When Amelia Morris saw a towering, beautiful chocolate cake in Bon Appétit and took the recipe home to recreate it for a Christmas day brunch she was hosting, it resulted in a terrible (but tasty) mess that had to be served in an oversize bowl. It was also a revelation. Both delicious and damaged, it seemed a physical metaphor for the many curious and unexpected situations she's found herself in throughout her life, from her brief career as a six-year-old wrestler to her Brady Bunch-style family (minus the housekeeper and the familial harmony) to her ill-fated twenty-something job at the School of Rock in Los Angeles.
As a way to bring order to chaos and in search of a more meaningful lifestyle, she finds herself more and more at home in the kitchen, where she begins to learn that even if the results of her culinary efforts fall well short of the standard set by glossy food magazines, they can still bring satisfaction (and sustenance) to her and her family and friends.
Full of hilarious observations about food, family, unemployment, romance, and the extremes of modern L.A., and featuring recipes as basic as Toasted Cheerios and as advanced as gâteau de crêpes, Bon Appétit is sure to resonate with anyone who has tried and failed, and been all the better for it.
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“Author Amelia Morris portrays herself to perfection as she reveals her growing pains and how she found an outlet for life’s rough spots through cooking. Morris recounts her childhood experiences with a steady and sometimes understated narration that make her observations all the funnier. As her story progresses, Morris’s performance becomes livelier as she reacts more vigorously to life’s stressful and mortifying moments and discovers the need to assert herself as an adult. The tastiest parts are revealed when Morris recites recipes and talks about food. Here, her delivery takes on a resonance that conveys her appreciation for food and the process of cooking it as well as the fulfillment she gains from both.”
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