2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Book Review: Charlotte au Chocolat

Happy Book Review Tuesday everyone! Today we are again taking a walk down memoir lane. My review copy of today’s book, Charlotte Au Chocolat, was provided courtesy of LuxuryReading.com, which also hosted the original (shorter) post of this book review on February 26 (available here).

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Charlotte au Chocolat

I love memoirs. I really enjoy reading a first-person narration of other someone else’s life. To me, it’s like having an extended conversation. Technically I get that it’s a monologue – since I don’t actually get to talk, or at least, when I do (which more than occasionally happens, teehee, especially with a book I either like or dislike a great deal), no one talks back – but it feels like a conversation. Like the best kind of conversation, actually – like when you meet someone you click with and sit for hours learning all about them.

A lot of memoirs are pretty dark – or at least contain a hefty dose of dark elements. Sadness, disappointment, addiction, and cruelty are all too common to the genre, it seems, because they are (most unfortunately) all too common in life. When that happens, the conversation can be oppressive or disturbing. I don’t love those memoirs, any more than I love those conversations.

But a lot of them are just fun and interesting and offer insight into vastly different lifestyles. Those are my favorite memoirs – and my favorite conversations. CaC is a perfect example.

The book tells the story of Charlotte Silver, born and raised by restaurateur parents (together and, ultimately, separately) at Upstairs at the Pudding, the restaurant above the Hasty Pudding Club in Harvard Square. Well, technically both parents turned out to be restaurateurs, although her mother found herself fulfilling that role rather unexpectedly. To say more is to give a bit of a spoiler, so let’s leave it at that, shall we?

As I was saying, the book chronicles young Charlotte’s life in the elite culinary world of a high-end Boston restaurant. From her earliest days, she dressed for dinner, dined on wild European boar, and was served the dessert she was named for – Charlotte au Chocolat (a confection of chocolate, ladyfingers, and liqueur that sounds to die for). Her days and nights were split between the Front of the House (i.e., the customers, the opulent dining room, and the dressed-to-the-nines service personnel) and the Back of the House (i.e., the chefs, kitchen, and cleaning staff). From a young age, she learned that never the twain shall meet – except in the person of her oh-so-glamorous mother, the chef and manager of the establishment.

A most elegant childhood, indeed.

Also, sadly, often a fairly lonely one. The restaurant busy is not an easy one. Tales of financial woes, legal battles over the building lease, and many long nights spent sitting at a table for one abound. Still, Charlotte and her mother managed to hold on to the restaurant – and their relationship – with a rather indomitable spirit and sense of self that I believe made for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The book jacket self-describes young Charlotte as living the life of Eloise at The Plaza. There are parallels, to be sure, but there are also healthy smatterings of the less glamorous side of living the high-life – or at least of providing the high-life for others. These elements render the story accessible and sympathetic, and keep it from slipping into a “my childhood was fancier than yours” ego battle.

The story is as decadent as one of Charlotte’s mother’s desserts – and just as enjoyable. If you have any interest in the restaurant business – or unusual childhood stories – give this one a go!

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