Description
Simmering: A Kitchen Memoir, Rebecca Orchant
$28.00
ISBN: 9798989233328
Fine Softcover with Dust-jacket; 222 pages; 5”x7.5”
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Summary
In this wry memoir — filled with cutting commentary, searing insights, and heated eroticism — restaurateur and food writer Rebecca Orchant (Huffington Post, Saveur) takes readers behind the scenes of the personal and professional kitchens that have shaped her life and its hard-won lessons.
With Simmering: A Kitchen Memoir, Orchant revisits the places and people influencing her love of food and the role food plays in her love — for others and for herself. From childhood culinary intrigue in Albuquerque to a kitchen table marriage proposal in Brooklyn to a hearthside BDSM scene on Cape Cod, Orchant examines the full epicurean breadth of her life. She recalls first loves and lasting losses, favorite meals and failed friendships. And she unblinkingly looks at the complexities of her deeply meaningful polyamorous connections while also bravely rendering earlier sexual awakenings, betrayals, and assaults: as a curious child, a vulnerable teenager, and an adult pushing away a renowned celebrity chef.
Throughout, Orchant finds comfort and belonging in kitchens, the common spaces where so much comes together, often with joy, sometimes with pain, always with the spice of life. Across Simmering: A Kitchen Memoir, she sprinkles in memorable dinner parties, visits to standout restaurants, shared cooking rituals, and a few reliable recipes. In the end, Rebecca Orchant proves that simmering itself is required to let the hardest moments of life blend together with the best ones to become something far richer than the raw ingredients one might have to work with.
Author
Rebecca Orchant is the co-owner of Pop+Dutch, a sandwich shop and market in Provincetown, MA, where she has lived with her husband Sean since 2014. Formerly a food editor at The Huffington Post, Orchant also performs burlesque, serves on the board of The Provincetown Commons, and contributes to The Provincetown Independent. She was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM, and earned a BFA in Dramatic Writing from The University of New Mexico. She was a national finalist for the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play from The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Reviews
“Orchant will make readers appreciate food, family, and friends a bit more, and portrays life in general as a messy, sad, joyous, funny, and annoying mixture. A nourishing and easily digestible chronicle.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Rebecca Orchant is your bestie at a queer dinner party — an irreverent, bisexual, snickering pal who talks about ass while pouring the wine. Every chapter feels like an anecdote shared over a drink … The result is an ode to cooking, a joyful and carnal ritual.”
Alexander Cheves
