5.0 out of 5 stars
ALL ABOUT FOOD AND FOODIES PLUS EVERYONE ELSE
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 September 2015
This book is so much fun meeting Eva, her family, her friends plus other characters who drift through her life. The book is divided into eight chapters all concerning different characters, different places.
The story begins before her birth. Father, Lars Thorvald, and his younger brother, Jarl, finds they must prepare lutefisk for Scandinavian Lutherans. Lars doesn't like preparing lutefisk, but wants to be a chef, to prepare good food. After he graduates high school he leaves Duluth and heads for the twin cities to apprentice as a chef. He loves his work. He is fussy about what he uses in his cooking. He goes to the farmers market and is particular about who he buys his produce from.
The book is set in Minnesota, the twin cities for the most part, with other midwest states, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota.
Lars marries Cynthia, a waitress, where he is chef. Eva is born, but Mom feels a career is more important than a family. She feels she would never be a good mother. So she leaves Lars to bring up their only child. Lars hopes Eva will want to follow in his footsteps. He introduces his daughter to different food, different tastes, different spices, this right after she is born. This shocks the pediatrician, she is only an infant, can't eat that kind of food. But it works. Eva will become a famous chef.
The family is poor, but aunts, uncles, cousins love Eva and make sure she knows how much they love her. At an early age she begins cooking and can't understand how others like take out such as hamburgers, pizza, frozen foods, instant meals. Even at an early age she has sophisticated tastes. A very tall child at eleven, she is five feet seven. At sixteen she is six feet two.
I tried to read this book slowly to make it last, but couldn't do it. I intend to put the recipes strewn through out the book to use.
One of my favorite characters is good hearted, great cook, Pat Prager, very religious, very generous. But there are so many quirky, full of fun characters, some I don't like. Eva is well like by those around her. Octavia thinks highly of herself, the best looking lady in any room she is in. Others, for some reason, don't care for her. A friend, Celeste, tells Pat Prager she likes her because she is the most real person she knows. Fun going to the county fair, then the state fair, going to great restaurants for great meals.
This book is so full of fun, especially after reading dark literature. Very enjoyable trip through the midwest and its cooking and kitchens. Lakes for good fishing to catch tasty fish. Eva wants only the best to serve her guests. She charges well though. A book filled with fun.
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