Kitchen Shrink: Foods and Recipes for a Healthy Mind
Author: Natalie Savona
Discover how and why the body's fluctuating blood sugar levels lead to mood swings; why certain nutrients and fat deficits can cause reduced brain power, poor concentration, and even memory loss; and why eating foods that result in poor digestion can trigger fatigue and anxiety.
Publishers Weekly
Insomnia, chocolate cravings, mood swings and mid-afternoon slumps may have their roots in improper diet, writes Savona, a former journalist who now has a nutritional practice in London, but "feel good foods" can help. The first part of her glossy, lovingly photographed cookbook covers the basics on foods that help stabilize blood sugar levels, improve response to stress and curb binges. The latter half offers easy-to-prepare dishes with a healthy, vegetarian bent (while also delivering a tempting leg of lamb and a luscious chocolate pudding) that aim to increase energy, promote concentration and flush out toxins. Savona has a lot of dietary zeal: she gives instructions for a three-week "cleansing program," and directs readers to avoid almost all sugars. But her tone is cheery and accepting; she says, for example, that while alcohol should generally be avoided (despite recent data suggesting a drink a day can be beneficial), a glass of wine can be "good for the soul." Savona's diet advice, too, is eminently reasonable, favoring fresh fruits, vegetables and fish. Her best recipes recall her childhood in the Middle East, such as Shekshouka, a stew of tomatoes, peppers, and onions, and Khosaf, a fruit dessert. Seatown Kedgeree and Gobble Pie, two hash-like main courses, may be a tad on the British side, but they, too, are appealing, presented with confidence and flair. Color photographs throughout. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
New interesting book: The Secret History of the War on Cancer or Against Depression
Out of the Frying Pan: A Chef's Memoir of Hot Kitchens, Single Motherhood, and the Family Meal
Author: Gillian Clark
Out of the Frying Pan is an empowering memoir that traces Gillian Clark's rise from a beginner to a top chef. But managing a kitchen also taught her about parenting. With a wealth of experience and wisdom, and a healthy dash of humor, Gillian now shares her life's recipes, from the solutions she cooked up for parenting challenges to her favorite culinary creations.
In the prime of her life, Gillian Clark abandoned the corporate world to pursue her passion---making mouthwatering food with fresh, homegrown ingredients. When she became a single parent with two young daughters, though, Gillian had to reconsider her dreams. Moving to the country and running a small, artisanal farm were put on the back burner---supporting her family had to come first.
But Gillian's drive to make delicious food was relentless. She finished her culinary degree, survived the tedious prep work of her first cooking job and the difficulty of training during the day and raising two girls at night, and confronted the challenges of working her way up from the bottom in a profession where only the strongest survive.
Beating intense odds, Gillian is now head chef and proprietor of the successful and popular Colorado Kitchen, which is ranked among the top 100 restaurants in Washington, D.C. This puts her simple café in the company of the city's finest dining establishments.
Touching and joyful, Out of the Frying Pan rivals any parenting book and is also chock-full of more than forty delicious recipes, from her first “soup of the day” to her family's Sunday brunch waffles---even the pink medicine placebo she whipped up for one of herdaughters.
Her inspirational advice on how she raised her daughters while never giving up her dream is a gem for parents and foodies alike and will fit at just about any table.
Publishers Weekly
At 32, Clark abandoned a career in marketing to enroll in culinary school and fulfill her dream of becoming a chef. A divorce from her alcoholic husband followed, and Clark, chopping carrots for minimum wage, was left to raise their two young daughters on her own. Repeatedly comparing being a chef to motherhood, she describes all of the young cooks she helped to train as her "children." Reflecting Clark's ongoing struggle to balance work and family, the book's 40-plus recipes include her eldest daughter's "Favorite Cornflake-Coated Pork Chops" and the "Pink Medicine Placebo" administered to her youngest after a greasy "Braised Cube Steak" caused her to slip off the monkey bars. Clark's enthusiasm for drawing people to the table is engaging, but she prefers to make excuses for her high job turnover, including several firings. In 2000, she invested her savings in her own restaurant in Washington, D.C., in a neighborhood where cloth napkins stood out more than vagrants. After a rocky start, Colorado Kitchen now often has a line around the block, and Clark thrives on being her own boss. The emphasis on family adds a personal dimension to this memoir about both comfort food and commitment to success. (Oct.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
Ann Burns - Library Journal
In this inspiring culinary memoir, complete with recipes, Clark, chef and owner of Colorado Kitchen, a popular restaurant in Washington, DC, shares her long road to success. She tells of her start in her parents' kitchen as a teenager, learning to cook watching her dad prepare meals and becoming fascinated with food. Fast-forward to her thirties, and she's married with two daughters and has a home-based consulting firm. But the job becomes too stressful, and she finds relief at her stove. She then realizes that cooking is her true calling, so she closes her company and enrolls in cooking school. Later, she is abandoned by her alcoholic husband and left with no child support and a mortgage to pay. Clark reflects on her various kitchen jobs (four in four years) and her staff, comparing them with her daughters, who were all in need of discipline. This book about the trials and tribulations of a single parent, her struggle to make ends meet, and her eventual rise to the top of her profession is an uplifting resource for aspiring chefs. Recommended for all public libraries. [For an interview with Clark, see "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ9/1/07.]
Kirkus Reviews
Clark mixes kitchen gossip with single-parent guilt and tops it with a smattering of recipes. "Cooking was the only thing that gave me that elusive feeling of accomplishment," she discovered after leaving a stressful office job to start her own, just-as-stressful marketing firm. So Clark went to cooking school and initially dreamed of raising fatted geese on a Virginia farm. She quickly changed her plans after jettisoning an alcoholic husband. As the sole provider for two young daughters, Clark didn't have the luxury of starting off as a line cook and working her way up. Instead, she took a position at a Charlottesville winery at $5 an hour, with a 160-mile commute. She soon left for the stylish Morrison-Clark Inn in Washington, D.C., rising to sous-chef after two years. From there she took a job as chef at Northern Virginia's Evening Star Cafe. The restaurant's new owners had big ideas but little cash; unable to reach a compromise with them, she handed in her notice and took a gig at Breadline, a fast-paced bakery and lunch spot in downtown D.C. This proved to be another poor fit, as did two subsequent gigs at the Broad Street Grill and Mrs. Simpson's, "a dusty old place named for the Duchess of Windsor." Clark ultimately quit all three kitchens, though these were not easy decisions when her personal life was also in crisis: Her elder daughter was failing elementary school, and her younger was dangerously thin, refusing to eat. Clark opened her own Colorado Kitchen in 2001, and things have been better. Not your typical chef's memoir, for sure, but more a litany of problems than a satisfying appraisal of either a life or a profession.
Table of Contents:
Prologue: Lighting the Pilot 1
Trial by Fire Starts in a Vineyard Kitchen 11
The Food Is More Important Than Your Feelings 36
Food Equals Love to a Would-Be Chef 62
Striving for Perfection in an Imperfect World 77
Earning Each Gray Hair 96
Careful What You Wish For 115
Craving a Comfortable Space 133
I've Got to Be Me 153
Being Me and Paying the Price 176
Plenty of Chances to Learn from Mistakes 198
From the Lemons, There's Great Lemonade 220
Epilogue: Closing Time 237
