The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir [Mass Market Paperback]

Ellie Mathews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009

A woman, a chicken dinner, a million dollars-and a romp through the heartland of America's competitive cooking culture.

When Ellie Mathews entered her Salsa Couscous Chicken in the venerable Pillsbury Bake-Off, she never imagined she'd win the grand prize. Immediately after Alex Trebek announced that her dish had won a million dollars, she was thrown into the limelight. Booked with Oprah and Rosie-even photographed for the New York Times in a vest made of ostrich feathers-she instantly became the reigning queen of chickendom, the Pillsbury "It Girl" of the moment.

With a dash of self-deprecating humor and a pinch of biting social commentary, Ellie takes readers on her roller coaster ride to the top of the food chain as the Pillsbury prizewinner. As a cooking contest insider, she goes behind the counter and beyond the aprons and oven mitts to reveal a fascinating slice of Americana.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A page-turner."
-Seattle Post- Intelligencer

"Enthusiastic and sharp."
-Kirkus Reviews

"With graceful writing, Mathews takes us behind the scenes at the Bake-Off."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

About the Author

Ellie Mathews has been entering-and winning-cooking competitions for fifteen years. She is also the author of The Linden Tree, which was awarded the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature, and Ambassador to the Penguins, a nonfiction book based on her grandfather's 1913 scientific expedition to the Antarctic.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042522578x
• ISBN-13: 978-0425225783
• ASIN: 042522578X
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,481,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How an everyday cook found her way to culinary fame, July 18, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)

THE UNGARNISHED TRUTH: A COOKING CONTEST MEMOIR tells of the author's win of the famous Pillsbury Bake-Off and how it changed her life. The history of the Pillsbury Bake-Off and insights into its competition contestants tells of how an everyday cook found her way to culinary fame, offering humor, social commentary and mouth-watering descriptions of the process. Any general library will relish this.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cooking, with a side of sourpuss, April 9, 2010

By 

E. Lacey (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)

Ellie Mathews won the Pillsbury Bake-Off a few years ago. This book tells the story of her experience. Some of the material about the actual contest was interesting, but I was disappointed that there wasn't more information about the other contests she was involved in and the whole subculture that goes along with them. If you watch these things on Food Network, you can see there's a group of these contestants who are finalists at food competitions over and over again. However, Mathews doesn't really get into the background of contests and focuses almost entirely on Pillsbury. Her writing style is pretty unsophisticated and unpolished, which is fine, but the real problem for me is that I didn't like her as a person.

It's one thing to be unpretentious and to eschew material things. The problem with Mathews is that she derides those who feel differently than she does, and it is incredibly off putting. She looks down her nose at the ladies who went out and bought something new to wear to the Bake-Off, since they were going to be on national television. She also mentions multiple times that she won't go to "expensive" restaurants and declares that spending the Pillsbury $25 food per diem would make her feel wasteful and overindulgent. I just had to shake my head at this stuff after a while. Maybe she included these sorts of things to make herself sound humble, but she just comes across as holier-than-thou and incredibly annoying. The awkward interviews she gives after winning the big prize do nothing to help her cause, and no matter how much she tries to explain herself after the fact, she just seems like an ingrate. If you don't like Mathews, it's pretty hard to enjoy her story.

I did read Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America a few years ago and thought that was a much better and more satisfying book set in the same world.

4.0 out of 5 stars Through the eyes of a cook who likes to cook lean, May 9, 2009

By 

Himri "Himri" (Tempe, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)

Before I picked up this book, I only knew as far as cooking shows on TV - so interesting. In the book, the author while taking us through her journey of Pillsbury contest, gives an inside look into her approach to cooking.

While the contest did seem like an exam, post contest stuff of being rushed to and from shows, and what the author gathers about 'presentation on TV' makes one wonder about the make believe there.

As a cooking contest memoir, its interesting to see the focus on main incident maintained and not veering off into the whole life, but still relating relevant incidents to keep the story wholesome.

The best revelatory, ungarnished truth for me was when the author realised that the whole hype about the shows was about the hosts themselves.

Ellie Mathews was asked by Oprah, 'What did you bake?' when she appeared on her show as a winner of Pillsbury Bake Off contest with her Salsa Couscous Chicken. She thought,"Of course, I handnt baked a thing(in the winning recipe),but is a natural question,given the contest's name." Turns out that a list of ingredients for Curry Dinner Rolls started me on baking. True to the spirit of inspiring.

This is what I like about non-fiction: real consequences.