Blood, Bones and Butter

This year one of my primary goals is to read more. SB and I have, like so many others, gotten hooked on the endless supply of quality TV and film at our fingertips thanks to Netflix. We have spent many more evenings in front of the tube than we'd like to admit. And while SB reads for at least a half-hour most nights before turning out the light, I can only get in a page or two before falling asleep. We have decided to make an effort to watch less TV and dedicate more evenings to reading instead.

I started my new reading kick with a book that I've wanted to read for at least six months -- Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton. It is the memoir of a chef who was featured on the most recent season of the show "Mind of a Chef." (The show airs on PBS and a few seasons are on Netflix, though not the newest season.) 

I loved this book for a few reasons. First, Hamilton has a Masters degree in creative writing, so the book is particularly well written. The language is beautiful and the flow of the book is masterful (each section comes full circle with poignance). The descriptions are so sensory that you can smell, taste, see and hear the entire story; she provides the deep level of observation and detail that you would expect from a writer/chef.

And then there is Hamilton's voice. She is unabashed, intelligent, at times generous and grateful and at other times cold and unforgiving. And her story explains well how she came to be that way. I don't want to tell the whole story here, in case you want to read the book... what I will say is that she is interesting on many levels. 

For example, she straddles two worlds in that she is highly educated and can speak the language of academia and simultaneously is a tireless manual laborer working in largely male restaurant kitchen culture. She is a woman who identifies as a lesbian for much of her life and then ends up, to her own surprise, acquiring a husband and becoming a mother of two. Her discussion of identity politics in the book is rich.

Some parts of her life sound idyllic - her childhood with artist parents and fine food and life outdoors, her Italian husband and their July trips to Rome - but for all of the wonder and magic that has been part of her experience, her story is also a painful one. While she is able to thrive in a fast-paced kitchen because that is her personality, her personal relationships outside of the kitchen are often distant and tenuous. 

In short, a complex and interesting woman and a very compelling read.