Customer Reviews

Once Upon a Tuscan Table: Tales and Recipes from Trattoria Garga

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It's not often you'll find a cookbook which is candid and revealing as well as being filled with recipes, anecdotes, and fun characters; but here you have it all in one package: ONCE UPON A TUSCAN TABLE: TALES AND RECIPES FROM TRATTORIA GARGA holds it all. Sharon Gargani works with Rena Bulkin as she recounts her life and the importance of food. As her family restaurant changes from a tiny abode to a favored haunt set in a 14th century palazzo, winning mention from Gourmet and other international food magazines, the author/partner reveals the ups, downs and pleasures of being a cook and cooking school partner - and includes many signature dishes from her restaurant and school in the process. No color photos embellish them - but the easy dishes don't need photos to prove appealing.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

What a great story to come along with this recipe book...I felt like I was living Sharons life as I read her tales of growing up....the recipes are amazing and easy to prepare....check it out...you won't be sorry!!!

I had the pleasure of having my copy of the book signed by the author at a bookstore in Winnipeg recently. I was very excited to have the opportunity to ask a couple of questions of the author at this book signing. Although she seemed a bit shy, she was very good with the audience at the bookstore.

However, I must say I was later a bit uncomfortable after reading the book. Being about the same age as the author (about 3 years older) and having grown up in the same city she did (Winnipeg), I found her submission to her Italian family, particularly the mother-in-law, a bit puzzling. In addition, her husband's difficulties with the gambling that caused them all those financial problems--well, I don't know any of my friends of that era who would have accepted that amount of indebtedness as a result of his hidden gambling habit (although the author obviously did so). It struck me that most of us who had grown up in Winnipeg in that era would have been long gone from that that husband and mother-in-law situation--it certainly had no glamour and obviously caused the author a great deal of pain. I guess the question is whether "enduring" versus "escaping" is the thing to be done in that kind of situation, but the author's subsequent success suggests that "enduring" would the best approach to take. Is that what any of us would necessarily advise a daughter or a niece in a similar situation?

What is amazing are the recipes (much less the successful restaurant) that emerged from all of that turmoil. I look forward to trying them all, inspite of the above comments!