The School of Essential Ingredients
When I go on a trip, reading is one of the best parts of the adventure (after eating of course). I carefully select the books and put them in a stack by my suitcase. Before my last vacation, I decided to cheat a little bit and just start The School of Essential Ingredients to see if I was going to like it. Two days later the book was completely read and I had been totally swept away by the characters’ stories and the author’s food analogies. If you cherish relationships and enjoy food on a supernatural level-this book is a must read. Here are some of my favourite excerpts to give you an idea of what I am referring to:
“To eat something that plays with your taste buds and to remember romance…If you live in your senses, slowly with attention, if you use your eyes and your fingertips and your taste buds, then romance is something you’ll never need a greeting card to make you remember.” pge 198
“Provence, when she and Carl arrived at the end of August, had smelled of lavender-the air, the sheets, the wine, even the milk in her coffee in the morning.-the lightest of undercurrents, a watercolour world of soft purple. She found herself breathing deeply and slowly, to pull it in, to hold it in every part of her until later. ” pge 201
“Ian slid his finger along the edge of the tiramisu, bringing it to his mouth. The texture was warm, creamy and soft, like lips parting beneath his own, the taste utterly lacking in precision, luxurious and urgent, mysterious and comforting.” pge 233
“Poetry isn’t any different from food, Tom. We humans want to make things, and those things sink into us, whether we know it or not. Maybe you won’t remember what I cooked you last week, but your body will.” pge 121
And finally my favourite: “We’re all just ingredients, Tom. What matters is the grace with which you cook the meal.” pge 130
Read Erica Bauermeister’s delicious book and then buy yourself multiple copies so that you can give them to people who love food and love this bittersweet life.
Kath’s quote: “A good book should leave you… slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.” ~William Styron
