The Reporter's Kitchen

September 15, 2017
The longtime New Yorker European correspondent gathers a selection of her finest food-and-travel essays.Kramer (Lone Patriot: The Short Career of an American Militiaman, 2002, etc.) shares 13 pieces that she published in the New Yorker between 2002 and 2017. She divides the book into four sections that emphasize theme over chronology. Part I introduces readers to Kramer's Upper West Side kitchen, a space where food, writing, and memory are inseparable. She remarks how certain topics--for example, French politics--will inspire her to make certain dishes, such as chicken tagine, which she associates with "the French-speaking sheikh whose wives taught me how to make it." In Part II, Kramer offers in-depth profiles of respected food writers and chefs from around the world. In one essay, she tells the story of how a mutual interest in Asian cuisine and traveling brought Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid into an elite circle of food scholars; in another, the author narrates how Yotam Ottolenghi, a brilliant philosophy student, followed his passion for cooking from his native Jerusalem to London, where he opened a wildly successful fusion restaurant. The author's own adventurous spirit takes center stage in Part III, where she reflects on such subjects as her never-ending personal improvement "quest" to collect cookbooks; her quirky interest in root vegetables and forks; and on how an experiment in foraging eventually led her to Denmark and Rene Redzepi, the forager-chef/visionary behind the world-famous Noma restaurant. In Part IV, Kramer explores the relationship between food and various forms of ritual. She discusses Thanksgiving and her experiments observing this most revered of American traditions during one summer in Italy. As she notes in the concluding essay, celebrations--especially those that include food--mark a "passage from the ordinariness of daily life into the next round of daily life by way of a salubrious diversion." Eloquent and charmingly loquacious, Kramer's essays are sharp and insightful. A joyous feast of food, travel, and human relationships.

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October 1, 2017
As a longtime staff writer for the New Yorker, Kramer wrote dispatches that gave Americans insight into Europe's postwar political and cultural scene. Also a skilled cook, she showed particular interest in cooks, restaurants, and gastronomy all over the globe. Her articles compiled here offer some wonderfully researched and executed profiles of such luminaries as Claudia Roden and Yotam Ottolenghi. She forages with Danish chef Rene Redzepi, relishing the pleasures of eating reindeer moss. Kramer's portraits make both food and people equally central, and the reader comes away with a multidimensional portrait that neither excessively lauds talent nor judges her subjects' personal shortcomings. Kramer writes winningly of her own food adventures. Undaunted by any culinary challenge, she went so far as to scrub her hallway floor to roll out pastry dough that her own tiny kitchen couldn't possibly accommodate. Kramer draws an honest portrayal of the growth of foodcentric contemporary culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 15, 2017

New Yorker journalist Kramer has explored a variety of topics, but this latest collection of essays focuses on her food writing. The short chapters arise from Kramer's travels as a reporter and with her anthropologist husband. In part, they chronicle her cooking experience, which began with the start of her journalism career in the 1960s. In an unhurried manner, Kramer's essays follow her thoughts on food, encompassing cooking, eating, and culinary rituals. Standouts are profiles of chefs, such as Yotam Ottolenghi and Massimo Bottura, along with the author's views on her avowed love of Thanksgiving; a holiday that seems to confuse yet charm non-Americans. Each essay, in spite of the occasional rambling, feels as if you're having a good conversation with an old friend. VERDICT While Kramer's writings will be enjoyed by many, they will especially appeal to devoted readers of The New Yorker and foodie fans, as her descriptions of feasts are quite mouthwatering.--Ginny Wolter, Toledo Lucas Cty. P.L.

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