The book's subtitle is "A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death and Redefining the Way We Eat", which is a good summary of this memoir although in a different order of events. Grant Achatz is the subject and primary author of this memoir. Nick Kokonas' contributions are in the final two-thirds when he and Grant become co-owners of Chicago's Alinea restaurant. The memoir recounts Grant Achatz' journey beginning with his early aspirations to become a chef to his rise to become one of the world's renowned chef and ends with his successful battle with tongue cancer.
This is the second memoir written by a chef that I have read. The first was Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential". I by far prefered Grant Achatz's memoir. Both memoirs begin with each chef's fascination with cooking at an early age and follow them in their early career as they gain their bearings in the culinary world. The similarities end here. While Anthony Bourdain shares some fascinating tips for foodies regarding what to order and what to avoid, his recount of his early career is superficial,only touching the surface at best, and it appears his main objective is to propogate his "bad boy" image. He wears his hard-core drug-use and womanzing as a badge of honor. Grant Achatz, on the other hand, provides a candid, in-depth description that allows readers to not only understand his ladder to success but also gain a wonderful insight into the inner workings of gourmet restaurant kitchens.
After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Grant worked at the Michelin-starred restaurant, Trotter's in Chicago, owned by world -renowned chef Charlie Trotter. While he was initially excited to receive a job offer with such a prestigious restaurant, the intense working environment and arrogant chef/owner "managed to drain all the confidence and drive that I had built up over the years of cooking and thinking about food." His aspirations and passion for cooking were renewed when he then began working at The French Laundry in Napa. Chef/owner, Thomas Keller, a polar opposite of Charlie Trotter, became a lifelong friend and mentor. Reading about The French Laundry's dedication towards perfection and decadent dishes, convinced me that sampling the cuisine is worth the splurge before leaving the Bay Area.
Thomas Keller taught by example and fueled Grant's creativity. He generously encouraged Grant to take a leave of absence from The French Laundry and spend a summer in Spain working for a restaurant which focuses on moleular gastronomy, a creative, multi-sensory approach to cooking. Grant returned from this experience, freshly inspired and rejuvinated to create his own "out of the box" recipes resulting in his resignation from The French Laundry to take on the head chef position at a restaurant in an outer-Chicago suburb. His unique approach to cooking brought widespread attention to this relatively small, unknown restaurant and led to meeting his future business partner, Nick Kokonas.
Together, Nick and Grant created the world-famous Alinea, meaning "new train of thought". The authors share a detailed account of the birth of Alinea including its business plan, search for investors and retail space, interior design vision and plans, sample menu and opening night. Within six months of opening, Alinea earned the highly-respected title of Gourmet magagzine's best restaurant in North America. (recently in 2010 it was named number one in Gourmet magazine's best restaurants of the world).
Much to Allen's chagrin (the current price for a 22-course prix fixe menu is $300 per person), the book definitely wetted my appetite to sample Alinea's unique and extraordinary cuisne. Each dish listed and described in the book fueled my temptation, some enticing dishes included: lobster with rosemary vapor, proscuitto with passion fruit and mint, olive oil popsicles and candy cap mushroom icecream. Earlier in the book he stated his mission as a chef: " I want people to be excited, happy, curious, intrigued and even bewildered during the meal." This is probably a dream most foodies aspire to achieve and after reading his memoir, Grant Achatz (and later reading satisfied diners' reviews on Yelp) convinced me that a dining experience at Alinea will satisfy all of the above emotions in its diners.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
Lately I have been choosing to read memoirs over novels, seeking inspiration in real-life stories. No matter what his/her background is, each author imparts wisdom and inspiration in his/her life story. While "Left Neglected" is a novel, it read like a memoir due to its first person narrative and the author's first hand knowledge/experience with the subject material.
The subject material is "left neglect" a neurological condition that occurs as a result of right-hemisphere stroke, hemorrhage or as in the main character's case, traumatic brain injury. Patients with left neglect involuntarily ignore information on their left side, which often includes lack of awareness of the left side of their bodies. ( I remember learning about this condition during my adult motor disorders course in graduate school.) Examples of behaviors exhibited by patients with left neglect include: difficulty moving the left side of their bodies (which results in difficulty with walking and performing routine tasks, such as dressing), not "seeing" objects or people on their left and incomplete output (for example, only drawing "half" of an object, difficulty reading).
Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist at Harvard University. This is her second novel. Her first novel, "Still Alice"
is one of my favorite reads of last year. It chronicles the progression of a middle-aged woman with Alzheimer's Disease. I was fascinated and saddened as I observed the gradual deterioration of her mind and its affect on her loved ones. In "Left Neglect" the main character also goes through physiological, emotional and life-shifting changes; however, a major difference exists between the two characters lives. In "Still Alice", Alzheimer's causes Alice to lose control of her life as her mind deteriorates; the end result is despair.
In "Left Neglect", Sarah's traumatic brain injury initially disrupts her life; however, through rehabilitative care and determination she makes signficant gains and creates a new life for herself; the end result is hope.
The first few chapters of the novel reveal Sarah's life before her traumatic brain injury. A working mother of three, she juggles motherhood with a demanding professional career.
"I juggle a lot of balls-expensive, fragile, heavy, irreplaceable balls. And just when I think I've got as many in the air as I could possibly handle, one partner will throw me another...There are days when there is no room for error, no time to pee, no extra minutes to squeeze one more of anything out of me. On those days, I feel like a balloon blown to capacity, ready to burst."
While driving to work one day and simultaneously attempting to make a phone call, she loses control of her car. This results in a traumatic brain injury in the right hemisphere in which she loses her capacity to attend to her left as she verbalizes to her doctor:
"Intellectually, I understand that there's a left side of the plate, but it is not part of my reality. I can't look at the left side of the plate because it is not there. There is no left side. I feel like I'm looking at the whole plate."
Sarah spends several weeks in a rehab. hospital following her accident. As a therapist, I enjoyed reading about the different therapy strategies (such as visual- painting her left nails a bright color, jewelry on her left hand, tactile- sponge baths). The novel sensitively unravels the stages Sarah goes through as she comes to terms with her condition (denial, acceptance/self-awareness, anger, frustration, fear, determination, hope) through anecdotal recounts of events. For example, the frustration she feels when she realizes the difficulty performing routine tasks (such as going to the bathroom, eating, dressing) to the fear she feels with the uncertainty of her prognosis.
The more therapy I have, the more I realize that this is not a math equation. No one will give me any guarantees...I can work as hard as I've always worked at everything I've ever done, and it might not be any more effective than just lying here and praying. I've been doing both.
Despite the uncertainty, she persists with therapy and has a poignant revalation at the time of discharge, which elevates her spirits-
I go back to the poster. Something is different...The picture is of two hands, not one. And the hands aren't clenched into individual fists, ready for battle. The hands are clasped together. Holding hands. And the word above the hand isn't Attitude. The word above the holding hands is Gratitude.
I start to cry, loving this poster that I'd been looking at all wrong. I think about Heidi (her therapist) and Bob and the kids and my mother and all the help and love I've been given and all I have...I'm going home today, unable to copy a whole cat but able to see this whole poster, filled with gratitude.
As Sarah re-adjusts her life at home, the novel delves into her relationships with her mother who has come to help take care of her and who her son, who has recently been diagnosed with ADD. These relationships play a vital role in her healing process. Her mother's devotion and love as Sarah's primary caregiver brings Sarah to forgive her mother for a painful childhood resulting from her mother's emotional abandonment following her brother's tragic death and they are brought closer. Sarah draws parallels between her neurolological condition and her son's ADD, recognizing that while they both may deviate from "normal", self-awareness and strategies will help them to cope and lead happy, fullfilling lives.
Her self-awareness includes discovering what she can and cannot do. On one of her family's weekend ski trips, as she mulls over her frustration and disappintment of no longer being able to ski, she discovers an
alternative through the NESP's office located in the ski resort town. NESP ((New England Handicapped Sports Association) mission is to help people with disabilities enrich their lives through sports, recreation and social activities. Through the organization she discovers her ability to and eventually her love for snowboarding. Later, when she turns down an offer to return to her former place of employment, she is offered an professional opportunity with the organization which better suits her professional capabilities, current productivity capacity and chosen lifestyle.
This chosen lifestyle is a more healthy balance in life:
And although much of the stillness of the past four months(since her accident) has been a painful and terrifying experience, it has given me a chance to lift my head up and have a look around. And I'm starting to wonder. What else is there? Maybe success can be something else, and maybe there's another way to get there. Maybe there's a different road for me with a more reasonable spead limit.
"Left Neglected", like Lisa Genova's previous novel "Still Alice", is an intelligent and poignant novel. "Left Neglected" reinforces the importance of accepting one's circumstances, treasuring life's blessings and striving to achieve one's dreams. Dreams do not necessarily have to be monumental, but can be our daily pursuit of being the best we can be and nurturing our relationships with loved ones.
The subject material is "left neglect" a neurological condition that occurs as a result of right-hemisphere stroke, hemorrhage or as in the main character's case, traumatic brain injury. Patients with left neglect involuntarily ignore information on their left side, which often includes lack of awareness of the left side of their bodies. ( I remember learning about this condition during my adult motor disorders course in graduate school.) Examples of behaviors exhibited by patients with left neglect include: difficulty moving the left side of their bodies (which results in difficulty with walking and performing routine tasks, such as dressing), not "seeing" objects or people on their left and incomplete output (for example, only drawing "half" of an object, difficulty reading).
Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist at Harvard University. This is her second novel. Her first novel, "Still Alice"
is one of my favorite reads of last year. It chronicles the progression of a middle-aged woman with Alzheimer's Disease. I was fascinated and saddened as I observed the gradual deterioration of her mind and its affect on her loved ones. In "Left Neglect" the main character also goes through physiological, emotional and life-shifting changes; however, a major difference exists between the two characters lives. In "Still Alice", Alzheimer's causes Alice to lose control of her life as her mind deteriorates; the end result is despair.
In "Left Neglect", Sarah's traumatic brain injury initially disrupts her life; however, through rehabilitative care and determination she makes signficant gains and creates a new life for herself; the end result is hope.
The first few chapters of the novel reveal Sarah's life before her traumatic brain injury. A working mother of three, she juggles motherhood with a demanding professional career.
"I juggle a lot of balls-expensive, fragile, heavy, irreplaceable balls. And just when I think I've got as many in the air as I could possibly handle, one partner will throw me another...There are days when there is no room for error, no time to pee, no extra minutes to squeeze one more of anything out of me. On those days, I feel like a balloon blown to capacity, ready to burst."
While driving to work one day and simultaneously attempting to make a phone call, she loses control of her car. This results in a traumatic brain injury in the right hemisphere in which she loses her capacity to attend to her left as she verbalizes to her doctor:
"Intellectually, I understand that there's a left side of the plate, but it is not part of my reality. I can't look at the left side of the plate because it is not there. There is no left side. I feel like I'm looking at the whole plate."
Sarah spends several weeks in a rehab. hospital following her accident. As a therapist, I enjoyed reading about the different therapy strategies (such as visual- painting her left nails a bright color, jewelry on her left hand, tactile- sponge baths). The novel sensitively unravels the stages Sarah goes through as she comes to terms with her condition (denial, acceptance/self-awareness, anger, frustration, fear, determination, hope) through anecdotal recounts of events. For example, the frustration she feels when she realizes the difficulty performing routine tasks (such as going to the bathroom, eating, dressing) to the fear she feels with the uncertainty of her prognosis.
The more therapy I have, the more I realize that this is not a math equation. No one will give me any guarantees...I can work as hard as I've always worked at everything I've ever done, and it might not be any more effective than just lying here and praying. I've been doing both.
Despite the uncertainty, she persists with therapy and has a poignant revalation at the time of discharge, which elevates her spirits-
I go back to the poster. Something is different...The picture is of two hands, not one. And the hands aren't clenched into individual fists, ready for battle. The hands are clasped together. Holding hands. And the word above the hand isn't Attitude. The word above the holding hands is Gratitude.
I start to cry, loving this poster that I'd been looking at all wrong. I think about Heidi (her therapist) and Bob and the kids and my mother and all the help and love I've been given and all I have...I'm going home today, unable to copy a whole cat but able to see this whole poster, filled with gratitude.
As Sarah re-adjusts her life at home, the novel delves into her relationships with her mother who has come to help take care of her and who her son, who has recently been diagnosed with ADD. These relationships play a vital role in her healing process. Her mother's devotion and love as Sarah's primary caregiver brings Sarah to forgive her mother for a painful childhood resulting from her mother's emotional abandonment following her brother's tragic death and they are brought closer. Sarah draws parallels between her neurolological condition and her son's ADD, recognizing that while they both may deviate from "normal", self-awareness and strategies will help them to cope and lead happy, fullfilling lives.
Her self-awareness includes discovering what she can and cannot do. On one of her family's weekend ski trips, as she mulls over her frustration and disappintment of no longer being able to ski, she discovers an
alternative through the NESP's office located in the ski resort town. NESP ((New England Handicapped Sports Association) mission is to help people with disabilities enrich their lives through sports, recreation and social activities. Through the organization she discovers her ability to and eventually her love for snowboarding. Later, when she turns down an offer to return to her former place of employment, she is offered an professional opportunity with the organization which better suits her professional capabilities, current productivity capacity and chosen lifestyle.
This chosen lifestyle is a more healthy balance in life:
And although much of the stillness of the past four months(since her accident) has been a painful and terrifying experience, it has given me a chance to lift my head up and have a look around. And I'm starting to wonder. What else is there? Maybe success can be something else, and maybe there's another way to get there. Maybe there's a different road for me with a more reasonable spead limit.
"Left Neglected", like Lisa Genova's previous novel "Still Alice", is an intelligent and poignant novel. "Left Neglected" reinforces the importance of accepting one's circumstances, treasuring life's blessings and striving to achieve one's dreams. Dreams do not necessarily have to be monumental, but can be our daily pursuit of being the best we can be and nurturing our relationships with loved ones.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena De Blasi
La Dolce Vita!
This is one of many memoirs written by Americans who have chosen to settle or spend a significant amount of time in Italy as they pursue "the sweet life". I find myself drawn to such books, since it allows me to rekindle the sweet memories of our stay in Bellagio, Italy and stroke the flames of a dream to ultimately settle in this magical land.
This is a follow-up book to a previous memoir in which the author first moved to Venice and fell in love with an Italian man. In this memoir, her husband enters early retirement upon giving up his financial job and they decide to relocate to Tuscan villiage where they rent a house without central heating, electricity and telephone connection. Unlike most main characters who escape to Italy purely in search of the sweet life, Marlena realizes alongwith the sweet comes the salty.
"We've come here to make a life scrubbed clean of clutter, a life that follows the rhythyms and rituals of this rural culture....We're hoping this is a place that still remembers real life...the hard parts and the joyful ones. Dolce e salata, sweet and salty...each side dignfying the other."
Ironically it is her Italian husband that has more idealistic expectations about the region in search of serenity, while Marlena recognizes that serenity is not geographically dependant. In her unique way, she reminds him to focus on the present rather than living life with regrets.
"Instead of worrying who's robbing you of what, worry about how you thieve yourself. You rob time, Fernando. How arrogent you are taking an evening like this one as though it was some sour cherry, spitting half its flesh into the dirt. Every time you pitch yourself back into the past you lose time."
They befriend their landlord Barlozzo, who helps assimilate them to their local neigbhors, customs and surrounding locale. The book is effectively organized seasonally, as the traditions and natural surroundings change dramatically with each season.
They soon discover that the soul of Tuscan life is food. "In Tuscany, the lessons are all about the food. As Barlozzo promised from that first day, for rural folk, food is the fundamental theme of their lives. It is different from that of the American who gets excited about the restaurant of the week or a holiday feast or a dinner party at which someone auditions a recipe from a just acquired cookbook.
Lunch and dinner here compose a twice-daily-said mass. After all, here in the countryside, some people still grow it, gather, forage and hunt for it."
With Barlozzo as their guide, they gather wild chesnuts and grapes, forage for wild mushrooms, and prepare a hunted boar.
Marlena takes local ingredients and transforms them into delectable dishes. Each chapter ends with several recipes spotlighting seasonal ingredients. She recognizes the true art and beauty of cooking. "Certainly good cooking is about flavor. About the liberation of flavor, the suspension of it, and finally, the release of it... For instance, to make basil pesto, one pounds garlic and basil to release their oils and essences. Then one captures, holds those flavors by suspending them in olive oil, forming an emulsion, a thick, smooth sauce. But this sauce has yet to rerelease those flavors one worked to liberate and suspend. The sauce needs heat...The contact with the heat intensifies the flavors of the sauce to its fullness."
The book provided a steady and relaxing read, closely imitating the pace of life in Tuscany. The author captured the close friendships, mouth-watering dishes and colorful local traditions/customs. While I enjoyed experiencing rural Tuscan life through her keen observations and vivid descriptions, I did not feel as strong a connection to her as I felt for other recent memoir authors.
This is one of many memoirs written by Americans who have chosen to settle or spend a significant amount of time in Italy as they pursue "the sweet life". I find myself drawn to such books, since it allows me to rekindle the sweet memories of our stay in Bellagio, Italy and stroke the flames of a dream to ultimately settle in this magical land.
This is a follow-up book to a previous memoir in which the author first moved to Venice and fell in love with an Italian man. In this memoir, her husband enters early retirement upon giving up his financial job and they decide to relocate to Tuscan villiage where they rent a house without central heating, electricity and telephone connection. Unlike most main characters who escape to Italy purely in search of the sweet life, Marlena realizes alongwith the sweet comes the salty.
"We've come here to make a life scrubbed clean of clutter, a life that follows the rhythyms and rituals of this rural culture....We're hoping this is a place that still remembers real life...the hard parts and the joyful ones. Dolce e salata, sweet and salty...each side dignfying the other."
Ironically it is her Italian husband that has more idealistic expectations about the region in search of serenity, while Marlena recognizes that serenity is not geographically dependant. In her unique way, she reminds him to focus on the present rather than living life with regrets.
"Instead of worrying who's robbing you of what, worry about how you thieve yourself. You rob time, Fernando. How arrogent you are taking an evening like this one as though it was some sour cherry, spitting half its flesh into the dirt. Every time you pitch yourself back into the past you lose time."
They befriend their landlord Barlozzo, who helps assimilate them to their local neigbhors, customs and surrounding locale. The book is effectively organized seasonally, as the traditions and natural surroundings change dramatically with each season.
They soon discover that the soul of Tuscan life is food. "In Tuscany, the lessons are all about the food. As Barlozzo promised from that first day, for rural folk, food is the fundamental theme of their lives. It is different from that of the American who gets excited about the restaurant of the week or a holiday feast or a dinner party at which someone auditions a recipe from a just acquired cookbook.
Lunch and dinner here compose a twice-daily-said mass. After all, here in the countryside, some people still grow it, gather, forage and hunt for it."
With Barlozzo as their guide, they gather wild chesnuts and grapes, forage for wild mushrooms, and prepare a hunted boar.
Marlena takes local ingredients and transforms them into delectable dishes. Each chapter ends with several recipes spotlighting seasonal ingredients. She recognizes the true art and beauty of cooking. "Certainly good cooking is about flavor. About the liberation of flavor, the suspension of it, and finally, the release of it... For instance, to make basil pesto, one pounds garlic and basil to release their oils and essences. Then one captures, holds those flavors by suspending them in olive oil, forming an emulsion, a thick, smooth sauce. But this sauce has yet to rerelease those flavors one worked to liberate and suspend. The sauce needs heat...The contact with the heat intensifies the flavors of the sauce to its fullness."
The book provided a steady and relaxing read, closely imitating the pace of life in Tuscany. The author captured the close friendships, mouth-watering dishes and colorful local traditions/customs. While I enjoyed experiencing rural Tuscan life through her keen observations and vivid descriptions, I did not feel as strong a connection to her as I felt for other recent memoir authors.
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