Confections of a Closet Master Baker by Gesine Bullock-PradoMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
If I had waited even 10 minutes after finishing this book, I'd have probably given it a four. That doesn't mean a bad thing necessarily, just that the aftertaste of this book is just so... delicious. I had very low expectations when I started the book, I am yet to read a food-related memoir that I thoroughly enjoyed. I haven't read very many either, to be fair.
Midway through the book, I realised "Sandy" and "my sister who is an actress" that the author references now and then is Sandra Bullock! The author worked in Hollywood for a while and then moved to a small town and set up her own bakery. The promos and intros to the book hype this fact a lot. She gave it all up and moved away. But (thankfully) the book doesn't dwell on this fact too much. Yes, she's very clear she found Hollywood fake, tiresome, and boring but that's not the central theme of the book (again, thankfully).
The bits that stood out for me are the afternoon tea stories the author shared with her Omi (grandmom) and her mom who died of colon cancer. It's touching, it's a German tradition that even as a South Indian, I could fully relate to. Each time she mentions her dead mom and her memories associated with her, my heart went out to her.
Of course, all the butter, sugar, flour, and chocolate in the book appealed to the food-lover part of me. She confirms the fact that having one's own pastry shop is no cake walk, literally. I knew it, but it still helps to hear it again so that I won't feel tempted to leave my job (that I enjoy, btw) and follow that path. Some of the recipes seem delicious and I am reluctant to return the book before I have atleast taken some photocopies of those pages.
A must-read if you even remotely enjoy baking.
Want to buy your own? Here are the links: AMAZON | FLIPKART
Nicole Gamble
THANK YOU!!! I so appreciate this site. This is the information I was looking for.
Archana Chari
Awesome, I just checked! It is not on loan at Bugis and Clementi 🙂 Will pick it up over this week.
Gayathri Ramdas Sreekanth
Infact I had read and reviewed this as part of our online cook club..Found it pretty interesting and as u said the best part was the little stories of her family- cooking with dad, her granma's coffee time, relationships she has built w her customers esp the one of the throat cancer patient whose first treat after 5 yrs was Gesine's chocolate mousse.. 🙂
sliceofmylyfe
I follow gesine's blog regularly. But I did not know she had a book with the same name as her blog. Thank you so much for the review. Might pick it up as I love reading memoirs
Archana Chari
I have never read a food memoir! This sounds like a must read. Did you buy the book, or was it thro the libraries?
Nags
for me it was the other way around 🙂 i didn't know she had a blog (or even existed!) before i read the book!
Nags
I borrowed it from the national library here in singapore 🙂