'Blood, Bones and Butter' -- a Must-Read for Eatery Owners
While reading Gabriel Hamilton best selling book, Blood, Bones and Butter, I could tell the author is more Drake's Sandwich Shop than she is Zingerman's.
Hamilton's pages engross the reader from the very first line - "We threw a party. The same party every year... ." Throughout her culinary adventure from childhood in rural Pennsylvania to Prune, her famed New York CityEastVillage restaurant, the reader shares the affection she has for her experiences.
It's unfortunate the author (pictured, right) didn't have the opportunity to slide into the worn, spottily varnished booths at Drake's while receiving her MFA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The shop – postage stamp in size, offered a soda fountain, complete with counter and stools, a candy assortment that could shame today's confection houses, and an eclectic ambiance that served University of Michigan students, locals and wannabees.
Hamilton would have been the perfect fit, a possible savior of the now defunct sandwich shop specializing in sandwiches that included my favorite, date-nut bread, cream cheese and olives.
You don't need to share a geographic recollection with Hamilton in order to have the sides of your mouth curl up while that quiet inner voice whisper, "This is good stuff."
If you have ever stood behind a 5,000 btu stove and asked yourself "why?" or if you've reluctantly washed dishes but eventually enjoyed the solitude of the mundane, or spent the night cleaning stoves, hoods, vents and bathrooms while others were serving chicken to catering guests, this book is a must read. Not that Hamilton necessarily highlights these tasks, but the relationship between her wandering and her craft form a relationship any restaurant employee or aficionado will appreciate.
The book fills one up with the flavors of a person who has spent time in professional kitchens and the curiosities of how she got there.
Unlike other culinary tomes written with sharp edges and blunt points, Blood, Bones and Butter has a softer side, reflecting Hamilton's love, successes, and triumphs both in the kitchen and on the page. At times it bares her temperament, continually lets you in on the secrets of her personality, and flashes, with flair, the feelings a professional torn between stove and pen, suffer.
