Patricia Volk grew up within a family of restaurateurs in New York,
and in this enjoyable memoir she has drawn together memories of her
family and their lives spanning one hundred years, giving a flavour
not only of the restaurant business but of Jewish family life and
customs over that period. The book begins and ends with chapters on
Volk's relationships with her father and sister and each
intervening chapter concerns a different relative, moving
chronologically from the ancestor who brought pastrami to the New
World to the aunt who fed and lectured the burglar who broke into
her apartment. Volk's relationship with her father was especially
strong and the final two chapters, describing his illness and death
from leukaemia, are extremely moving. Each chapter is named after a
foodstuff that conjures up the society of the time and the relation
in question. For her grandmother it's a sturgeon, since Volk always
took a sturgeon with her on her regular six-hour flights to visit
her in Florida; she was never sure whether her grandmother was
happier to see her or the fish! This is a delightful book of
reminiscences, bringing together tradition, family relationships,
food and history together to form a satisfying whole. (Kirkus UK)
Three generations of Patricia Volk’s family have been in the restaurant business. Her hallway was the colour of ball-park mustard, the living room was cocoa and the floor was like Genoa salami. At Morgen’s, the famous restaurant in the garment district which her grandfather started and which her father ran, she was the princess. Waiters winked at her and twirled her napkin up high before draping it on her lap and when she wanted a hamburger, her grandfather would grind the steak himself. In Stuffed, Patricia Volk marvellously evokes everyday life in a New York Jewish family and what it was like to grow up around an old-fashioned family-run restaurant.
As much about families as it is about food, here are stories of eccentric uncles, gorgeous aunts and millionaire grandfathers all of who lived a couple of blocks from each other. Of ancestors who were the first to bring pastrami to the New World, and stir scallions into cream cheese. Of Uncle Al, who slept with Aunt Lil for eleven years and then didn’t want to marry her because she wasn’t a virgin and Aunt Ruthie, who gave the burglar, breaking into her apartment, a meal and a lecture. Wildly entertaining, this is a wonderful portrait of a fabulous family and a charming recreation of a lost era.
‘We were a restaurant family, four generations in a six-block radius. When you opened our fridge, food fell on your feet.’
‘Her graceful, finely wrought prose endows them with a universality that can stand the comparison of Philip Roth … Buy it now and spend some of the most pleasurable hours of your life. A small masterpiece’ —Guardian
‘Warm-hearted … vivid characters … a funny and touching book with a thought-provoking subtext’ —Economist
‘Stuffed takes you into a world much richer and more vibrantly textured than the noisy, greasy, dull confines of a professional kitchen … taut, sharp, witty’ —New York Times
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