"The School of Essential Ingredients" by Erica Bauermeister (audio)

Have you ever finished a book and noticed that you were glowing? Sort of like you did when you met the person of your dreams, or found a perfect pair of shoes for your Christmas party dress? I've not had this happen often, but it did happen after The School of Essential Ingredients. I was swept away. As some of you know, I have a passion for cooking that is pretty darned close to my passion for reading. For the eat-out-five-nights-a-week person, this is a damned good book. For those that share my passion for cooking, this is a love sonnet written just for you.

Lillian's father left her and her mother to fend for themselves when Lillian was a pre-teen. Lillian's mother disappeared into her books, forgetting that she had a child that needed her. By necessity and prodded by some untapped inner voice, Lillian began cooking. Her goal: to cook her mother out of her funk and back into her life. And she did...she started with mashed potatoes with alot of butter (which would work for me), moved onto coffee doctored with exotic spices, and with patience and love, brought her mother back to life.

As an adult, Lillian has capitalized on her talents to open a restaurant that draws nightly crowds. One Monday night a month, she holds cooking classes for a small group of people, but cooking isn't the only thing going on in there. Lillian is not only a food whisperer, she is a healer of souls. She innately understands what her students need in their lives to reconcile their hearts with their troubles, and she uses food to accomplish this. We are introduced to her latest group of students:

Claire, a young wife and mother who has been swallowed whole by a life that she loves but has caused her to lose herself. Carl and Helen, an older couple that can finish each other's sentences, but are attempting to rebuild their marriage after an affair. Antonia, a beautiful, single girl from Italy who misses her home and its traditions, and struggles to stay true to herself in her interior design job. Chloe, a clumsy teenager with low self-esteem and a domineering boyfriend. Tom, a widower who has recently lost the love of his life to cancer. Isabelle, an elderly divorcee who is in the early stages of dementia. And Ian, a guy looking for love. This group of seemingly mismatched personalities find friendship and peace within each other, and learn the subtle lessons that touching, sensing and creating food can provide.

This is Erica Bauermeister's first novel, and I'll be darned if this girl hasn't found her calling. Sure, she can write. But in experiencing the magic she has created on paper, you understand that she KNOWS food. She knows the sensuality of textures, flavors, the chemistry in combining spices, the quality of a meal when you get into it up to your elbows and make it from scratch. She also obviously gets the human psyche...what it feels like to give birth, to lose a spouse, or want more for yourself. Her warm, delicate prose is nearly hypnotizing. When it's over, you have to shake yourself back to your senses, and want for more.