39. Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by: Chris Guillebeau
Author: Sasha Martin
Genre: Non Fiction, Memoir, Food
Info: 352 pages, published March 3, 2015
Format: Book
Summary
Life from Scratch is really two stories in one book. The first part of the book is a traditional memoir where Sasha Martin recounts her unconventional and difficult childhood with a free spirit, eccentric mother who had difficulty caring for Sasha and her siblings. In the second part of the book, over the course of 195 weeks, Martin takes on the challenge of cooking and eating a meal from every country in the world. She achieves her goal and makes peace with her mother, partially due to a shared love of creative cooking.
Quotes
“There are mysteries buried in the recesses of every kitchen — every crumb kicked under the floorboard is a hidden memory. But some kitchens are made of more. Some kitchens are everything.”
“Marcel Proust, the 20th Century novelist, knew how easy it is to bring the past to life: When he bit into a tea-soaked madeleine, the shadows of his childhood took on color, snapping into full dimension. If I put the right ingredients in my spice jars, I realized, they’d be portals to a bygone era.”
“And perhaps that’s been Mom’s secret all along: her brutal common sense that slices through any and all notions of what “should” be. From our living room kitchen back in Jamaica Plain to this global table, it’s been about getting our fill. Not just of food, but of the intangible things we all need: acceptance, love and understanding.”
“My first encounter with a baguette, torn still warm from its paper sheathing, shattered and sighed on contact. The sound stopped me in my tracks, the way a crackling branch gives deer pause; that’s what good crust does. Once I began to chew, the flavor unfolded, deep with yeast and salt, the warm humidity of the tender crumb almost breathing against my lips.”
“Happiness is not a destination: Being happy takes constant weeding, a tending of emotions and circumstances as they arise. There’s no happily ever after, or any one person or place that can bring happiness. It takes work to be calm in the midst of turmoil. But releasing the need to control it—well, that’s a start.”
“Once, I thought happiness was the sizzle in the pan. But it’s not. Happiness is the spice—that fragile speck, beholden to the heat, always and forever tempered by our environment.”
My Take
I heard about Life from Scratch from Chris Guillebeau’s book The Happiness of Pursuit which is all about people who are on quests and which inspired my 1000 book quest. Since I have a soft spot in my heart for fellow questers, I was eager to read this book. It did not disappoint. Martin is a gifted writer and has an interesting story to tell about her unconventional and challenging childhood. The “Cooking the World” portion of the book was also appealing and spurred me to think of ways in which I could try new and different ideas to spice up my own life.
