Confections of a Closet Master Baker

72. Confections of a Closet Master Baker, by Gesine Bullock-Prado

I begin with a caveat: do not read this book if you are trying to avoid sweets. Though not a cookbook, it has recipes. Luscious-sounding recipes. Recipes for things like "Starry Starry Night" cookies, which are nearly solid chocolate. Rock scones and cream scones. Tarts redolent of plums, pies redolent of apples. You'll want to put the book aside and head to the kitchen!

I'll be honest. I wasn't sure I'd like this book. "Oh, sure," I said to myself. "Another 'I got off the money treadmill and went to live the simple life on the money I made on the aforesaid treadmill' book." Blurbs like "A former Hollywood insider trades the Holywood Hills for Green Acres" don't incline me favorably towards a book. It was the baking part that tempted me.

But the book is better than the blurbs would have you think. Yes, there's a lot about Bullock-Prado's unhappiness in Hollywood, where she headed her sister's production company. But there is far more about the importance of baking in her life, the way it makes her feel to give people macaroons and receive their passionate thanks in return, the way a tart or a pie brings back to her memories of her childhood, of her mother and grandmother and the special times they had together.

As all such books must, it gives us stories of mishaps along the way to success. It didn't hurt that the national media was attracted to the story of "Sandra Bullock's sister opens bakery in Vermont". One would like to think that she'd have had a successful business anyway, though I doubt that the Food Network would have knocked on her door if she were Gesine Nobody's Sister. She is such a success that she has now closed the bakery about which she wrote here, and is concentrating on her online business and helping open a new shop in Texas (weird, that's a long way from Vermont, wonder how that will work?). It's kind of too bad, because it sounded like a great place, very neighborly and warm, the sort of bakery you'd like to have down the street from you.

You can read more about what Gesine is doing now at her blog: Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker: Idle Musings on Baking and a Few Good Recipes from a Nomad Baker.

(My thanks to Shelf Awareness and Broadway Books for the opportunity to review this book.)

America Eats!

67. America Eats! On the Road with the WPA: the Fish Fries, Box Supper Socials, and Chitlin Feasts that Define Real American Food, by Pat Willard

The Works Progress Administration was one of the glories of the New Deal. Although it employed millions of people, it is probably best known for the work it provided to artists and writers through the Federal Writers' Project and the Federal Artists' Project. One of the projects it embarked on was to document "how America eats", more specifically, to document local social gatherings at which food was served and thus describe "American" cookery and its importance to community. Despite the many writers and photographers who contributed to the project, the planned book (to be called America Eats! never came to fruition, but the papers were boxed up, and, though many were lost, many were preserved.

Decades later, Pat Willard had the brilliant idea of going back to the towns and gatherings visited by the FWP writers to find out if those traditions and foods were still around. Her book alternates excerpts from the original manuscripts with her own descriptions of what she found, grouped by themes such as "Agricultural Fairs", "Fund-raising Dinners", "Political Gatherings" and the like. (She also includes a few recipes, as lagniappe.) Willard found that many of the events memorialized by the FWP writers no longer existed or had been transformed (some weren't even remembered!), but others were still going strong.

As we travel the roads of the United States, eating dishes ranging from Brunswick Stew in North Carolina to barbecued salmon in Oregon, we learn, through the food and the reasons for the socializing, the history and culture of these places. Lucky Pat Willard, to taste so many good things. And I greatly appreciate her bringing the stories written for the FWP out of the boxes in which they'd been stores and into the light of day.

If I have any quibble with the book, it is with Willard's defensiveness about American cuisine. The food can speak for itself!

Three on things Japanese

4. Kimono and the Colors of Japan: Kimono Collection of Katsumi Yumioki

As the title suggests, this stunning collection of photographs of kimono and obi groups them by color, an interesting, and very Japanese, conceit. But do not think that we speak of mere "red", "blue", "green", etc. No, there are many aspects of each color. As to each, there are a couple of short paragraphs describing the color, its meaning and use, and the source of the dye. The one thing I miss is specific information about the individual pieces in the collection. Unfortunately, while the rest of the book is in both Japanese and English, the kimono guide, with information about each plate, is in Japanese only.



5. Patterns and Poetry: Nō robes from the Lucy Truman Aldrich Collection at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design by Iwao Nagasaki

I cannot complain of lack of detail in this book! In addition to informative essays about the collector, the collection, and costume in Nō performance, the book gives images of both the full costume and a detail of the cloth. Each plate dates the item, and describes it fully, including measurements, and details of the weave structure. The firm from which Miss Aldrich purchased the robes had labeled many with their provenance, and, where that is the case, images of the wrappers and labels are included.

I must say that Miss Aldrich herself is quite as interesting as her collection. A spinster, born in 1869, congenitally deaf, she traveled around the world three times, and made about 50 trips to Europe with a paid companion, collecting along the way. A very intrepid character, she was kidnapped by bandits following an attack on the Shanghai-to-Peking express, but was apparently unfazed by this encounter. One of the bandits helped her to escape, and a photo is included of "Miss Lucy's bandit"! (According to the biographical essay by Susan Anderson Hay, her hearing actually improved at times of crisis.)

Although Asian art was becoming a focus for collectors in the latter quarter of the 19th-century, Miss Aldrich did not enter this arena until her first trip to the Orient, in 1919. She began purchasing prints, but also bought textiles, furniture and jade. Years later, when she had exhausted her textile collecting, she turned to porcelain, primarily European. Clearly, she was a woman of many and varied interests, and of a great intellect.


6. Wagashi: The Graphics of Japanese Confection, by Mutsuo Takahashi, with photographs by Hiroshi Yoda

Japanese confections are often a mystery to the western palate. Generally made with bean paste and/or various forms of rice, they are an acquired taste. But it takes very little to acquire an appreciation for their design. Often shaped in the form of a flower or an animal, they reflect the Japanese sensibility to nature and the changing seasons. It is the latter that informs this book. Each two month period has its own section, with gorgeous photographs of the confections that reflect that part of the year. And each season has its "Mount Fuji in Four Seasons", of course. There are confections intended for specific festivals, such as a spool-shaped confection for a festival for women who seek progress in their sewing. There are confections shaped like plums and eggplants and sunflowers.
It's a lovely volume, in Japanese and English, and there is, naturally, a bit of poetry.