A heartfelt and forward-thinking book in which Lee’s experiences and travel accounts successfully create an eager appetite...
An acclaimed chef and restaurateur travels across the country to explore the cultural history behind the evolving American cuisine.
Lee (Smoke & Pickles, 2013) takes readers on an edifying two-year ride in which he digs for the personal ties that bind cooks, restaurant owners, and loyal patrons to the food in their region. His journeys included an accidental four-day Ramadan fasting in Dearborn, Michigan, where he had no set plan but to devour Middle Eastern cuisine; a sojourn to the Texas coast to hear about the experiences of Vietnamese fisherman while feasting on Gulf delicacies; and a trip back in time to the Big Apple Diner in New York, where the author worked in the early 1990s. Along the way, Lee learned traditional cooking techniques like making smen, a Moroccan fermented butter, and he points out the essential role that both immigrants and longtime settlers play in the food we eat. “Our food traditions are the last things we hold onto,” he writes. “They are not just recipes; they are a connection to the nameless ancestors who gave us our DNA. That’s why our traditional foods are so important.” With plenty of lyrical appreciations of an impressively wide variety of cuisines, the author leaves readers craving the food he describes while also ready to attempt the advanced recipes at the end of each chapter—e.g. Amok trey, bourbon-washed butter, and pollo a la brasa. Lee effectively transports readers next to him during his encounters and inside of his thoughts during moments of introspection. A few hard transitions and seemingly unrelated stories may cause some confusion, but the author ultimately leads readers to a better understanding of the dishes he experienced and the recipes he provides.
A heartfelt and forward-thinking book in which Lee’s experiences and travel accounts successfully create an eager appetite for adventurous recipes, the stories behind the relationships of the people that inspire them, and a strong appreciation for the cooking traditions they’ve upheld.Pub Date: April 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-57965-738-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Artisan
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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