Cooking for Mr. Latte , Amanda Hesser

I recently finished Cooing for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser. Hesser has been the NY Times food critic for quite a while, so as you can imagine her book is filled with terrific sounding recipes. There are several I need to try, and will probably write about here. I bookmarked a mac & cheese, mixed greens with herbed vinegar dressing, hazelnut ice cream doused with espresso, creamy risotto with lemon, chocolate dump it cake, and a peach tart among other things. I think most of the recipes I mentioned so far are things that are fairly relatable for most of us. However Hesser’s book also has a number of recipes that would most likely be somewhat ‘exotic’ for the average suburban cook. For example Quail Eggs with Five Spice Powder. Intriguing but not on the average menu. 

That balance between relatable and exotic runs throughout Hesser’s book. For me Hesser’s entire lifestyle is somewhat exotic. She lives in NY, a trip to Italy is one chapter in the book, she is friends with Jeffery Steingarten (!),  towards the end of the book she ends up purchasing a brownstone with an expensive top of the line kitchen, ingredients in some recipes are expensive and wouldn’t be found at the average grocery store… You get the idea. Definitely not my life. Though I often day dream about some variation of it. 

But on the flip side I feel like Hesser comes from a fairly average background, just like you (most likely) and me. Her Grandmother, who is one of the most relatable people in the book, helps to show this side of Hesser. Her Grandmother is also a cook. Not gourmet, but a good, knows how to feed people, cook. And while I am intrigued by some of Hesser’s less common recipes, her Grandmother’s recipes feel like they could be come everyday (tasty) fixtures in my recipe collection. 

And of course this book is a romance which is a dance we can all identify with. Figuring each other out, quirks, the fun, struggling with our own relationship baggage, learning to fit together.

This book is worth a read, it was a fun peak into another life that is lightyears away yet… somehow not so far away from my own. There is fun and romance, and tasty recipes, what’s not to enjoy?