AUTHOR:David Lebovitz
STARTED: May 17, 2015
FINISHED: June 5, 2015
PAGES: 282
GENRE: Food / Memoir
FIRST SENTENCE: I distinctly remember the exact moment when I became Parisian.
SUMMARY: [From BN] Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever
since he first visited the city in the 1980s. Finally, after a nearly
two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he moved to
Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings
into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in
the lively Bastille neighborhood. But he soon discovered it's a different world en France. From learning the ironclad rules
of social conduct to the mysteries of men's footwear, from shopkeepers
who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working
the right way around the cheese plate, here is David's story of how he
came to fall in love with—and even understand—this glorious, yet
sometimes maddening, city. When did he realize he had morphed into un vrai parisien?
It might have been when he found himself considering a purchase of
men's dress socks with cartoon characters on them. Or perhaps the time
he went to a bank with 135 euros in hand to make a 134-euro payment, was
told the bank had no change that day, and thought it was completely
normal. Or when he found himself dressing up to take out the garbage
because he had come to accept that in Paris appearances and image mean
everything. The more than fifty original
recipes, for dishes both savory and sweet, such as Pork Loin with Brown
Sugar–Bourbon Glaze, Braised Turkey in Beaujolais Nouveau with Prunes,
Bacon and Bleu Cheese Cake, Chocolate-Coconut Marshmallows, Chocolate
Spice Bread, Lemon-Glazed Madeleines, and Mocha–Crème Fraîche Cake, will
have readers running to the kitchen once they stop laughing.
THOUGHTS: I both loved and absolutely hated this book. I loved it because it made me want to travel back to Paris and eat all the things. Seriously, all the vivid descriptions of food and locations gave me serious wanderlust. I hated this book because Lebovitz comes across as a judgemental jerk. He disparages Parisians with stereotypes left and right, and the way he writes about his neighbors leads me to believe that he doesn't actually like them very much. Then again, I very much get the impression that Lebovitz doesn't like people in general. So, stay for the food and vivid writing and ignore everything else.
RATING: 5/10 [meh]
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