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

I went from not being able to sink into this book, to largely enjoying it by the end. When it's tagged as 'an epic in the kitchen' I didn't realize just how literal that would be. But it's not just the food that makes this a standout book, but rather the way the author weaves philosophy, feminism, and sociology, although with a dash of classics into the mix.

While the book largely focuses on one dish (a seemingly simple tomato sauce), it tells of the variations and how a recipe is not really a one-time use or rendition of something. It has history and changes based on the smallest of things. The telling of the making of this dish is interspersed with the author's thoughts on cooking and the act of creating a meal, as well as the different works she has read and analyzed.

Where I had trouble with the book is the philosophy/poetry. Those two subjects have never been my favored reading; too flowery and roundabout for my taste. It's not to say it's not well written; it is, I just have a harder time immersing myself in. However, it did lend itself to describing the food well, and I can appreciate how those that do like the genre would be completely happy with it. I'll also not describe the act of the author writing the food as 'lovely' (not that I would anyway, maybe it's a regional/cultural thing, but that's not a word that comes to mind when I think of food writing). I will describe it as engaging, descriptive, and balanced. I liked that the author spoke to various themes that underly cooking and how for granted we take recipes and the act of cooking.

If you like highly descriptive books and food, with those that combine serious thought, this is one to check out.

Review by M. Reynard 2023

Many thanks to the author publisher and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.
This is a beautifully written not-a-cookbook. It's about deep relationships with food. Sometimes the protagonist is horribly annoying, but mostly it's an homage to eating good food. I can't say I loved it all, I didn't, but I do appreciate the care that's been taken writing it.
3.5 stars.

I would find this book difficult to recommend. It is not an easy read, and I would rather people came to this book by themselves than blamed me for their purchase.

An enjoyable book! About how we diminish the 'work' that goes into cooking in the name of 'love'. About recipes—what they bring to the table, what they don't, how we follow a recipe (to the dot, intuition, no measurement cooking etc. I def did not know about the 'no-recipe recipe book by New york Times editor Sam Sifton). Describing each cooking session as a performance. About Nigella Lawson's use of possessives in the way she describes her cooking and food. About MFK Fischer's thoughts on food. About navigating life through different hairstyles and food—the slow transformation.

Quotes:
"Nigella's use of possessive pronouns unsettles me too. My chocolate cake, my quick paste, my upmarket mushy peas. They are all declared delicious...The possessive pronouns come across as boastful, greedy, even immodest."

"Spattering is not mentioned in the recipe. The text does not anticipate the liveliness of the process it describes, which spatters wildly"

"Can I only appreciate cooking through the imagination of the other...I have been dependent on living through the appetites and desires of others. Alone I am so lost"

A lovely, unusual, and thought-provoking exploration of cooking and the performance of cooking and cooking as an intellectual pursuit. Not everything resonated with me but I love the style and spirit of the writing and the inventive interpretation of a memoir.

Thank you very much to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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Cooking is thinking! The spatter of sauce in a pan, a cook's subtle deviation from a recipe, the careful labour of cooking for loved ones: these are not often the subjects of critical enquiry. Cooking, we are told, has nothing to do with serious thought; the path to intellectual fulfilment leads directly out of the kitchen. In this electrifying, innovative memoir, Rebecca May Johnson rewrites the kitchen as a vital source of knowledge and revelation.
Drawing on insights from ten years spent thinking through cooking, she explores the radical openness of the recipe text, the liberating constraint of apron strings and the transformative intimacies of shared meals. Playfully dissolving the boundaries between abstract intellect and bodily pleasure, domesticity and politics, Johnson awakens us to the richness of cooking as a means of experiencing the self and the world - and to the revolutionary potential of the small fires burning in every kitchen.

Decidedly not a cookbook, this is a memoir of the juxtaposition of food and love and showing off how educated she was. The book annoyed me to no end...we get it: you have a PhD but you don't need to show it down our throats. I failed to see the connection between food and Greek classics such as the Odyssey...this book ANNOYED ME. (I said that I would be honest and it can backfire!) There may be one patron in half a million in our city that would enjoy this book....okay, it is a university city so maybe ten people or so ... but I will not be buying this for our branch as I don't like being talked DOWN TO, nor do my clients.
Not recommended...I will file it under #WTF or #WTH
#shortbutNOTsweetreviews

p.s. I will make the tomato sauce that is at the heart of this book, but it is not worth spending $32CAD for the book for the recipes and less than 200 pages of text.
Here, thanks to Google, is a link to the famous sauce: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015178-marcella-hazans-tomato-sauce