The Lost Art of Mixing

I am a big fan of Bauermeister's first book The School of Essential Ingredients, so I was delighted to see that her latest novel brings us back into Lillian's kitchen. It's a lovely mix of new and old characters, and, for me at least, just as magical. Each person who comes to the restaurant is lost, lonely, afraid or unhappy in some way, all have tried to ignore it and soldier on. But by mixing into Lillian's circle, these folks bump into and blend with each other, forming friendships and sometimes much more. Once again, I am sad that my time in that kitchen was so brief (I devoured this book rather quickly), but I am more than happy to recommend this book to YOU

A sequel to her first book, [The School of Essential Ingredients], and a fairly good one, too (though not as good as the original). The fact that her books are full of romantic relationships, yet devoid of long-standing loving unions is a bit frustrating (it seems everyone is either budding with new love, or widowed/divorced/abandoned), and one of the plot lines was a bit unrealistic (stalking isn't romantic). Still, there is something compelling about her writing, and the section in the middle detailing the experience of a woman in the early stages of Alzheimers, would have been enough to make the book worthwhile all on its own. Notwithstanding its flaws, I couldn't put this book down.

The Lost Art of Mixing returns us to Lillian's kitchen, which we first discovered in The School of Essential Ingredients, but things aren't going so terribly well. In the opening pages, Lillian discovers some news that will turn her life upside down. Lillian's accountant Al and his wife Louise are discovering maybe theirs is not quite a match made in heaven. Lillian's former student, current sous chef, Chloe thinks she might've found someone to love in the guise of the restaurant's new dishwasher, tall, silent Finnegan, but there's more to him than meets the eye. Not to mention, Chloe's aging roommate Isabelle is slowly losing her memories to Alzheimer's disease.

As Isabelle wisely observes of her friends, "They were like ingredients show more that had become chemically incapable of mixing with each other, or perhaps had simply forgotten how, when she knew it wasn't the case and didn't need to be." Isabelle's memory might be slipping, but fortunately, she still has a few tricks up her sleeve that could heal the rifts between the people she loves.

Unfortunately The Lost Art of Mixing didn't pack quite the same emotional punch for me as did The School of Essential Ingredients. I loved how, in School, Bauermeister drew Lillian as a wise lady whose instincts for which foods would re-awaken the spirits of her cooking school students. Not only was it an interesting concept, but it proved to be a great way to unite the several different stories Bauermeister was telling. In Mixing, Bauermeister spends more time on Lillian as a character in her own right, but also explores the lives of various other characters, which is interesting, but the story is not quite so naturally cohesive as when Lillian's cooking school was anchoring it.

That said, Bauermeister's magic is still there. Like Lillian, Bauermeister has a keen instinct when it comes to people and the experiences that shape their lives, and in her writing, she does a fantastic job of drawing out the pasts that have damaged her characters and the things that each of them need to move forward. She also has a keen eye for the seemingly small things that can renew the human spirit - how physical labor can serve as a cleanser for the soul, how a listening ear and a cup of tea can be all it takes to set a person on a new path, and how a simple object can hold a wealth of memories. Readers will fall in love with this set of characters just as easily as the ones that graced the pages of School, and the glow of Bauermeister's beautifully intuitive prose is sure to win her more fans. show less

I devoured The Lost Art of Mixing as if it were a savory dish prepared by the character Lillian herself. In this sequel to The School of Essential Ingredients I was happily reunited with the grace filled restaurant owner Lillian, the fiery Chloe, Tom who unknowingly yearns for his future and the sweet, precious Isabelle who although her memories are slipping fast, still seems to be tending to those within her reach.

I would imagine past readers will need to adapt to the slight change the author veered in this second novel. The first of this series being so warm, flavorful and uplifting. And adapt I hope they do! For the prose in this release is beautiful and does not center solely around food but truly the flavor of life and the taste show more our memories leaves with us. We are introduced to Lillian's accountant, a sweet, different sort, to his wife Louise, a type all to her own, and the tall Finnegan who fits right in when Lillian manages to encircle him. Then there's Abbey, Isabelle's adult daughter, burdened with her self imposed idea of how everybody's life needs to be, a true recipe for disappointment.

Again, this second novel does not find us in Lillian's cooking class which I selfishly want Ms. Bauermesiter to return us to one day, but soon after digesting this read in two days I found myself thinking on mirroring the grace within this read. How the author had us see full circle of a character that maybe we would not normally like and with that insight how understanding grows...and the warmth of grace is felt. Yes, The Lost Art of Mixing sets well on this palate and lingers there.

I received an early release copy from LibraryThing, mailed from publishers Putnam Books, in exchange for a honest review. show less

Summary: In this sequel to The School of Essential Ingredients, Lillian's recent round of cooking classes may have finished, but her restaurant is still bringing people together. Al, her accountant, lives for numbers and order, but is learning to appreciate the more subtle pleasures of celebrating life, although that celebration does not filter through to his strained relationship with his wife. Chloe is a young chef at the restaurant, still aching from her recent heartbreak but slowly learning to trust her heart. Isabelle, Chloe's housemate, is slowly falling prey to Alzheimer's, but still manages to see the lives around her with a startling clarity. And Lillian herself is dealing with a major development in her life, one that she show more thought she'd left behind. As their stories intersect at and around the restaurant, these disparate people find themselves supporting and balancing each other, blending together like an ingredients in a recipe, like a family that they find and build for themselves.

Review: Erica Bauermeister's books are not the sort of books I would normally seek out, nor the sort that I would expect to enjoy based on the description. As I said in my review of Joy for Beginners, books about ordinary people in ordinary relationships leading ordinary lives is not my usual cup of tea. But Bauermeister has a way of making the very ordinariness of the lives of her characters and turning it into something worth cherishing, something worth celebrating. A running thread in this book is Al's discovery of a book of rituals, which are a way of making celebrations out of daily life. I thought that was a nice inclusion, because it neatly encompasses what I think make Bauermeister's books so special: they encourage us to savor life, whether in a bite of food or another person. Her prose has an astonishing way of making everything bright and vivid, and of really invoking all of the senses that are not necessarily always involved in reading a novel.

However, while there were a lot of elements and moments that I loved in this book, there were things that I missed as well, with the result that I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as Bauermeister's first two. Primarily, I missed the amazing focus on food and cooking that anchored The School of Essential Ingredients. Bauermeister writes that so well, and while there were bits about cooking in this story, they were much less central, which was somewhat disappointing, given that this story revolves around a restaurant. I also didn't feel the same emotional connection to her characters this time around, although whether that's due to my own state of mind or something about the stories Bauermeister was choosing to tell, I couldn't say.

But even so, I really enjoyed this book. It's somehow light and warm and comforting all at the same time, and definitely an enjoyable read. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: This book could stand alone relatively well (considering how long it's been since I read the first one and how many of the details I'd forgotten), but it's richer for knowing the backstory. I'd recommend Bauermeister's books in general to anyone who's looking for a heart-warming and satisfying read. show less

The second book in the School of Essential Ingredients series and it's quite possibly as delightful as the first. If you've read the first in the series you'll see that several of the characters return and you get to know them much better and really care for them as they go through their lives filled with happiness, struggles, love, and woes. New characters are added into or written about from their lives that you grow to care for as well. Erica Bauermeister has a true gift for writing in a way that gives you a true sense of who the characters are ... they're completely filled out, not one or two dimensional as in so many other novels. These are people you come to feel you really know through her stories. Personally, I was looking show more forward to a third book when I wasn't even halfway through this story. Excellently written. I want to sit down to a meal with these characters. show less

The Lost Art of Mixing is a sequel to Erica Bauermeister's book The School of Essential Ingredients, continuing the lives of some of the characters from the first book a year later and introducing a few new ones. The quote at the beginning of the book, "Every truth has two sides - Aesop" reflects the overall theme of the book as the reader is shown how each of two people react to the same circumstances and the author skillfully blends all the characters into one story.

Lillian's restaurant from the first book doesn't play as big a part in the story as the last book, and Lillian herself is more of a minor character although still the nucleus of the characters. Chloe, her sous-chef, has broken up with her boyfriend and is finding it hard show more to trust herself and others, especially Finnegan who has issues of his own. Isabelle knows that her memories are slowly beng taken from her by Alzheimer's and the story of her and her daughter's relationship forms two more sides of one truth. And Lillian has her own issue to deal with.

The author's prose is so delicious and sensuous that I wanted to sink into the words and savor every one.
"She let the silence unfold in the car, curl around the steering wheel, slip through Finnegan' s long fingers and stretch out in the back seat."
She seamlessly blends the stories of each of the characters making the reader see that stories have two sides and what we may think we know, may only be one side of the truth. show less