A wide-ranging, toothsome smorgasbord of Gotham's good eats and the tireless men and women behind each plate.
Exuberant New York chefs and restaurateurs share their culinary histories.
Initially inspired by a conversation with an Upper West Side butcher, Yalof (Straight From The Heart: Letters of Hope and Inspiration from Survivors of Breast Cancer, 1997, etc.) began researching the “gastronomic landscape of New York City” throughout its five distinct boroughs. Eschewing the popular go-to dining destinations with their in-house “rock-star chefs,” the author canvassed chefs and shop owners of some newer and less-well-known establishments representative of the region’s diversity. Each interviewee generously shares his or her diverse background and offers unique and educative perspectives on taste, ingredients, and service experiences. An opening section on food-centered grass-roots businesses celebrates immigrant purveyors from Croatia, France, Greece, and Poland who all share a passion for hard work and flavorful delicacies both sweet and savory from their native lands. Personality and humor shine brightly throughout these essays, especially in the stories of Charlie Sahadi’s years curating a Middle Eastern deli, “entertainologist” Lulu Powers’ first catering blunders, and young cook MacKenzie Arrington’s insightful restaurant coming-of-age. Others highlight the business end of the food industry—e.g., Louisiana-born praline perfectionist Lauren Clark, who ponders the necessary transitions small ventures must make to stay profitable or food truck vendors like The Halal Guys, who prize cleanliness, word-of-mouth advertising, and the principle of the happy customer. From the oldest Chinese restaurant in New York to a Rikers Island food service overseer, each of these vignettes shares a common theme about devotion and dedication within the vast gastronomical spectrum. This is most eloquently dispatched by South Harlem baker “Mr. Lee,” who knows that “you got to be a 100 percent to do this.” Collectively, Yalof’s assortment of cuisines and memories paints a multiculturally diverse food tapestry, and each individually embodies a passion for food artistry that crosses generations, cultures, nationalities, and all manner of palates.
A wide-ranging, toothsome smorgasbord of Gotham's good eats and the tireless men and women behind each plate.Pub Date: May 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-16892-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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