She describes her memories of going to the butcher with her father when she was a child, "The paraphernalia of butchery may be repulsive to some. But to me, hacksaws, cleavers, and band saws all looked manageable and appealing. I loved going to Maresca's, the Italian butcher shop." "The refrigerated enamel cases were packed with meat, ground meat, tied meat, and birds, whole and in parts." "I caught a good eyeful of carcasses hanging upside down with their tongues flopping out the sides of their bloody mouths....I wanted to be in with the meat and the knives and wear the long bloody coat."
Also in her youth, she recalls her father's yearly tradition of roasting multiple lambs over a pit. The evening prior to the lamb roast, she and her four siblings would sleep around the fire, huddled together in sleeping bags. It was her oldest brother's responsibility to tend the fire through the night and nurse it into a bed of coals. "The lambs were arranged over the coals head to toe head to toe....roasted so slowly and patiently that their blood dripped down into the coals with a hypnotic and rhythmic hiss."
Gabrielle also acknowledges that her mother influenced her cooking. "My mother fed a family of seven on tails and carcasses and marrow bones." In the kitchen, her mother was a frugal yet resourceful chef. She often roasted bones and served them so the marrow could be eaten. Gabrielle has implemented this sentimental dish into her Prune menu.
Gabrielle is married to an Italian Dr. The relationship could be described as a marriage of convenience, or even unorthodox. There is no love between the couple. Nonetheless, on account of the union, Gabrielle has traveled multiple times to Itlay, where her culinary talents have also been deeply influenced. She vividly describes a trip to the Italian market, "In the square, I found my ideal kind of man. Missing most of his teeth, with his zipper gaping open....guys like this are getting hard to come by anymore, even here in this little Italian town. He pulled back the burlap that covered the wagon of his three-wheeled motor cart and showed me, with shaking arthritic hands, his fresh black-eyed peas in the shell, his dark purple green beans, his zucchini flowers. He had a little crate of imperfect prune plums...I know that when he dies, he's the last, and this.... all goes when he goes."
These are just a few examples of occurrences in Gabrielle's life that have contributed to the person, the chef she has been molded into. I certainly identify with her passion for food and preparing it into delightful dishes to please the palate. I appreciate her description, "food that meets your hunger sends you into a calmed and expansive state of deep satisfaction."
I have also learned from this book, that apparently there are "categories" into which food enthusiasts fit into. After meeting a colleague within the food industry, Gabrielle "noticed that he spoke about the food the way that only someone who works with food could. There is a way, a distinct way that people who work in the industry speak to each other about food and you can tell, within minutes, that they are part of your extended clan. It's not like an obvious foodie talks about food, ostentatiously throwing around kitchen terms and names of ingredients they have researched at length. It's not like an appreciative eater talks about food... awed and enamored and perfectly happy to speak of his enjoyment without having any idea of what he's just eaten or how it was achieved. It's the way only someone who works in the industry talks about food..." I continue to ponder just where do I fit into this order of culinary individuals?
In a nutshell (pun intended), it's a good book. If you love to cook, or just love food.... I recommend Blood, Bones & Butter.
If I ever make it to New York City, visiting the quaint 30-seat restaurant, Prune, will be on my to-do list!
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