The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

Reading about food never sounded, tasted or smelled so good. I could swear the flavors were melting on my tongue and the aroma's were filling my senses all through the author's writing. Heavenly would be a perfectly suited word to describe the ambiance this book creates. It was incredible. I loved the food descriptions, the atmosphere, the characters, the relationships, it was all so balanced together like an incredible recipe itself. But here was my only regret - it was too short. There was so much more I wanted to know about these characters. I wanted to see more of their lives after the cooking school, what they did with their new found knowledge and passion. It just felt so unresolved at the end. I was left salivating for more!

I highly recommend this read; its light, delectable and will leave you wanting more! Thank you Erica for writing such a beautiful story! Oh and please, please, please write a sequel!

Description: The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives. One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian’s food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen.

Recommend: Absolutely!

Rating: ****