Nicole Gulotta

Free Netgalley ARC for an honest review.

"I came here hungry, I came here wanting," read the lines of a poem in the very middle of the text, putting poetic word to the feelings that had crescendoed in my blood on the receipt and opening of this text as someone who delights deeply in the arts of both poetry and cooking. This book should be enjoyed first, not in a kitchen, but in an armchair with a glass of red wine, curled up close to the pages.

When I first saw the synopsis on this book, I can admit I expected it to fall flat of any meager expectations, but it is divinely decadent. Each section starts with poem, and then there is a page following it discussing the meanings, emotion, imagery, and usage of some kitchen artifact from within that poetry. Then the recipes that follow it are in the perfect line for matching both of those.

I appreciated with relish and surprise, the section on tea (and I plan to try for this Earl Grey delicacies already) and the one on eating alone, and how that, too, should be relished with shameless gluttony and the same winning celebration of anything afforded a group. This books is an endless array of glittering jewels, for the mind and the palate, and I cannot recommend it enough.

To close with words from a poem in it, as well as open, "Don't wait. Bite in."… (mais)