BOOK REVIEW: My Place at the table

MY PLACE AT THE TABLE:  A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris
Alexander Lobrano
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021
$27.00

​​How does a boy who grew up in Connecticut move to Paris and become a world class food critic?  That’s the story of MY PLACE AT THE TABLE:  A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris by Alexander Lobrano.  I first discovered Alec Lobrano in the pages of the Wall Street Journal where he shared his delicious recipe for a rustic Ratatouille.   I was hooked!  I found the book at my local bookstore:  The Webster Groves Bookshop and couldn’t put it down.
 
The story begins when Alec finds out about a job opening at Women’s Wear Daily and applies for the job simply because it was in Paris.  He doesn’t really speak French and he knows little about fashion but that isn’t enough to dissuade him from pursuing his dream of becoming a restaurant critic. 
 
“Well, you’re not going to spend the rest of your life writing about dresses, are you?”  The question certainly defined the journey.  Alec responds, “I certainly hope not!”  The adventure begins in a moving, often funny, ramble through the bistros of French gastronomy. 
 
Alec was one of the first critics to eschew the haute cuisine of the established French cooking world and embrace the city’s bistros and quickly became entranced by the chefs and food workers who became his muse and guided him through the revolution of food happening in France.  Soon, he made quite a name for himself as he lets the world in on the new trails being blazed by young chefs shaking things up with exciting dishes influenced by international ingredients.
 
Along the way we share in Alec’s life and loves both for food and everything else.  He discovers himself as he struggles to overcome a childhood secret, he tried to suppress for a very long time.  Funny, poignant, and filled with some of the food worlds’ biggest names including Julia Child, James Beard and Paul Bocuse.
 
Alec writes as if he talking to a new friend over a bottle of fine wine about his life, his loves, his infatuations, and dreams.  He lets us in on his secrets and we adore him even more for it.  This is a love letter to Paris and to food and to a life well lived.  Bravo!

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