Customer Reviews

The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir

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It wasn't until I read how emphatically Mathews refuses to fit the winner stereotype that I realized I even had one. Onstage, when her name was called, she failed to scream and giggle and tear up with elation and simultaneous modest disbelief, as I thought we all had learned to do, watching Miss America pageants or American Idol. In fact, Emcee Alex Trebek had to suggest, in a whisper, that Ellie give him a hug. A good sport, she complied, as she did when they asked her to fly to Los Angeles to appear next day on something she believed was called the Rosy O'Donald Show.
But Ellie never did buy a Mercedes or first-class round-the-world airline tickets with her million dollars. She doesn't have a celebrity kitchen either, even though she had a perfect excuse to create one. Since winning the contest, she and her husband moved and had to remodel a kitchen. Six-burner range? She couldn't remember using even four burners all at once. Sub-Zero refrigerator, billed as a "monument to food preservation"? No.
The memoir's subtitle suggests her grounded perspective: "A Woman, A Chicken Dinner, A Million Dollars." She's perfectly clear what comprises her real life, including illness and death and birth and rediscovery. On the other hand, devising a winning recipe isn't nothing. True, she needed to do something with the boneless skinless chicken thighs she had in the freezer before leaving on a long trip, but that eventual stroke of genius was preceded by a lot of analysis and testing of other possibilities. Nevertheless, the Bake-Off, ultimately, is not life or death: it's a chicken recipe. Ultimately, it's Ellie Mathews who is most interesting, Ellie and her observing eye.
I like all this about her, and if she'd written the book I was expecting to read, full of gee-whiz giddiness and a montage of once-in-a-lifetime events, I wouldn't be still thinking about it. And yet her very moderation bugs me a little. Why? I guess I want her to get out of my way and let me have my vicarious thrill at her expense. It's hard for me to give up completely on the idea that winning that prize would change me -- I mean her -- in some important, positive way.
"Aren't you excited?" everyone kept asking Ellie at the Bake-Off. But nobody really wanted to know; they just wanted her to say yes. Just as I would have. I'd ask her every possible intrusive question including, of course, "What did you do with the money?" Fortunately for us, she doesn't give us the answers we expect.

Ellie Mathews won the first prize in the 1998 Pillsbury Bake-Off with her recipe for "Salsa Couscous Chicken." This book is a somewhat unfocused memoir of food, family and the Pillsbury competition. One of the nicest aspects of the story is how competitiveness and neighborliness enhance each other in the contest.

The Pillsbury Bake-Off has been an American institution since 1949 and has attracted thousands of competitors. "I meet people all the time who say, 'Gee. I didn't know real people ever won those things.' I'm here to tell you we do."

Mathews keeps her sense of perspective. She wrote Ambassador to the Penguins: A Naturalist's Year Aboard a Yankee Whaleship to very good reviews, and won the 2007 Milkweed Editions Prize for Children's Literature for The Linden Tree.

Those triumphs undoubtedly helped her survive an appearance on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" where she shared the stage with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. She also appeared on "Oprah," with other contest winners -- a Garth Brooks look-alike and Kirby, the champion of the Westminster Dog Show.

Throughout Mathews remains upbeat and happy. It was a joy to read her self-deprecating humor and about her cooking expertize. And, to marvel with a bit of bemusement at her million dollar recipe.

The theme in the 1998 Pillsbury competition was "quick and easy" with a cooking time of 30 minutes or less. Salsa Couscous Chicken is prepared on the stovetop in a skillet, rather than in the oven. Mathews was required to use Old El Paso Garden Pepper or Thick 'n Chunky salsa under the rules. The dish has North African and Mexican influences.

Mathews says "The taste is the key. That's really what this dish has going for it. It doesn't look special on the plate, but it tastes very good." The judges agreed; they complimented the "complexity of the recipe's flavor with so few ingredients."

Ingredients:
1. 3 cups hot cooked couscous or rice
2. 1 tablespoon oil
3. 1/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds
4. 2 garlic cloves, minced
5. 8 chicken thighs, skin removed
6. 1 cup Old El Paso(R) Salsa
7. 1/4 cup water
8. 2 tablespoons dried currants or raisins
9. 1 tablespoon honey
10. 3/4 teaspoon cumin
11. 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cooking Directions
1. Cook couscous as directed on package.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add almonds; cook 1 to 2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from skillet; set aside.
3. Add garlic and chicken to skillet; cook 4 to 5 minutes until chicken is browned, turning once.
4. In small bowl, combine salsa and all remaining ingredients; mix well. Add to chicken. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir in almonds. Serve over couscous.

Ellie Mathews writes an engrossing memoir which centers around her capturing the one million dollar prize at the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Through out the 277 page book Ellie shares her experiences revealing her strength of character and modesty. I am not fond of cooking, but Ellie makes it sound like developing her recipe for this and other contests was easy. By the end of the book, I actually felt like I had a shot at winning cooking contests and was ready to start cooking up a storm. Then it was like reality set in when confronted by spices and cooking pots. Ummm,well maybe no contests for me. But, it was very interesting to read how her recipe ideas evolve. I love that she focuses on real food, simple preparation, easy to do. And she has a conscious - not to much butter, light on the sugar etc.

Ellie writes very clearly about her feelings. What was going through her mind when they revealed that she was the winner. It is interesting to read her reactions because they are so different than mine would be. I would be screaming and jumping up and down if I won, but she barely manages a glimpse of a smile and a brief hug with the host. I think she was so overwhelmed, she didn't know what to do. She shares how she doesn't feel like she was adequate on some of the shows she was on to promote her recipe. She was so eager to please the Pillsbury people, to not let them be disappointed. She fully develops her character and though at the beginning of the book I felt like saying what is wrong with you. Why aren't you excited? Soon I realized this was Ellie, she was very excited but this is her way of reacting. I grew to really embrace her character. Her sense of right from wrong. Of living frugally. Of helping others. This is Ellie and there is so much to love about her.

In addition to sharing a lot about the mechanics and cooking contests and her observations, the book also includes some of her winning ideas for competing.Little nuggets that can be applied to many types of competitions. The back of the book includes her Pillsbury Bake-Off prize winning, "Salsa Couscous Chicken".

Great read!

~ Lee Mellott

I could not put this book down--I read the entire thing in half a day. I love memoirs of unfamous people, ordinary folks who've got extraordinary stories to tell. I have never read anything about cook-offs, and this was an interesting glimpse inside the minds--and kitchens--of seemingly unlikely contestants. I confess, it made me want to get in the kitchen and cook up something new, thinking, "If she could do it, so can I!" (As I sit and munch on take-out pizza, I realize that's not going to happen anytime soon, but the book left the illusion that it could be possible...) Admittedly, I wanted to shake Ms Mathews at times for not showing the cliche' emotions we expect from "winners," but I was also sympathetic to her plight, and happy that she was able to explain herself in this book beyond what people saw on television or read in reviews. She's anything but unemotional, as evidenced by the loving way she constantly refers to her husband, and I had tears as she described meeting her granddaughter for the first time, and being reunited with a long-lost friend. I commend her for staying true to herself, and I look forward to trying the recipe on my family, though I'm not even sure I know what a currant looks like! Well done!

I have rarely spent so much time with such an uncompromisingly dour individual, but that's the eccentric charm of Ellie Mathews' memoir. It's like spending a weekend with a bunch of Calvin Coolidges or those Maine backwoodsmen Stephen King writes about. You don't go to Mathews for charm, you go because she tells you what she thinks.

She shades the truth a bit I think by trying to elide all references to when exactly she won this prize. It wasn't a recent win, but you wouldn't know it, for she manages to leave out every date, and only when she wound up appearing on the Rosie O'Donnell show did I detect how old her stories are, for that show hasn't been on the air for years! So, she may be straighforward about some things, but don't let her fool you, this contest occurred in the last century.

Since reading it I have seen the bootleg footage of her win and I can see why she felt forced to write this book as an apologia. All over the world people watched her and saw a frozen, uninterested person who looked too prim and bored to get into the backslapping the award ordinarily provokes. She had a superior air about her which didn't sit well with the folks at home, but after reading her book I do believe her explanation, that some people are warm and some are cold and she's the latter. It's a fascinating confession from the sort of person who is perpetually under-represented in our society, the competitive wallflower. Why go on the Bake Off if you don't want fame and money? I still don't understand her motivations. Everywhere she goes people do the wrong thing all around her. On every show she begs the host, please don't ask me about the money, and yet they ignore her plea and harass her about what she did with the million dollars. She has a healthy distaste for the other people in the world, and except for Carl her husband, Karen her daughter, Loa her baby granddaughter, and a few other minor characters, the rest of the world come off as tacky, tasteless famongers who use too much butter and eggs.

Contestants depend too heavily on eye-catching garnishes, bemoans Mathews. "I'm also impatient with fussiness," she adds. She won for her recipe for Salsa Couscous Chicken, and it was a mighty victory for plain old fashioned cooking.

She also had a friend she met camping who lost her husband in a terrible fall, and she gets points from me for telling this poor widow's story in a touching way, and describes how her win and fifteen minutes of fame helped to reunite her with this woman (whom she had lost touch with). In addition, Ellie suffered through the suicide of a close family member and the loss of others. Her life hasn't been easy, and I think it's good she managed to write out her complaints, it has probably been therapeutic, however for the reader it has the effect of being trapped in a room with someone who goes into every little detail of a life. "For breakfast that morning I ordered oatmeal. That's what I have when I know it's time to slown down. Forget the high-fat griddle goodies, the ooey-gooey cinnamon pastries. I needed the stabilizing effect of boiled food.

The Pillsbury Bake-Off is a part of Americana and in this book, we get the true story of how one woman was selected to compete and actually won the whole shebang. Ellie Matthews can actually write, so this isn't just some contrived tale. It's her story and although I don't think Ellie herself quite gets it, she's really a fascinating example of modern women.

I loved feeling as if I went through the Bake-Off right next to her. I loved her honest take on events and I loved reading the life story of someone who's journey has been so different from my own. I feel as if she's a friend after reading this book and I appreciate someone who can tell a good true story without relying on dirt and gossip to do so. I admire Ellie and I enjoyed this book. And I might even try making her recipe for Salsa Chicken Couscous - after all, anything that wins you a million bucks must be pretty darn good.

I enjoy memoirs by real people, rather than famous folk. This memoir was just delightful. Ellie Mathews is a calm, laid-back Seattlite who enjoys home cooking. She started entering cooking and recipe contests with an entry to a Beef Industry event. Early wins cemented her enjoyment, not so much for the prize money but for the satisfaction of having others praise her creations.

She's not your typical cooking contest winner--no shrieks or squeals appeared when she won the Pillsbury Cook-off. She didn't expect to win, and the winning recipe was the last one she entered. Her calm demeaner, likely from a Quaker upbringing, seemed to confuse the contest mavens, but I found her attitude refreshing.

Her descriptions of how she created her recipes were inspiring, making me wonder if I have what it takes to create a winning recipe. And she clearly communicates why she enters contests--for the satisfaction.

I made her Salsa Couscous Chicken tonight after finishing the book. Raves from the whole family--it's a keeper recipe!

My only complaint is that she didn't include more of her original recipes.

This was a very enjoyable book to read. If you ever wondered what the Pillsbury Bake-Off was like & how it feels to win 1 million dollars, this is the book for you. She also covers a few other cooking contests. She also tells you how she comes up with the recipes that have won her lots of money. There are tips on how to compete in cooking & recipe contests. One warning I have is if you are on a diet don't read this. This book will make you hungry.

This book is billed as "A Cooking Contest Memoir" which it certainly is, but it is given an interesting twist by its intelligent and understated author, Ellie Mathews, who looks at the world with a bit of irony and a dash of rebelliousness. She details several cooking contests that she entered before The Pillsbury Bake-off (the Mother of all cooking contests) and reveals that her prize-winning entry was far from her favorite among the several she submitted. She was criticized for not having a more emotional response to the news that she had won $1 million, but her reasons for entering the contest had very little to do with money and a lot more to do with the challenge of creating a new recipe and the experience of just being a part of the Bake-off. Ellie Mathews comes off as a down-to-earth woman who doesn't take herself too seriously and whose core values are never shaken despite the celebrity she achieved by winning the Bake-off.

This book was a delight to read. I cook, but not as a compulsive, over-enthusiastic chef. Thus, I can relate to Mathews' studied (sometimes ironic) detachment and her enjoying the Bake-Off from a distance. Thank heavens the memoir was written by her, not a hyper-eager contest-head.

Perusing the reviews of her book, I glimpsed what might have been imposed on the reader. The bitterest reviewer at Amazon.com wrote, "Ms. Mathews just happened to be in the right place at the right time...This may sound like sour grapes -- and it is. Everyone at the Bake-Off was bursting at the chance to win that cool mil. How ironic this once-in-a-lifetime thrill was lost on the one person who DID win."

How ironic, indeed, and thank heavens for irony. Without it, there would be nothing worth watching on television.

Moreover, the "thrill" of this victory was not lost on Mathews. It just didn't consume her. It didn't define her. This book is not just for those who are curious what such a contest might be like, but it's also for those who lead interesting but unpretentious lives who might wonder if the occasional brass ring would fit their own finger. Turns out, it does.