I started a new book with my daughter Maria, who is almost 6 years old, Fanny at Chez Panisse by Alice Waters, the famous chef and restaurateur. It is about her Berkley restaurant and is written from the point of view of her daughter, Fanny, when she was a child. Here is a snippet:
“Lindsey is the pastry chef and my mom’s partner. She makes the best desserts in the whole world. She likes to make them one at a time like each one was the most special one or something. She actually knows how to make tarts and ice cream and candy from real flowers. Lindsey used to make cakes in a little cottage behind the restaurant before they made the kitchen bigger. She would bring them over right before they were supposed to be served. Sometimes when it was raining, Lindsey would race over carrying a cake in one hand and an umbrella in another.”
The second half of the book is full of easy-to-make recipes that Fanny likes.
My friend Jane gave me this book when Olivia was little, and it turned into a game for us also called “Fanny.” While I am cooking dinner, Olivia is my employee who sets the table, gets out the butter, and counts the forks. We buzz around busily saying things like, “Is the flower person here yet? We’re going to be seating people in 15 minutes!” or “What do you mean the salmon didn’t come today? Call the market and see what’s going on!” Then Oliv would climb up on the kitchen stool to reach the phone, take it off the hook, put her hand down on the receiver and make her “call” to the fish market. The more scenarios I made up for her where she got to be mad at a distributor or at an irate diner, the more she loved it. In fact, if I ever just asked her to help with dinner and she started to balk, I would add, “But Fanny, I need your help,” and she would snap right into character.
Now that Maria is hearing the book, I’m sure I’ll have some extra help at dinner this week. I can hear us now, “What do you mean they want a table for 12 in half an hour? Haven’t these people heard of reservations?”
One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
9 comments:
My favorite thing about reading Farmer Boy to Lydia was the descriptions of the food! Fanny makes me think of Mirette (Emily Arnold McCully's character). Favorite experiences reading chapter books to Lydia: Wind in the Willows for the voices, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (which Eric and I tag-team read) for the excitement.
Cook, you'd always said that Farmer Boy was your favorite in the Wilder series for the food descriptions. I'd have to agree. There are cold mugs of milk, cider donuts, and his mother's baked pies at every turn.
Don, care to comment on the new biography on Alice Waters here?
I did a double entry of above comment. Whoops.
Z and I are right at the moment where Shelob ensnares Frodo, and it is so exciting and scary we can hardly bear it. I glanced at her at a pivitol moment and she was wide-eyed, quilt in hand, not breathing much. Augh!
The making-up of scenarios to encourage doing the chores reminds me of the Mrs Piggle-Wiggle books. They were some of my favorites when I was a kid.
Hi Kathy! Cooksin's daughter, Lydia, loved the Piggle-Wiggle books, too.
Nobody ever read me the Piggle-Wiggle books when I was a kid. Now I know why I don't like chores!
On the subject of food, today I think I ruined my kids' enjoyment of chocolate: in our study of Africa we delved into the child labor and slavery that takes place in the cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. "But how can we enjoy chocolate when kids our age are suffering and they never even get to eat a candy bar?" That was from Em. Then letters were written to various chocolate manufacturers, congress persons and even GW himself.
Late to the party again.
As Christine knows, my take on the new Alice Waters bio is that it's a not-very-well-written book about a not-very-interesting-person who's single minded pursuit of a laudable goal produces some very good results, it's just that her restaurant wasn't one of them. There are some compelling characters and interesting stories lurking around the corners, but Alice isn't one of them.
Wow, good thing I don't work at a bookstore and have to recommend this. Huh? Wait, oh.
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