Author: Ruth Reichl
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Review:
Ruth Reichl created the perfect recipe for love and life and she has written it in this opus: a complete work of art. She has cooked up the perfect balance of bitter memories of a broken childhood, the sourness of a sad and dark past, the saltiness of making mistakes, and the sweet adventure of looking to the future filled with love and friendship.
Her prose is simple and straight forward but she delivers a poignant story that immerses the reader into walking beside the character and feeling everything that she is feeling. Paris in Stella’s eyes slowly came to life from this dangerous and unknown place to a place where she calls home. The people in Paris are very much alive and filled with stories and humour that supported Stella’s life with out drowning her out.
This story is worth the read and worth coming back to!
Reflection:
This is the first book that I have read written by Ruth Reichl and oh my: what an introduction! Call me a fan! I am now looking forward to reading more and more of her books.
This story is simple: a simple girl looking for her place in the world after her mother dies. She is lost and so she explores the world; another world, a world that she veers away from any chance she gets but now is forced to confront. What isn’t simple is how she meticulously introduced us, her readers, to her character who is also getting to know herself by allowing her to get lost and uncomfortable in a city she never wanted to go to and eating food that she never would have allowed herself to indulge.
Reichl’s writings show how uncomfortable these changes are and how lonely it seems. But it doesn’t always have to be like that. She showed how unfamiliar places can be comfortable if you just allow yourself to have an adventure and allow yourself to make yourself learn from those mistakes.
I really like how the story is set in Paris: the one place where her story began as the place where her mother may have conceived her and the place where she absolutely detests as it contradicts the rules that she has set in place for herself. Later on, this is same place is the one and only place that she could call home.
Paris has always been romanticized in books, movies, tv, and whatever kind of art. It has always been someone’s muse. We walk together with Stella as she navigates her place in the world, especially this new world. For her and everyone that she encounters, it proved to be a place for second chances and having a place in this world; a sense of belonging. Because of the constant use of Paris, it now seems like a place that is very familiar yet still a stranger; everyone knows where Paris is and what you can see there, but do you really know Paris? I like the idea of the ambiguity of the place, familiar yet strange. And I do like how Reichl introduces Paris and her corners through food.
FOOD! My goodness, I was salivating as I read through the book. I have not tasted any of the food that she has written but she writes it with such fervor that you think that you are already tasting the dish as you flip through the pages. She gave food a place in the narrative, almost another supporting character. In fact, the flavours of the food were one of the elements that allowed Stella to understand who she is and who she could be. There was magic in the food. The simple act of yearning for the food what was magical in itself. And the creation of the dish— that is a whole different journey! I was looking for the recipes along the way. And to learn that Ruth Reichl is a chef herself adds a layer on how much she understands food.
The Foie Gras was a dish she always mentioned. It was one of the dishes that the main character was first introduced to, then sought after, and the later on learned to cook. Her description of the dish gave the readers another level appreciation for Ruth Reichl and the people that create such a magnificent (please intense envy because we can’t really taste the food through paper). She described how the perfect butter was made with the right cows and the right temperature, then she should how to pick the correct duck or goose to carry the flavour. She mentioned how every region of France and, thus, every chef, carried their own version of Foie Gras – an element of food, she says, that mirrors your soul. Oh! How poetic that was!
She gave out the history of the dishes! Her dishes had a memory with every flavour: it was attached to a time and a place, to a person that was greatly moved by the flavours, and the moment of creation that created the maker undeniable bliss.
This is a deliciously beautiful book!