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The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir (2008)

by Ellie Mathews(Favorite Author)

3.26 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0425219453 (ISBN13: 9780425219454)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Berkley Hardcover

review 1: This is the story behind the story of Ellie Mathews, who won the Pillsbury Bake-Off in 2008 with her quick and easy recipe for Salsa Couscous Chicken--a recipe she concocted on a whim using Old El Paso salsa. Up against major players in the contest world, Ellie's fresh, uncomplicated look at things is poignant and even humorous. Thinking she'd be happy if she just ended up a semi-finalist, she wowed everyone by taking home the million dollars.I read this for our narrative non-fiction genre group and really liked it--it was hard to put down.
review 2: Could this book have been written by somebody who is a little more fun to hang out with for 276 pages? Tons of people have won the Pillsbury Bake-Off, and could have written a memoir. But here we are, traveling wit... moreh Ms. Mathews, and boy is she killing my buzz. For the big banquet before the contest, she picks an outfit of "minimally invasive pajamas," which will allow her to "blend into the shadows." (With, if I remember correctly, her best dress-up patent leather birkenstocks.) When the contestants are shipped off to Disney World and given a $25 dollar voucher to spend on food, she vows that "I wouldn't be indulging myself in any twenty-five-dollar lunch." She devotes paragraph after paragraph to how she almost approached Alex Trebek...but then didn't. And still more paragraphs to how she shushed some people during the orientation session. And pages and pages about how there was nothing in particular she wanted to do with the $1 million in prize money. And then there are all her stick-in-the-mud media appearances, where she never shows any excitement, answers questions as literally as possible, and is completely flustered by every opportunity to connect and share her experience with others. Now here she is 10 years later, sharing the experience with us, and the whole thing reads like an apology for why she's so stiff. Or, not an apology, but an explanation. That's fine, and I'm sure she's a truly good person, and she's clearly a good cook and a capable writer. But if I'm going to ride along to the Pillsbury Bake-Off, I would rather go with someone else. less

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