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

Sharon Boorstin (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Book Description

June 17, 2003

Every woman has poignant food memories: the times she licked the bowl when her mother baked 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?

One day when looking through an old desk she'd bought as a newlywed thirty years earlier, food writer and restaurant critic Sharon Boorstin discovered a notebook of recipes she'd collected from her mother, relatives, and girlfriends at the time. It inspired her to reconnect with the recipe givers -- some of whom she hadn't seen in years -- and to explore the power of cooking and food in establishing bonds among women.

Let Us Eat Cake celebrates these connections. As a young girl, 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, the Too Hot Tamales, and Julia Child. Today, after decades of enjoying food and cooking together, Boorstin and the women in her life 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, family, and friends.


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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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 17, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060012846
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060012847
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,726,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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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
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.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious Reading, August 20, 2002
By A Customer
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!
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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
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!!!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The most beautiful girl at Garfield" is how more than one man who knew my mother in high school described her. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
old recipe notebook, frozen marshmallows, food memories
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mary Ann, New York, Los Angeles, Mary Sue, Mary Lou, San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Julia Child, New West, Chicken Little, New Year's Eve, Miracle Whip, Miss Fathergill, United States, Sweet Sixteen, Thousand Island, University of Washington, Veuve Clicquot, World War, Forge Medlar, Kitty Cat Food, Lake Washington, San Antonio, Barbara Lazaroff, Cascade Mountains
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