Customer Reviews

Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella

5 star:		(28)
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3 star:		(1)
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Great books are like great meals. Each page, like each bite, is an opportunity to savor the moment and anticipate the next. I never would have thought that a book about food could be such a page turner, but thanks to a talented chef and a talented writer, I found myself drawn into the drama unfolding above and below the deck of an Italian billionaire's yacht. The dishes described in such mouth-watering detail are both amusing ("Halibut in Crazy Water") and alluring ("Chocolate Capri Cake"). If you want to awaken your senses on an escapist adventure, treat yourself to Mediterranean Summer.

The authors (David Shalleck and Erol Munuz) do a terrific job of telling a page-turning, beautifully written story. I really felt I was right next to David on every step of his adventure. For those who appreciate travel, fine food, and compelling story, Mediterranean Summer offers the perfect summer read. For me, the combination of travel to some of my favorite destinations and some of my favorite cuisines is irresistible. It is a wonderful chronicle of a chef's coming of age aboard a beautiful yacht run by exacting owners. The book moves quickly and I found myself completely immersed as David moves from one challenging moment to the next. Sit back and enjoy with a strong coffee or glass of prosecco! Cheers! Mary Wright

This book brings you into the life of a young American, David Shalleck, who spends an idyllic (if often exasperating) summer as the chef of a sailing yacht owned by a wealthy Italian couple. The owners helicopter in, often with family and many friends in tow, and David prepares extraordinary meals for them, concocted with ingredients bought fresh from the local markets. David and his co-author Erol Munuz surround us with the appealing sights, sounds, and aromas of sailing, cooking, and the fabulous ports of the European coast. An enjoyable and memorable read.

Here are the totally engrossing true adventures of a young American who is engaged by a very wealthy Italian couple, to be the chef on their newly refitted luxury sailing yacht, 'Serenity'. The sounds, sights, delectable aromas and glamour of this Mediterranean summer leaps from each page. We experience with chef David,(or Daveed as la Signora the mistress of the yacht calls him when angry), the high and low moments of his very demanding job. There are laughs aplenty in this new book and plenty of material for daydreaming after the last page has been read.

The imagery in this book will make you feel as though you are on the yacht with David, the owners, and the crew. It's a wonderful escape to take from your everyday life. Each time I put this book down I wondered what meal the chef would create next from ingredients he foraged at the local markets. Erol and David have given us a book that truly allows the reader to take the journey of a cook becoming a chef, and more importantly, learning to cook from the heart.

Excellently written. There's the excitement of how David finds his provisions in each port. There's also the fear of whether of not a particular meal will "work" with the extremely demanding owners of the yacht. And the suspense of how a meal will be prepared (for sometimes over 100 guests!) within the confines of a yacht's galley. Then there's the thrill of some moments of real sailing ! All this along with the purely human adventure in following David's search for mastering his profession.

I particularly enjoyed the map of the journey included on the inside cover, along with the detailed maps preceding each chapter. This added the additional benefit of the adventure being a descriptive travel guide as well ! And top this all off with the included bonus 50 pages of recipes at the end. (And each of these recipes include very specific & detailed instructions for preparation.) Bravo. Bravissimo Davide.

David shalleck's "Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella" chronicled the author's summer adventure as a chef for a couple of superrich Italian on board the "Serenity" yacht. "Serenity" would sail from one city to another on the Italian and French coasts. The Italian couple would stay on their yacht during the weekends and the full month of August. It was challenging for him as the couple was extremely difficult to please and coming in as a foreign chef added another layer of difficulty. The readers were also introduced to some of the staff on board, and how they worked together to make it through to the next port.

This was a fun read as the author chronicled his experience serving and cooking for the "Serenity" owners. There were ups and downs but mostly it was a good learning experience for the young chef. I also enjoyed that the author added some personal information about himself at the beginning of the book which helped me to understand where he was coming from. In addition, it was also helpful that the author included recipes at the end of the book for his readers. Good summer read!

David Shalleck had cooked in a number of noted American restaurants. But like any cook worth his knives, he wanted to be a chef. He needed more training, so he took a two-month gig as head chef of a London restaurant.

It was, he saw immediately, a restaurant in serious decline. But he wasn't going to be there long enough to whip it into shape --- he let it be.

Then Alice Waters --- founder of the legendary Chez Panisse restaurant and a chef who knew Shalleck --- came to dinner.

She had a terrible meal. And told Shalleck about it in detail. "Chef" means "chief," she reminded him. She left him with a question: Are you ready to be one?

Shalleck went to France for an internship in Provence. Again, he flopped. "What is in your heart, David?" the chef demanded, as she fired him. "Did you leave it at home?"

Four years of Italian apprenticeships later, David Shalleck was ready for command --- of a ship's kitchen. No ordinary ship: Serenity is a 124-foot, 150-ton schooner built in the 1930s. Its new owners --- "Il Dottore" and "La Signora" --- have just bought the boat for $5 million and spent another $3 million modernizing it. Shalleck is too discreet to give us their real names (or, for that matter, the real name of their boat), but it's clear that they are Italian billionaires who own helicopters and jets and multiple houses and have about 50 people on their personal staff. For most of the summer, they weekend on the boat; in August, they live on it. Are they exacting? Believe it.

"Mediterranean Summer" is Shalleck's account of that season cruising off France and Italy. It's not as satisfying as stepping off the chopper and onto the boat and ordering up dinner for 20 in an hour --- what is? --- but it's the best view of the "downstairs" life you're likely to read in a long time. And for a very simple reason: on a boat, everyone's pushed together. Everything's more intense.

Again, the job begins badly. La Signore asks for pate. Shalleck produces it. Which earns him a visit from the boss: "Daveed, what is this...dog food you sent us?" Ah, so "pate" means "foie gras."

The job turns Herculean: 20 for dinner Friday, lunch for 24 Saturday, cocktails for 100 Saturday night, Sunday buffet for 24. Got all that? 200 guests in one weekend. With all the food coming out of a small galley.

"Mediterranean Summer" is a satisfying travel book. It is a riveting sailing story (on a yacht, the chef is also needed on deck with the crew). It's a fascinating peek at international society and the ways of the very rich. It's a psychological thriller (will there be a mutiny? will the American chef's Italian cooking satisfy his Italian employers? ). And, most of all, it's a delicious book about food, with 26 recipes thrown in for good measure.

"Al dente linguine tossed with a touch of white wine, olive oil, garlic, fresh-chopped Italian parsley and hot red pepper flakes. Thick slices of large, pungent tomatoes dressed with a little Dijon vinaigrette. Stove-top-grilled bread, thickly sliced and drizzled with olive oil. An arugula salad."

And that, washed down with a dry, crisp Chablis, is just the crew lunch --- imagine Shalleck's descriptions of what he served his employers.

No, don't imagine. Read. And then start making his delicious meals

Mediterranean Summer is a very well written book and it brilliantly captures the beauty of the areas a luxurious yacht visited during its Mediterranean cruise. The chef has a real passion for planning and preparing interesting meals for sophisticated tastes of the owners of the yacht and their guests. Great Summer reading!

Thank-you David Shalleck for sharing your wonderful summer with me. I was able to come as close as I ever will to living on a yacht on the Mediterranean Sea. Shopping for local delectables and flirting with locals in every port. I enjoyed every page of it! Still wishing you could have gotten off the boat and sank your toes into the secluded coves with white beaches and shared your fabulous cuisine with somebody romantically (or did you keep that to yourself). The recipes at the end of your book are wonderful!