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Title details for My Mother's Kitchen by Peter Gethers - Available

My Mother's Kitchen

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and the Meaning of Life

by Peter Gethers
Peter Gethers
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
A funny, moving memoir about a son’s discovery that his mother has a genius for understanding the intimate connections between cooking, people and love

Peter Gethers wants to give his aging mother a very personal and perhaps final gift: a spectacular feast featuring all her favorite dishes. The problem is, although he was raised to love food and wine he doesn’t really know how to cook. So he embarks upon an often hilarious and always touching culinary journey that will ultimately allow him to bring his mother’s friends and loved ones to the table one last time.
The daughter of a restaurateur―the restaurant was New York’s legendary Ratner’s―Judy Gethers discovered a passion for cooking in her 50s. In time, she became a mentor and friend to several of the most famous chefs in America, including Wolfgang Puck, Nancy Silverton and Jonathan Waxman; she also wrote many cookbooks and taught cooking alongside Julia Child. In her 80s, she was robbed of her ability to cook by a debilitating stroke. But illness has brought her closer than ever to her son: Peter regularly visits her so they can share meals, and he can ask questions about her colorful past, while learning her kitchen secrets. Gradually his ambition becomes manifest: he decides to learn how to cook his mother the meal of her dreams and thereby tell the story of her life to all those who have loved her.
With his trademark wit and knowing eye, Peter Gethers has written an unforgettable memoir about how food and family can do much more than feed us―they can nourish our souls.
Includes a bonus PDF with menus, recipes, and more

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 4, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781524780319
      • File size: 248544 KB
      • Duration: 08:37:47

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In her 50s, the author's mother, Judith Gethers, transformed her life, becoming a major figure in the burgeoning food world as a friend and mentor to culinary greats like Julia Child and Wolfgang Puck. Her son Peter's love letter to this amazing, long-lived woman casts a warm spell over listeners. Gethers isn't a professional narrator, but he is a storyteller, and listeners will quickly feel that no one else could have done justice to this tribute, which includes lots of fascinating family history. Gethers's regular-guy voice captures mirthful appreciation and painful truths; when he articulates his mother's halting, stroke-slowed voice, it's particularly moving. Poignant and funny, full of observations about life, marriage, and vocation, Gethers's memoir serves up recipes and writing with a pleasantly dry sense of humor. J.C.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 6, 2017
      Part memoir, part cookbook, Gethers’s (The Cat Who Went to Paris) latest is a warm tribute to his mother, Judy Gethers, and their shared love of food. Her life had several acts, but the most notable started when she was 53 and began working at L.A.’s famed Ma Maison for no money. “You’ll basically be our slave,” owner Patrick Terrail said to her, “but after a year you’ll be a real French cook.” She did and then she was, going on to work at Spago, running Ma Cuisine cooking school, and writing or cowriting six cookbooks. Gethers’s describes the process of preparing some of his mother’s favorite foods, divided into three meals that trace the trajectory of her long life. Among the foods are the Matzo Brei from Ratner’s, her family’s famous restaurant; salmon oulibiac, the first dish Wolfgang Puck taught her to make; and the chocolate pudding of Peter’s childhood. Gethers gets a little bogged down toward the end by his mother’s late-life crises and miraculous recoveries, but that is a small hiccup in a funny, irreverent, and joyous testament to a remarkable life.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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