Delicious Reads: The School Of Essential Ingredients

My sister, who is aware of my slight obsession with food literature- and an excellent cook herself- gave me this book, The School of Essential Ingredients, which tells the story of Lillian, a chef who holds cooking classes every Monday night at her restaurant.

These are no ordinary classes, of course- each class is interwoven with the personal story of one of its students. From Tom the sad widower, to Chloe the klutzy waitress, to beautiful Antonia who designs kitchens, the characters are well rounded and realistic- many of them similar to people we’ve known, or are.

This is definitely “light reading”- I enjoy its lyrical prose and delicious descriptive passages, but would have liked the author to delve deeper into the stories of each character. As it was, I felt like I was just getting an amuse bouche of each character, without any entrees to follow.