Walking on Walnuts: My Grandmother's Recipes for Rugelach, Romance, and Surviving in the Real World

After eight years as a struggling artist and waitress, Nancy Ring decided to find a "survival job" that would bring satisfaction as well as survival. Armed with only chutzpah and a love of baking instilled by generations of her family, she answered a newspaper ad seeking an assistant pastry chef. So began a roller-coaster ride of apprenticeships in New York's high-pressured, ego-infested, and sometimes rat-infested, kitchens.

In this culinary memoir, Nancy Ring combines funny and poignant stories of love and work with warm remembrances of a family that celebrates food with gusto and cherishes memories with passion.

When Nancy Ring answered a newspaper ad seeking an assistant pastry chef, she though she'd found the ideal way to exercise her natural baking talent while supporting her first love, painting. Little did she realize that the kitchens of New York City's restaurants are places where only the most talented and tenacious can survive, let alone triumph. Backstabbing, fierce competition, stolen recipes, and impatient customers are all part of the scene--not a place for the slow or the uncertain--or for anyone who can't take a few black eyes and humiliating scoldings from the egotistical head chef.

Through it all, Nancy is sustained by her memories of her Jewish family, and the recipes that were handed down to her through generations. Blintzes, mandelbrot, fruit compote, all made in the steamy kitchens of her relatives, come wafting back to her in times of grief and celebration. It's what fortifies her determination to make it on her own terms--as an artist, as a chef, and as a woman.

"Part (the author's) own story, part family history, part cookbook — and all delicious" raved Detroit Free Press about Nancy Ring's unusual book. As the author tells about her struggle in the cut-throat and behind-the-kitchen-doors world of New York City's restaurants, readers learn about her powerful heritage as the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, sharing stories and recipes that have been handed down through generations. It's a life-affirming journey — with yummy recipes included — that's a perfect gift.