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The Gastronomy Of Marriage: A Memoir Of Food And Love (2009)

by Michelle Maisto(Favorite Author)

3.4 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0812979192 (ISBN13: 9780812979190)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Random House Trade Paperbacks

review 1: I get that making dinner is a metaphor for their relationship And their differences but after a while when she is going over yet another discussion of what to cook that night and what it "really means" it just gets old...It doesn't seem that she and her husband develop over the course of the book, they get closer to the wedding, we read a bit about their families, and the couple still insists on cooking each dinner from scratch and then dealing with the stress...every night.It's a memoir so I feel like I know her now which makes reviewing it poorly seem extra mean but I just did not love this book.
review 2: I loved this book. There are so many statements that I could relate to from the author in her memoir about food and her relationships, both with her future... more husband and with their families."He never wants to talk about what to eat in advance," she laments at one point when trying to decide what to do about dinner (pg 101). She is Italian (not to mention a vegetarian) and he is Chinese and she finds it difficult to wing dinner when combining these two so very different culinary traditions further complicated by the vegetarian thing. The elusive family recipe for great Pasta Fagioli (I've been looking for a great recipe for this for a year now) is offered up right at the beginning of the book (so...she had me at Fagioli!); other recipes are sprinkled throughout. The phrase, “These are my marriage dealbreakers" (p. 103) is one that my husband and I have used in our own marriage, although about different criteria. And how many times have you opened up your pantry and thought, “There’s no food here, only…ingredients.” (p. 100). Probably thousands of times I’ve stood in front of my pantry/fridge/freezer thinking, “What do we have? What can I make?”She also captures that feeling you might experience when you suddenly find that you have a block of time to (and for) yourself. She deftly describes how to create what my friend Denise calls that Party for One atmosphere. “Lie on the couch and watch a television program that the person you live with, but who is not home now, thinks is stupid…” and goes on to describe how to make a recipe that (for her) perfectly accompanies this pastime.Anyone who’s ever tried to make a special meal for someone and had it turn out to be just okay will relate to Michelle Maisto. Even as she is struggling to define her role in her relationship as a soon-to-be-wife, thinking she should shun the traditional “wife” chores, she finds that she feels most at home in (where else?) her kitchen.As do most of us. less

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