The School of Essential Ingredients

THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS by Erica Bauermeister This will make you want to sign up for a cooking class or, if you already know your way around a kitchen, you’ll want to re-create the dishes. If anything, this will probably make you hungry. Each chapter focuses on one of the students in the class with their unique backstories unfolding in between the preparation of the meal/lesson of that day. I especially enjoyed and related to Carl and Helen’s relationship. While I appreciate the overall message(s), I feel I would have liked this more if there was some tension or drama within the plot. I also would have liked to know more about Lillian herself as she’s the catalyst for the entire story/class. Overall, if you like flowery prose, (lots of) similes and food metaphors you’ll enjoy this warm and cozy character driven story. I plan to read the next book eventually. Rating: 4/5 ⭐️

Lillian is the owner/chef of a restaurant, who decides to hold a cooking class on the night the restaurant is closed. The variety of characters is fun, non repetitive, and the interactions keep the book more than interesting. I loved the generational gap of a young woman and an elderly woman. Both are facing challenges, and yet they are able to relate. I really enjoyed the book sufficiently to buy a second copy as a gift.

On Monday nights, Lillian teaches a cooking class at the restaurant. Eight students make their way to class, coming through the side gate and following the golden glow to the kitchen in back, where they will learn to cook from a woman who knows how to inspire her students to create food from the heart and from their memories rather than from a recipe. Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different student, alternating between reflections of their past and what is happening in the present, how they found their way to the class and how they get to know the other students. Lillian seems to know just what her students need to learn, and the lessons transform not only their culinary skills but also their lives. Reminiscent of Garden Spells and Like Water for Chocolate, there is a bit of magical realism to the book- but just a touch- not overdone at all. Bauermeister's vividly detailed descriptions of food leave your mouth watering and put you right into Lillian's kitchen. The writing is richly textured, lush and sensual. It is really quite beautiful. This is a debut novel but felt like it was written by a wise old soul. My only complaint about this book is that there are no recipes, however that makes sense since Lillian is teaching her students to cook without using recipes. Still, it would be nice to know how to make these dishes- or to know what essential secret ingredient to add to tonight's dinner to make my children behave and my husband pay attention! If you like good fiction and good food, The School of Essential Ingredients is the perfect combination of the two. I realize I'm gushing here, but I loved the warm little world within these pages, and was sorry to leave it.

When she was a little girl, Lillian discovered the power of food to bring people back to themselves. After Lillian's father left the family, Lillian's mother retreated into a fictional world, her face always hidden behind the pages of a book. Only when Lillian, desperate to reconnect with her mother, enlisted the help of an "Abuelita" from the neighborhood grocery store, did she discover that a perfectly prepared dish, a few "essential ingredients," had the ability to bring her mother back to reality --- and to her daughter. This ability of food, and cooking, to connect people with themselves, their past and each other is the common theme of Erica Bauermeister's THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS. The novel gets its title from the cooking school that Lillian, now an adult, runs on evenings when her popular, high-end restaurant is closed. On the first Monday of each month, Lillian's restaurant kitchen is filled with a colorful assortment of amateur cooks, some eager to deepen their own culinary connections, some unsure what brought them to this place. There's Claire, who's been so smothered by the constant physical and emotional demands of being a young wife and mother that she's forgotten what it means to make time and space for her own interests. There's Carl and Helen, an older couple whose seemingly perfect marriage hides a history of betrayal, redemption and hard work. There's Tom, whose passion for food was ignited by the love of his life. And there's Isabelle, whose short-term memory is failing her in her old age, but whose rich, long life rushes back to the present when she indulges in the nourishing, delicious food Lillian's restaurant prepares. THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS will likely appeal to fans of THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB and other novels where a group encounter serves as the foil for exploring individuals' stories. Unlike those books, however, Bauermeister's is best read not as an overarching story but as a series of linked character studies, as exquisitely prepared and satisfying as the dishes Lillian prepares in her restaurant. Although two of the characters do begin a tentative romance and one fulfills a career aspiration, the focus here is less on where they're going, plot-wise, and more on where they've been and who they are. And then there's the food. Bauermeister has a gift for writing about food in sensual, evocative terms, connecting the dish's rich flavors not only to her characters' rich histories but also to the reader's inner palate. "She took a piece of melon in her fingers, wrapped it with a translucent slice of pink meat, and motioned for him to open his mouth. The meat was a whisper of salt against the dense, sweet fruit. It felt like summer in a hot land, the smooth skin in the curve between Charlie's strong thumb and index finger. The wine afterward was crisp, like coming up to the surface of water to breathe." Such intense, emotional descriptions of food deepen and en

In "The School of Essential Ingredients" Erica Bauermeister mixes the deep personal stories of Lillian & her students, simple but sophisticated foods, and Monday night lessons that go beyond the kitchen to create a rich, flavorful book that will make you crave your favorite restaurant or favorite food. Put something delicious in the oven, pour yourself a glass of wine and take in this wonderful first novel. You will feel satisfied, yet hungry for a 2nd novel. Enjoy!

Renowned chef Lillian owns a restaurant in the Pacific Northwest and every Monday night she hosts a cooking class. Yep, that's pretty much it. Sounds too simple, right? This novel is, above all else, a beautifully written character study of each student in Lillian's class. Each character is given their own chapter and their diversity is bound to strike a chord in readers from all walks of life. Bibliophiles everywhere will see themselves in Lillian's mother, a woman who used books to escape the harsh realities of life. Mothers will be drawn to Claire, a young woman who gave up her identity to be a wife and mother. Young adults seeking to find direction in this world will be drawn to Chloe, who is still trying to create an identity. And there are more; each character more compelling than the last. Each character finds that the simple act of creating meals illuminates many of life's problems and can sometimes even provide solutions. The story itself is not near as important as how it is told. There is a difference between writing and prose, and prose doesn't have to be difficult to read or enjoy. Bauermeister masterfully proves this again and again throughout the novel. You find yourself revisiting passages not to understand some convoluted prose, but to savor and enjoy it. A brilliant first novel and if you've never read a food-related novel, this is where to start. You will want to eat this book.

Lillian's father deserts his wife and young daughter literally, and then her mother deserts her figuratively -- disappearing deeply into the solace of books as a coping mechanism. As Lillian takes on the management of the household, she discovers an intuition for cooking and uses food alchemy to try to reach her mother. Later, when grown, Lillian applies this intuition to operating a first-class restaurant and conducting an annual series of cooking classes called the School of Essential Ingredients. Through themes associated with a particular food or meal, each chapter explores one class and the life of one of the students: a mother lost in the needs of young children; a long-married couple; a kitchen designer; a young widower; a misfit teenager; a software engineer; and a woman moving into the middle stages of dementia. The writing is sensual and lush, the stories tender and hopeful, with a magical realism evocative of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate. Since I finished the book, I've wanted nothing more than to read the stories of the next year's class. Highly recommended.