A Very Good Debut Novel

The School of Essential Ingredients, by Erica Bauermeister, was a bit of a surprise for me.  It was recommended by RBC member, Darryl.  And I gave it a shot because of her endorsement (and because it had a USED BOOK 2017 tag at Recycle!).  If the title makes you think that this book is about food, then you would be right.  But it's a whole lot more than that. Take a looksee:

Once a month on a Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian's restaurant for a cooking class.  Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.
The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian's soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen.  And, one by one, they are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create...

You know, the timing of this review is a bit eerie.  Last night, Joni and I had dinner with some friends at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.  For those of you who live outside of the Bay Area, this restaurant, started in 1971 (and still owned) by Alice Waters, is generally credited for beginning the California Cuisine trend.  You basically call one month before you want to eat there in order to get a reservation.  This is true for the upstairs cafe, where we ate, and the much more expensive restaurant on the ground floor.  And the food is so fresh and locally sourced that you don't know what the menu for the day is going to be until the morning of!  But my point (and, yes, I do have one) is that the feeling you get when you are eating at Chez Panisse is very similar to what I imagine Lillian's restaurant felt like for the eight people who took her class.  The best word I can think of in both cases is "Magic."

As you would expect with eight different stories (even Carl and Helen each had their own story), I emotionally connected with some more than others.  But what really struck me the more I thought about it is that any eight people will have stories to tell.  Erica had to create those stories so that we, the readers, would be interested.  But are they so different than the stories for any eight random people?  I don't think so.

The writing is very good.  But more importantly, she paints pictures that pop up in front of her eyes.  There are quite a few examples of this, but I will just show you two:

Eating an apple:  "It feels like fall," she commented and bit into it.  The sharp sweet sound of the crunch filled the air like a sudden burst of applause...

It stunned him how easy it was, after all that time waiting, to slip his right hand along her back and feel his fingers fit perfectly into the curve of her waist, to feel her fingers slide along the palm of his left hand and then rest softly in place.

And, finally, let me talk about the last chapter.  Epilogues are tricky things.  You don't necessarily want everything to wrap up too neatly...but you really do.  Erica's does both.  And she does it in a way that is extremely satisfying and VERY emotional.  Well done, Erica.  I am definitely looking forward to reading the sequel, The Lost Art of Mixing.