Walking on Walnuts [Paperback]

Nancy Ring (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1997

After eight years as a struggling artist and waitress, Nancy Ring decided to find a "survival job" that would bring satisfaction as well as survival. Armed with only chutzpah and a love of baking instilled by generations of her family, she answered a newspaper ad seeking an assistant pastry chef. So began a roller-coaster ride of apprenticeships in New York's high-pressured, ego-infested, and sometimes rat-infested, kitchens.

In this culinary memoir, Nancy Ring combines funny and poignant stories of love and work with warm remembrances of a family that celebrates food with gusto and cherishes memories with passion.





Through it all, Nancy is sustained by her memories of her Jewish family, and the recipes that were handed down to her through generations. Blintzes, mandelbrot, fruit compote, all made in the steamy kitchens of her relatives, come wafting back to her in times of grief and celebration. It's what fortifies her determination to make it on her own terms--as an artist, as a chef, and as a woman. -->

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The characters in what Ring calls her "restaurant stories," and the New York City restaurants themselves, are based on real people and real restaurants. Although this is primarily a work of nonfiction, she has slightly changed events and chronology; but the names and descriptions of her family members are real and the episodes of their lives are true. She gives readers an account of life in New York's restaurant kitchens she worked as an assistant pastry chef, interwoven with memories of her colorful, Jewish immigrant family that fled Russia and later the Holocaust for a new life in the U.S. Scattered throughout the book are recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation, including Grandma Selma's mandelbrot cookies, Papa Eddy's favorite compote, Great-Grandma Esther Hanna's taiglach, peach and honey upside-down cake, and fig apple pie. Filled with warmth, humor, and sadness, this is an unforgettable portrait of one woman's family and her determination to succeed. George Cohen --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Painter, poet, and pastry chef Ring uses her dual experience as a struggling artist and struggling chef as a basis for this ambitious autobiography, but it is marred by too many themes and unsophisticated writing. Living in New York City and waiting on tables to support herself while she pursued her art, Ring was unhappy, unfulfilled, and barely making ends meet. She decided to use her baking skills, learned in the kitchens of the strong Jewish immigrant women in her family, to change her ``survival job'' into something less demeaning and abusive than she felt waitressing to be. So begins her journey into the kitchens of New York's finest restaurants and a world where she could use her creativity and her heritage to find personal and professional fulfillment. On top of her own story, Ring layers the stories of her grandparents, glimpses into New York's restaurant scene, her romance with another chef/artist, mounds of walnut lore, and some favorite recipes. The unfortunate result is an undigestible and overwritten mix--often engaging but ultimately too unweildy for Ring's limited powers of expression. Her most glaring literary error is her injudicious use of baking similes; ``A book is like a cake,'' she begins her acknowledgements, and there is hardly a page after that doesn't contain at least one similar platitude: ``Summer in the city is as hot and heavy as overworked bread dough, too thick to rise and too tight to roll. No one is dancing. But they are working. Just because the tar is melting in the street like fudge over a double boiler doesn't mean that anybody's getting the day off.'' Which explains why this book collapses like a souffl‚ that's been beaten to death. (illustrations by the author, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (August 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553375164
• ISBN-13: 978-0553375169
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kirkus Reviews is dead wrong!, January 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Walking on Walnuts (Paperback)

Yummy and lucious! Found this in the cooking section at my local bookstore and stumbled on a treasure!! It's part family history -- (a pet favorite subject of mine) -- part cookbook (I love baking) and part just-plain-fun! I loved reading about what life is like behind the scenes in swanky restaurants.

And, as icing on this cake of a book, the author does her own illustrations -- and beautiful ones they are! Great work, Ms. Ring!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful layering of walnuts and history as life, April 15, 1998

By 

Caroline Cory ([e-mail]) (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walking on Walnuts (Paperback)

I really liked this book because I could identify with the author on every level: artist, baker, family member. An intricately woven story of life in the 1990's as seen through the eyes of a struggling female artist and the generations of women who proceeded her. I love how each chapter ends with a recipe she struggles with during the course of the story and how food and walnuts are used as metaphors for life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're there smelling & tasting in your Bubba's kitchen!, April 6, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Walking on Walnuts (Hardcover)

I almost gained weight reading this delightful story. Not only are the recipes at end of each chapter wonderful the experiences of the writer are so much "fun". Her work as a pastry chef made me realize there is much going on in the restaurant kitchen that we don't always appreciate. Have reccommended this book to many friends.How about a sequel