Blood, Bones & Butter - Marrow bones

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

By Gabrielle Hamilton

320 pages, Random House, 2012

Originally posted on The Chocolate Bunny on February 8^th, 2012 and edited for context.

This may seem strange for someone who writes about food, but I am not very up-to-date on chef culture. I know who most of the culinary stars are, but I'm usually very late in finding out about them. As a result, I had barely heard of Ms. Hamilton when I purchased her memoir, Blood, Bones & Butter (although, having read her book and eaten her food, I’m extremely glad I know who she is now). So I delved into the book with no particular expectations, apart from cautious optimism due to the glowing reviews the book has received.

The first chapter describes an almost idyllic childhood memory, with Gabrielle's parents having their annual lamb roast party at their rural home, with the entire neighbourhood invited. I allowed myself to dream a little, having never really known that type of universe: our family parties took place in restaurants (sometimes small manors when the occasion was really big) and we certainly never had whole lambs roasting over pit fires. But the nostalgia doesn’t last long, as Hamilton quickly jumps into the dissolution of her family, and having to survive on her own at a young age.

About

I’m a recent PhD and scholar on Japanese popular visual culture, who also happens to have a strong interest in food. For several years, I ran the cooking blog The Chocolate Bunny, until I had my son (adorable, perfect, time-consuming little black hole that he is) and found myself with no time to test blog-worthy recipes (although I assure you, we still eat quite well).

Reading at the Table is a project I’d been mulling for a while: a blog strictly about food literature. Not cookbooks, because I have no room to store enough cookbooks to keep a blog alive, nor do I have the time to adequately test them. But essays, novels, manifestos, memoirs, comics – those are books I’ve been buying by the barrowful anyway. Reading at the Table is a space for me to keep track of these books, and reflect on them.

I don’t position myself as a critic, because I don’t take myself that seriously, nor do I consider myself an authority. But I love writing about books and food, and am just looking to pass on information and impressions. I also believe in keeping quiet if you can't say anything nice (unless something is so offensive you can't decently keep quiet). So, as entertaining as scathing reviews are, you won't find any here.

I’m not very good at keeping up with the very latest publications: I tend to buy books, then let them linger on my bookshelf (or e-reader) for a few weeks or months. Also, I became interested in food fairly late in the game. So some of the books reviewed here are in fact relatively old – which doesn’t mean they aren’t worth reading or writing about. My goal here is not to stay on top of breaking news, but rather to gradually build a portrait of food literature to this day.

I try to include a recipe and photos to go along with each review. My policy is to include full recipes written by others only if I’ve tweaked or modified them in any way; otherwise, I just give the reference. However, I make exceptions for recipes included in books that are not cookbooks, such as novels or memoirs. My rationale behind this is that people do not typically buy these books for the recipes.

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