the time she had graduated from college in the '60s and recovered from a broken engagement, she and her best friend spent hours making fancy French food -- brandied stuffed chicken legs and French apple tart spiked with Calvados -- to impress their dates.

Boorstin's early married years were the fondue years, with escargots bourguignonne as appetizer. By the time Boorstin became a teacher in an alternative school in the '70s, brown rice and salad greens were on the menu. Come the '80s, she found herself as a food writer at the epicenter of the food revolution in Los Angeles; Spago had just opened, and people thrilled to its pizzas and California cuisine.

This memoir was inspired by Boorstin's discovering an old loose-leaf notebook that dated from the beginning of her marriage; it contained Irma's Tandoori Chicken, Aunt Hannah's Chocolate Cheesecake, and Mary Ann's Grapes Brulée. That prompted Boorstin to reflect on girlfriends from the different stages of her life: friends from childhood and newer friends met through the food profession, like Barbara Lazaroff of Spago, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken (the Two Hot Tamales), and Suzy (Born to Shop) Gershman.

"When it comes right down to it, " concludes Boorstin, "a woman really is the sum of all the friends she has had in her life." Her book will strike a responsive chord with many readers, especially those who cook with their friends. (Ginger Curwen)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A charming memoir and cookbook that celebrates the connections women make through cooking and foodEvery woman has poignant food memories: The first time she helped her mother bake a cake, or helped her grandmother make blintzes, tortillas, or Southern fried chicken. And how about the times she and her girlfriends baked chocolate-chip cookies, or, later, prepared elaborate dinners to impress potential husbands? Let Us Eat Cake celebrates these connections.

As a young girl, Sharon Boorstin helped her mother make tuna casseroles; on a college trip to Europe, she and her girlfriends compared men and restaurants with equal zest; after she became a food writer, Boorstin bonded with women in the food world, including Barbara Lazaroff (Mrs. Wolfgang) Puck and Julia Child. Today, after decades of food and cooking, Boorstin and the women in her life cook together for the sheer pleasure of it, and they have come to understand what truly makes for female friendships.With dozens of delicious recipes and vintage photos, this moving book will inspire readers to remember and cherish their own experiences with food and friends.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Noted food writer Boorstin was cleaning out her desk one day when she came across a notebook of recipes she'd collected as a newlywed in the late 1960s. Each recipe brought back memories of the women who'd shared it with her and the friendships that resulted. Boorstin threads these recipes for dishes such as Mireille's Halibut in Champagne and Ina's Brownies through her memoir, tracing the evolution of her friendships with women through the years, from her 1950s suburban Seattle childhood (the "Age of Innocence and Frozen Marshmallows") to the days of "women's lib" and the psychotherapy-saturated '70s, when Boorstin marries, has a daughter and begins documenting the California restaurant revolution for magazines such as Bon App tit. Boorstin shares painful memories as well her sister's mental breakdown, her own broken engagement. As her daughter grows up and parental pressures ease, Boorstin begins to develop cherished relationships with women independent of her family. "When it comes right down to it," Boorstin writes, "a woman really is the sum of all the friends she has had in her life." The result is a charming homage to women's camaraderie. Although perhaps not as penetrating as M.F.K. Fisher's writings nor as sparkling as Laurie Colwin's, there are still treasures to be found in this likeable baby boomer memoir. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Boorstin uses food as the central motif for this distinctly sweet-toned memoir. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

A restaurant critic and food writer's engaging recollections: part memoir, part cookbook. Boorstin was clearing out an unused desk when she unearthed a notebook of 30-year-old recipes that recalled her youth and led her to examine cuisine connections among family and friends. She didn't just forage in her memory bank; she sought out and reconnected with friends from school days, as well as more recent acquaintances. The memories they share are often funny (mushrooms stuffed with marijuana, the snails that got away) and sometimes wistful, as divorce, sickness, and death play inescapable roles over three decades. Food professionals Boorstin encountered in the course of her work make cameo appearances and contribute recipes: Julia Child explains how to cook a lobster; Wolfgang Puck passes along his formula for matzoh; and Nell Newman reveals the makings of father Paul's favorite angel-food cake. Other recipes include avocado soup from London via Kenya, the perfect gazpacho from Spain, and a "husband-catcher cake" handed down for three generations (apparently it works). Especially winning are tales of her mother, who always kept a big chest freezer filled with frozen marshmallows, big oatmeal cookies, and Dungeness crab legs. (Dad was vice president of a Seattle fish company.) Mom was a good cook, but given to doctoring vegetables with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup (an icon of 1950s cuisine) and "all business" with Sharon in the kitchen. Boorstin made it a point to welcome her own daughter warmly into the kitchen, where they listened to opera, gossiped, and became friends as they cooked sans canned mushroom soup. "Women bond over food the way men do over sports," she concludes. Bonappetit to readers who agree with that rather sweeping statement; even those who don't will enjoy the cheerful anecdotes and the memorable dishes. (photos, not seen)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

When I began reading Let Us Eat Cake, I couldn't stop. As I read about Sharon Boorstin's experience in Italy "cooking the world's biggest mushroom," her treasured notebook of recipes from friends, and her mother's sole cookbook and approach to cooking, I felt that she was writing about me! Food-lovers will enjoy her tales celebrating the connections women make through cooking. With the stories come some scrumptious-sounding recipes that I'm eager to try, especially Lily's Spaghetti Sauce, Ina's Brownies, and the book's grand finale, The Husband-Catcher Cake.  — Faye Levy, author of 1,000 Jewish Recipes

The literary equivalent of Proust's madeleine, Sharon Boorstin's warm, funny, touching and delicious stories of cooking with friends remind us of the pleasures of sharing food, the little intricacies of a recipe and the big secrets of our lives over the stove and around the table.  — Dorie Greenspan, author of Baking with Julia and Paris Sweets