Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship [Hardcover]

Sharon Boorstin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2002

A charming memoir and cookbook that celebrates the connections women make through cooking and foodEvery woman has poignant food memories: The first time she helped her mother bake a cake, or helped her grandmother make blintzes, tortillas, or Southern fried chicken. And how about the times she and her girlfriends baked chocolate-chip cookies, or, later, prepared elaborate dinners to impress potential husbands? Let Us Eat Cake celebrates these connections.

As a young girl, Sharon Boorstin helped her mother make tuna casseroles; on a college trip to Europe, she and her girlfriends compared men and restaurants with equal zest; after she became a food writer, Boorstin bonded with women in the food world, including Barbara Lazaroff (Mrs. Wolfgang) Puck and Julia Child. Today, after decades of food and cooking, Boorstin and the women in her life cook together for the sheer pleasure of it, and they have come to understand what truly makes for female friendships.

With dozens of delicious recipes and vintage photos, this moving book will inspire readers to remember and cherish their own experiences with food and friends.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Her memories, even more than her recipes, will charm readers in food writer Sharon Boorstin's delicious memoir, Let Us Eat Cake. The book is the result of Boorstin's discovery of a 30-year-old notebook containing long-forgotten recipes. As she explains, "Each recipe brought back memories of the woman who gave it to me, of the occasion when we made and enjoyed the dish, and of the friendship we shared." By linking her memories of food, family, and friendship, Boorstin creates a charming hybrid of autobiography and sociology. Readers join her to feast at her parents' dinner table (Dad's fresh salmon loaf, Grandma's cheese blintzes), order the signature "Canlis" salad at Seattle's special birthday-dinner restaurant, cook a college friend's Tandoori chicken, and decorate cakes with her daughter, Julia.

Boorstin's work and friendships as a food writer have given her some names to drop and recipes to boot: Wolfgang Puck's matzo, Julia Child boiling lobsters in a laundry tub, Nell Newman offering papa Paul's angel food cake recipe. Engaging descriptions and vintage photos of family and friends flag several decades of social change--from the "patent leather shoes let boys look up your dress" warning of the '50s to the PalmPilots and tooth whitening of the turn of the 21st century. But Boorstin is at her best in relating funny and touching descriptions of meals with beloved friends. Her vivid portraits will remind readers of their own fond memories of food and friendship. --Barbara Mackoff

From Publishers Weekly

Noted food writer Boorstin was cleaning out her desk one day when she came across a notebook of recipes she'd collected as a newlywed in the late 1960s. Each recipe brought back memories of the women who'd shared it with her and the friendships that resulted. Boorstin threads these recipes for dishes such as Mireille's Halibut in Champagne and Ina's Brownies through her memoir, tracing the evolution of her friendships with women through the years, from her 1950s suburban Seattle childhood (the "Age of Innocence and Frozen Marshmallows") to the days of "women's lib" and the psychotherapy-saturated '70s, when Boorstin marries, has a daughter and begins documenting the California restaurant revolution for magazines such as Bon Appetit. Boorstin shares painful memories as well her sister's mental breakdown, her own broken engagement. As her daughter grows up and parental pressures ease, Boorstin begins to develop cherished relationships with women independent of her family. "When it comes right down to it," Boorstin writes, "a woman really is the sum of all the friends she has had in her life." The result is a charming homage to women's camaraderie. Although perhaps not as penetrating as M.F.K. Fisher's writings nor as sparkling as Laurie Colwin's, there are still treasures to be found in this likeable baby boomer memoir.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition first Printing edition (April 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060012838
• ISBN-13: 978-0060012830
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,694,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I consider myself to be very critical, and I adore this book, June 25, 2002

By 

mike folley (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship (Hardcover)

I am a very discerning reader, and this book is a masterpiece.
If any woman reads this review who has no idea what the book is about, it doesn't matter. This book will speak to all women.
I guarantee whomever is reading this that they will love this book!
If you enjoy cooking and reading very entertaining stories about food related experiences, you simply must read this book. Boorsting is a fabulous writer, and everyone will feel like she is writing directly for them. I felt like I was reading a book written by one of my best friends! Give this book 5 pages, and you will fall in love with it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious Reading, August 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship (Hardcover)

This book is delish! I am a 26 year old woman who loved reading this book about Sharon's life; and how food, entertaining and friendships were for women when she grew up and until present date. I think Sharon Boorstin kept it all very real and by the end of the book, you felt like you were on a first name basis with her and many of the important people in her life. The recipes were such an added treat as well. I would be very excited if there ended up being another volume of this book as I am eager to see what is next in her interesting life. A very good book to read and to also give to friends and family, whom enjoy food and friendship!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic stories and recipes and great for Mother's Day!!!, May 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship (Hardcover)

A really great read- touching and true stories of women and the recipes they share with each other. And the author weaves it all together with an honest, personal, endearing voice. It's funny, sad, and I couldn't put it down!!! And the food-- the recipes are great- every cook should have them in their kitchen. And they're not tough at all-anyone could make them. Try the 'Husband Catcher Cake' -it has the best story and it is delicious!!!