kitchens of the great midwest chronicled the life of eva thorvald that ended with a meal that a culmination of her life that reminded me of a final challenge for top chef that would have made tom colicchio proud. each portion of the meal related back to a story, the reader read about her life.
the novel opened with her father lars thorvald, an awkward but loving man and a great father. he was a chef and was so excited to feed so much so that the doctor warned him about introducing things to early to eva. i mean he wanted to give her pork shoulder at like three months, which is alittle extreme. however, helped provide eva with an extraordinary palette. oh, i should add that lars was really a lovely person, it was so sweet to learn of his dedication to his family and he made the best lutefisk. sadly, however lars passed away and eva was raised by her aunt and uncle, though she did not know it during her youth. i forgot to mentioned, by this point, eva's mother had abandoned her and lars.
the story then jumped to eva as a tween. she was obsessed with peppers and after getting in trouble with at school ran away to her cousin, braque, who was away at college. quick sidenote, eva had the coolest cousins (via her aunt by marriage/"mom"'s side) that had great taste in music, braque got her a bikini kill shirt and randy listened to nine inch nails. anyway, braque and eva went around hustlin' people to make money, eva due to her high tolerance of spicy food, would shock adults with the spicy food she ate.
the next chapter of eva's life introduced, will prager, a boy who was her first sweetheart. i have to add i loved will prager's taste in music as well (okay, stradal's amazing taste in music.) i even listed out all the songs, which i youtubed as i read to help soundtrack the chapter:
"where is the love"
"super bon bon" soul coughing
"car" built to spill
"in an airplane over the sea" neutral milk hotel
"fade into you" mazzy star
"why (mtv unplugged version)" annie lennox
"reason to believe"
their first date was at a fancy restaurant and it reminded me of when i first started fine dining, how unsure i was about the procedures and of course how much i would be spending. it was a nice little stroll down memory lane. anyhoot, it is her that the reader and will realized that eva had a special gift when it came to food and she began working in that very restaurant. i have to add that eva moved away and though i hoped that will would come back into her life and they would end up lovers, but this did not happen.
the next part of eva's life revolved around dinner parties, which reminded me of the dinner parties that my friend danny used to host. they weren't potlucks, he did all of the cooking, nor were they as catty. thought it was probably just octavia that was catty. i mean she was horrible person and had a bad life because she made bad choices. but back to those dinner parties, eva was so nice and her caesar salad sounded amazing!
i have to admit that was a little bored by the storyline that introduced jordy. i am going to say that that part was just to introduce venison into the menu. odd, but i read it. i think the novel would have been better if the venison was included a different way that related more to eva.
i was very excited about pat pragar's section, mostly because i made those bars and they were delish. also that new woman was so mean. and i wonder what happen when she got pulled over. also, those vegan people were the worse, but i guess if you were vegan, you would be angry and hungry too.
the last part of the book, reintroduced cindy, eva's mom that abandoned her. her life though enjoyable was not great, which felt kind of like karma for abandoning her daughter. by this time in the story, eva was a successful chef. she started out by hosting these random dinner parties around town, well the town she lived in. she then decided to start a pop-up dinner party. i had seen something like it on top chef, but have sadly never attended one of those. she was so successful that she began doing her dinners in even more exotic places, and the waiting list was years longs. anyway, cindy decided to get on the wait list so that she can meet her daughter. it is from cindy's perspective that we learn of the dinner of eva's lifetime. it's pretty amazing, i was impressed by the courses and everything related back to the stories, we had read. it was brillant, as a lover of food and good storytelling, i couldn't imagine a better way to end a great novel. also, all of the people from eva's life, were there as well.
it really was the perfect ending to a great book! i really can't get over how great it was that the meal related back to her life. well, done stradal. this book is definite read if you love food. i highly recommend and as an added bonus, there are also recipes in it, so you can make some of what you read. i recomend pat pragar's bars!
here is pat's recipe:
their first date was at a fancy restaurant and it reminded me of when i first started fine dining, how unsure i was about the procedures and of course how much i would be spending. it was a nice little stroll down memory lane. anyhoot, it is her that the reader and will realized that eva had a special gift when it came to food and she began working in that very restaurant. i have to add that eva moved away and though i hoped that will would come back into her life and they would end up lovers, but this did not happen.
the next part of eva's life revolved around dinner parties, which reminded me of the dinner parties that my friend danny used to host. they weren't potlucks, he did all of the cooking, nor were they as catty. thought it was probably just octavia that was catty. i mean she was horrible person and had a bad life because she made bad choices. but back to those dinner parties, eva was so nice and her caesar salad sounded amazing!
i have to admit that was a little bored by the storyline that introduced jordy. i am going to say that that part was just to introduce venison into the menu. odd, but i read it. i think the novel would have been better if the venison was included a different way that related more to eva.
i was very excited about pat pragar's section, mostly because i made those bars and they were delish. also that new woman was so mean. and i wonder what happen when she got pulled over. also, those vegan people were the worse, but i guess if you were vegan, you would be angry and hungry too.
the last part of the book, reintroduced cindy, eva's mom that abandoned her. her life though enjoyable was not great, which felt kind of like karma for abandoning her daughter. by this time in the story, eva was a successful chef. she started out by hosting these random dinner parties around town, well the town she lived in. she then decided to start a pop-up dinner party. i had seen something like it on top chef, but have sadly never attended one of those. she was so successful that she began doing her dinners in even more exotic places, and the waiting list was years longs. anyway, cindy decided to get on the wait list so that she can meet her daughter. it is from cindy's perspective that we learn of the dinner of eva's lifetime. it's pretty amazing, i was impressed by the courses and everything related back to the stories, we had read. it was brillant, as a lover of food and good storytelling, i couldn't imagine a better way to end a great novel. also, all of the people from eva's life, were there as well.
it really was the perfect ending to a great book! i really can't get over how great it was that the meal related back to her life. well, done stradal. this book is definite read if you love food. i highly recommend and as an added bonus, there are also recipes in it, so you can make some of what you read. i recomend pat pragar's bars!
here is pat's recipe:
here are some of the recipes i want to try:
mom's chicken wild rice casserole:
mom's carrot cake
barn ramstad's kraft caramel bars
last celeste's mississippi mud bars which reminded me of something my grandma would make, but we called them brownies.
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