Staff Pick
This slim memoir enchanted me. Author and reporter Isabel Vincent recounts her friendship with the delightful, elderly Edward. Over the course of many wonderful dinners that Edward cooks for her, Isabel tells how their relationship deepened and how they were able to help each other move through grief and to better places in their lives, even as Edward faces the end of his. The food descriptions are a highlight as well. I've marked many of the recipes and expect to use them all. Recommended By Kathi K., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
When Isabel meets Edward, both are at a crossroads: he wants to follow his late wife to the grave, and she is ready to give up on love. Thinking she is merely helping Edward’s daughter--who lives far away and asked her to check in on her nonagenarian dad in New York--Isabel has no idea that the man in the kitchen baking the sublime roast chicken and light-as-air apricot soufflé will end up changing her life.
As Edward and Isabel meet weekly for the glorious dinners that Edward prepares, he shares so much more than his recipes for apple galette or the perfect martini, or even his tips for deboning poultry. Edward is teaching Isabel the luxury of slowing down and taking the time to think through everything she does, to deconstruct her own life, cutting it back to the bone and examining the guts, no matter how messy that proves to be.
Dinner with Edward is a book about sorrow and joy, love and nourishment, and about how dinner with a friend can, in the words of M. F. K. Fisher, "sustain us against the hungers of the world."
Review
"Delightfully combining the warm-heartedness of Tuesdays with Morrie with the sensual splendor of Julie and Julia. This is a memoir to treasure." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"[Isabel’s] tonic is the example Edward sets of active engagement with the world and its delights, food being chief among them. Who wouldn’t swoon of his dinners?...The story of their attachment unfolds like a genial dinner party where the conversation stays on the surface but the food goes deep and the host sets a buoyant tone." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Isabel Vincent delves deeply into matters of the kitchen and the heart with equal and unabashed passion . . . Rich with description of meals savored, losses grieved, and moments cherished, it’s at once tender, revealing, and utterly enchanting!" Gail Simmons, judge on Bravo’s Top Chef and author of Talking with My Mouth Full
Review
"A rare, beautifully crafted memoir that leaves you exhilarated and wanting to live this way. Edward is a marvel of resilience and dignity, and Vincent shows us that the ceremony of food is really a metaphor for love. The key is to live your life generously." Rosemary Sullivan, author of Stalin’s Daughter
Review
"I loved every moment of this book...Everyone deserves their own Edward–and everyone deserves to read this book." Susannah Cahalan, bestselling author of Brain on Fire
About the Author
Isabel Vincent is an investigative reporter for the New York Post. Previously, she was a foreign correspondent based in Rio de Janeiro and before that she covered the conflicts that led to the war in Kosovo. Her work has appeared in magazines and newspapers all over the world, including the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, L’Officiel, and Time. She is the author of four books: Gilded Lily: Lily Safra: The Making of One of the World’s Wealthiest Widows; Bodies and Souls: The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced into Prostitution in the Americas; Hitler’s Silent Partners: Swiss Banks, Nazi Gold and the Pursuit of Justice; and See No Evil: The Strange Case of Christine Lamont and David Spencer. The recipient of numerous journalism honors, including the Canadian Association of Journalist’s Award for Excellence in Investigative Journalism, she has been a journalism fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto. Vincent won the National Jewish Book Award in Canada for Bodies and Souls and the Yad Vashem Award for Holocaust History for Hitler’s Silent Partners. She grew up in Toronto and speaks French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Today, she lives in New York.