Friends of the Parrot

Editorial Blogs

Tony Miksak

WORDS ON BOOKS by Tony Miksak for KZYX&Z-FM, 90.7 Philo CA
Airs Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 10:55 am, repeated Wednesday, May 2 at 1 pm

Title: From Books to Food and Back Again

(MUSIC UP) This is Tony Miksak with a few Words on Books.

I am not a foodie. By no means am I a foodie. A bookie, perhaps, if bookie means someone obsessed with books. If that's a bookie, I'm a bookie.

Right now I'm finishing a classic bookie-foodie adventure story, called "Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote D'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella." Written by David Shalleck, a long-time professional chef, "Mediterranean Summer" recounts his apprenticeship in a dozen regional restaurants and his time cooking for billionaires on a yacht cruising the Med.

On the face of it this is a rich man's tale told from the servants' point of view. Shalleck struggles first to learn a demanding cuisine, then struggles to present it perfectly to his demanding employers. Using a tiny galley and fresh ingredients he finds in each port he manages most of the time to create fantastic food.

Readers interested in the nuances of European cuisine will find a lot to chew upon here. During his extended apprenticeship Shalleck took extensive notes and his reconstructions of meals created and situations endured is endlessly, painfully, amusing.

By the time the author has been hired as chef on the yacht Serenity, he is a master of food, but untested as crew member and head of kitchen.

Beyond the food adventures and the sailing tales, "Mediterranean Summer" is Shalleck's own coming of age story. The naive but intelligent apprentice begins his tale with the painful night he served second rate food to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, and continues through further humiliations in the regional kitchens of Italy and France.

On board at last, Shalleck one memorable afternoon presents his rich employer with a lovely selection of the best high-end charcuterie from Gascony – "duck and goose liver in all forms of terrines, mousses and pates," he writes. "Saucisson, game pate, and all of the accoutrements for the Gascone table: mustards, cornichons (and) pickled onions."

"Around eleven, Rick came down to the galley and said that la Signora requested a snack of pate... I composed a nice arrangement of pates to one side of a large round silver platter. Opposite, I placed a cluster of cornichons in a lettuce leaf cup..." and so on for another paragraph full of diced aspic and silver bread baskets. "A few minutes later, I heard footsteps coming down to the galley... there she was, la Signora, platter in hand, little on it having been touched.

"'Daveed!' she said, using the French version of my name in an unmistakable angry tone. 'What is this dog food you sent us?'"

Ah, the foibles of the super rich.

Happily, I have very little in common with billionaires, and sadly I will never have the prep skills of the most lowly line chef, but I found myself swept away by this book with its clutter of well-told stories. I rooted for the author on every page and very much enjoyed the usable recipes presented as an edible coda.

Just one caution: This book will make you hungry. Be sure to read "Mediterranean Summer" with wine, bread and cheese at your elbow.

(MUSIC) You can subscribe to the email version of Words on Books by writing to amiksak@mcn.org. Transcripts are available on the KZYX web site.

Notes:

"Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote D'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella." Written by David Shalleck and Erol Munuz. Forward by Mario Batali. Broadway Books hardcover $23.95. ISBN 0767920481. To be published May 22, 2007.

Shalleck's job on the yacht was "to prepare all the meals for the owners and their guests for the summer, without repeating a single one, in menus that reflect the flavors of each port of call by using only local ingredients, and all presented flawlessly to the couple's uncompromising taste from a tiny galley while at sea" (from the publisher's description).

Don't take my word for it:

"Sailing the Mediterranean in summer is the stuff of dreams. And in the company of a chef who plies the bounteous markets and creates food for the gods, this is indeed a heady journey. For the reader, the luscious meals and the ports of call are seductive; for the chef, the summer aboard the luxurious yacht is also a coming-of-age experience, when hard-won accolades and daunting challenges change him into the person he wants to be. A perfect book for the vacation flight to some paradise." (Frances Mayes)

"Although David did not choose the typical path to becoming a chef, he gives a very honest account of the thoughts and emotions — elation, happiness, dejection, passion, and moments of inspiration — that all cooks go through. It was completely absorbing." (Thomas Keller, The French Laundry)

"Fast-paced, fascinating, and well-written, this wonderful adventure at sea captures David's quest for the ultimate ingredients along the Mediterranean coast, the total immersion of this young American cook in the French, and particularly, the Italian cultures and, finally, the birth of a talented chef. Bravo!" (Jacques Pépin)

Tony Miksak
Bookseller Emeritus & member, Board of Directors, KZYX&Z
read "Words on Books" at http://www.gallerybooks.com/bkm/index.html
travel blog: http://www.travelpod.com/members/amiksak

back to the top