Book Review: The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

Title: The School of Essential Ingredients
Author: Erica Bauermeister
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Subject: Cooking, Life
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Release date: January, 2009
Length: 256 pages
I got this book: borrowed it from the library

Summary:
From Goodreads:
"The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives. One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian’s food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen."

Personal opinion:
I loved the concept of this book. Each chapter was spend with another character. We got to know a problem they encountered and how the cooking lessons effected their life. Sometimes I thought I was reading a collection of short stories instead of one story, even though all the stories were connected. It started with Lillian's story and I found that very interesting. However the first three characters after her didn't really spike my interest and I almost gave up on the book because it didn't draw me in enough. But it seems that the author saved the most interesting stories for last. I was particularly touched by the stories of Tom and Chloe. In the end I am glad I finished the book, but leaving the best for last can be a dangerous technique if the rest isn't all that interesting. I would say, read it if you ever come across it, but don't go out of your way to get it.

 
It was okay.

Purchase links: Amazon
Challenges: Foodies Reading Challenge
Other reviews: None yet.
If you have reviewed this book and want your link here, please leave a comment with the link, and I will add it :)

This post is part of Weekend Cooking. Make sure to check out which foodies books other people have read :)

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