I couldn’t finish this book. The stories did not draw me in. I wanted to read about stories about people working through the pandemic but this was not that

There are essays in this book that are truly great and thought provoking, which makes the eye-roll worthy ones all the more shocking. Occasionally there's some real in-depth thought about what the pandemic did to us, which is swiftly and conspicuously undermined by a restaurant owner mentioning their own Instagram confessions page callout. There's an excellent essay on Martin Yan, but also I want to hear from waiters, not restaurant owners.

Such a good cookbook which such amazing and beautiful stories and recipes, Cant wait to cook more with it,

I began reading this with really high expectations, I found the blurb interesting because the idea of talking about food during the pandemic from different perspectives sounds like a great way to present an experience we all lived, but overall the essays felt unconnected. The collection seems a juxtaposition of articles which only vaguely feature a common fil rouge. Moreover ujfprt most articles were pretty dull and repetitive, very few of them were touching or able to evoke empathy.

Filled with stories of survival and endurance during the pandemic, Resilient Kitchens is more about finding hope in food than about the recipes themselves. Not to say that the food isn't good - it's pretty great - but the stories are the real draw here. In isolating times, the narratives of food, home, and change bring connections to the fore.

“Resilient American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis is a stimulating collection of essays about the lives of immigrants in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, told through the lens of food.”

This books is everything I want. Personal stories? From people with vastly different lives? And Food? With a dash of Social Activism?

ADD TO CART.

I enjoyed the journal-esque narratives, the fantastic pencil crayon illustrations, and, of course, the recipes.

My family enjoyed the Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken), in particular, and I’m looking forward to attempting the Red Chilaquiles.

8/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Rutgers University Press for this tasty ARC.

If you like cooking, essay compilations, international cooking, immigrant stories, and political activism, this is the book for you!

If it's too soon for you to read about COVID circa 2020/2021, this may not be for you.

Each essay is from a different immigrant in the US during the height of COVID-19. The authors write about their experiences with lockdown and how it impacted their relationships with food, family, friends, and strangers.

Each perspective adds a new thread color to the tapestry of the US and proves how necessary it is to understand and embrace everyone who lives here. No one wants to buy a tapestry with only one color of thread!

HERE IS A SUMMARY OF A STORY TO PEAK YOUR INTEREST:
The story I enjoyed the most was "Duck Tales". It is about the pecking duck in Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles and how the health department wouldn't allow these restaurants to make it the traditional way because of the long holding times at room temperature.

The health department (comprised of predominantly white Americans) was scared because they weren't familiar with the process and assumed that it would be unsafe to eat, despite there being no reports of anyone getting sick from the duck in the past.

"Though the community emerged victorious, the pandemic has shown that there continues to be an association between the cooking of certain communities of color and disease."

#netgalley #advancedreaderscopy

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

The pandemic changed a lot of things for a lot of people. It created tension, supply chain issues, and a myriad of other hurdles to try to navigate through in a world that seemed to have gone mad. And through all of this, people still needed to eat.

Resilient Kitchens is a collection of essays from a wide variety of people, talking about their experiences with food and community throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The essays varied from cookbook writers, restaurant owners, home cooks and journalists, to others. All with the tying theme that they were cooking from an immigrant perspective.

While I thought everything was informative and added depth and nuance to the stories that were told; I did find the writing style to be very much 'journal entry' feeling for the majority of the essays. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't my favorite genre and I had a hard time keeping my attention focused on the narrative that was being told because it seemed to go on and on in some cases. I appreciated the overlying nod towards community though, and how food really transcends just something we have to have, but a way to provide nourishment beyond just satiating hunger. Without that community, the way we eat changes and may not be as satisfying.

I think it's a solid entry if you're interested in people's stories, and at the very least, there is a ton of great-sounding recipes included as well.

Review by M. Reynard 2023

We all seemed to get into cooking during the pandemic. This book feeds the story of how immigrants dealt with the pandemic and what they were making as well. More recipes is always better, abut there are a few new to me ones in here and I can’t wait to try the Walnut soup!

This book contains excellent recipes along with personal narratives from the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s an interesting read and shows how food can bring people together.

An excellent and informitive read regarding the immigrant experiences during covid. The essays were well written and it was interesting to hear voices from so many varied backgrounds. More recipes would have been nice, but maybe I'm just being greedy.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Resilient Kitchens.

Resilient Kitchens is a thoughtful and provoking read about the immigrant experience during COVID but told through the perspective of cooking and food.

How food binds us together as a family and reveals so much of our individual culture, how our identities and communities are shaped by the unique foods of a particular culture, and how eating and sharing and enjoying food with our family and loved ones keep us strong through difficult and challenging events in our lives and world.

The essays are written and told through a variety of diverse voices and occupations; entrepreneurs, food writers. and educators.

My favorite essays were Duck Tales and The Meaning of Martin Yan; the racism and intolerance against Asian Americans, even more prevalent during COVID, yet have always simmered beneath the surface, barely, when Martin Yan began a household name when he hosted his own cooking show, one of the few Asian Americans to do so.

I wish there were more recipes and beautiful photos of the delicious foods, indicative of the diversity that reflects the majority of the USA.

Synopsis: (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review)
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Immigrants have left their mark on the great melting pot of American cuisine, and they have continued working hard to keep America’s kitchens running, even during times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. For some immigrant cooks, the pandemic brought home the lack of protection for essential workers in the American food system. For others, cooking was a way of reconnecting with homelands they could not visit during periods of lockdown.
Resilient Kitchens: American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis is a stimulating collection of essays about the lives of immigrants in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, told through the lens of food. It includes a vibrant mix of perspectives from professional food writers, restaurateurs, scholars, and activists, whose stories range from emotional reflections on hardship, loss, and resilience to journalistic investigations of racism in the American food system. Each contribution is accompanied by a recipe of special importance to the author, giving readers a taste of cuisines from around the world.
Every essay is accompanied by gorgeous food photography, the authors’ snapshots of pandemic life, and hand-drawn illustrations by Filipino American artist Angelo Dolojan.
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We are back in Depression-era times when it comes to food: no matter the income, people in my community seem to be struggling and are embarrassed at their need to go to the food bank. Many have car payments and overwhelming rent or mortgages and think that people will look down on them...no, we should not, no matter if they are immigrants or were born in this country.

This book focuses specifically on immigrants and what they went through during COVID-19 related to food and working in the food chain. The essays are diverse and cover a gamut of topics (as outlined above in the synopsis) and this is a hyper-focused read on how being an immigrant who was not necessarily protected from the virus shaped them and their lives. The recipes in the book are so yummy looking and sounding: I mean, face it: if you live in North America, the vast majority of you are essentially immigrants..if not now, one or more generations back.

Not a casual read but an excellent read: I just hope that we learn some lessons from all these lockdown and masking protocols for when the next big wave of this ENDEMIC (it is beyond a pandemic) occurs.

YAAAAS.
I am so thankful to Rutgers University Press for sending me advanced access to Resilient Kitchens which narratives fictional and non-fictional prose into how certain recipes and meals have survived the test of time and war, through communities and cultures that outlast the negative parts of life. Resilient Kitchens hits shelves on May 12, 2023 and I can't wait for the hype that comes out of publication day.