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Zusatztext Erica Baumeister... “Writes prose delicious enough to devour.”—Tiffany Baker! bestselling author of The Gilly Salt Sisters “Mixes gorgeous prose! luscious detail! and heartfelt characters—new friends and old—to reveal just how colorful and warm life in the rainy Pacific Northwest can be.”—Laurie Frankel! author of Goodbye for Now Praise for Erica Bauermeister! author of Joy for Beginners and The School of Essential Ingredients “The perfect recipe for escaping from life’s stresses.”—Kate Jacobs! author of The Friday Night Knitting Club “A book designed to fill you up and make you hungry for life.”— Publishers Weekly “Moving! touching! wonderfully written! inspiring to read.”—Garth Stein! New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain Informationen zum Autor Erica Bauermeister is the author of the national bestseller The School of Essential Ingredients and Joy for Beginners . She lives in Seattle with her family. Klappentext National bestselling author of Reese Witherspoon's Book Club pick, The Scent Keeper, Erica Bauermeister returns to the enchanting world of The School of Essential Ingredients in this luminous sequel. Lillian and her restaurant have a way of drawing people together. There's Al, the accountant who finds meaning in numbers; Chloe, a budding chef who hasn't learned to trust after heartbreak; Finnegan, quiet and steady as a tree, who can disappear into the background despite his massive height; Louise, Al's wife, whose anger simmers just below the boiling point; and Isabelle, whose memories are slowly slipping from her grasp. And there's Lillian herself, whose life has taken a turn she didn't expect… Their lives collide and mix with those around them, sometimes joining in effortless connections, at other times sifting together and separating again, creating a family that is chosen, not given. A beautifully imagined novel about the ties that bind-and links that break-The Lost Art of Mixing is a captivating meditation on the power of love, food, and companionship. READERS GUIDE INCLUDED Prologue Lillian stood at the restaurant kitchen counter, considering the empty expanse in front of her. It was a Monday morning at the end of December and the restaurant held the calm that occurred only after the onslaught of holiday feasts, the culmination of a culinary season that began in the fall. In those months of ever shorter days, sometimes the only ingredients Lillian’s customers could be bothered to take from their own kitchen cabinets were boxes of macaroni and cheese, bread for toast, and the restaurant provided both memory and inspiration—golden half-globes of squash awash in butter, a lamb shank braised with the patience it would take to get through winter. After the exhilaration that was summer in the Pacific Northwest, autumn was like the sigh of an adolescent who realizes he must indeed grow up. It was Lillian’s job to remind the people who sat at her tables that being an adult, the passing of a season or a year, was about more than just being older. Still, Lillian thought, sometimes it was nice to be in the hush of an empty kitchen, without the heat of the ovens, the extra bodies of prep cooks and dishwashers and bussers and servers. This was what fed her—this moment of stillness, the long, cool stretch of the counters and the give of the thick rubber mat beneath her feet. She decided she’d make a chowder, something simple and nourishing to take for her end-of-the-year appointment with Al, her accountant. Al wasn’t quite old enough to be her father, but in many respects he had acted as one for her—a steady hand and mind when she was first opening the restaurant and a dispenser of reliable advice in the eight years since. Their nonfinancial conve...
