The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauemeister ISBN# 978-0-425-23209-5

The most beautiful foodie writing passage I have ever read came from Erica Bauermeister’s book The School of Essential Ingredients. In this novel, the main character Lillian, owns a restaurant and holds cooking classes. This endeavor brings together students Claire, Tom, Antonia, Carl and Helen. Each character has rich and unique paths of life and we learn how the cooking class helps them move along in their life’s journey. The story of Claire, a new mother, I most identified with especially when I read her description of the birth of her child. Clarie describes how after wave after wave of pain she felt herself break into pieces and how she needed “one quiet moment to heal, but the pieces had stayed broken and found new places to settle where she didn’t recognize herself” (p. 56). Claire finds her quiet moment when at the end of the first cooking class, she tastes the crabs they had learned to prepare:

“The meat touched her tongue and the taste ran through her, full and rich and complicated, dense as a long, deep kiss. She took another bite and felt her feet settle into the floor and the rest of her flow into a river of ginger and garlic and lemon and wine. She stood, even when that bite, and the next were gone, feeling the river wind its way to her gingers, her toes, he belly, the base of her spine, melting all the pieces of her into something warm and golden. She breathed in, and in the one, quiet moment felt herself come back together again.” (p. 60)

I had tears in my eyes after reading this ending to Claire’s chapter in the book. I had these feelings like Claire and never had the right words to describe how I felt. I had post-partum depression after my son was born several years ago. I was broken spiritually and felt lost in mental and emotional waves. In those trying months, I lost some moments with my newborn son. I was robbed of truly being present and felt like I was watching my stranger self most of the time. I didn’t really know what to do…I refused medication and counseling was not given to me as an option. I am still not sure why only medication was offered and no other type of resource.

Each day my husband and family reminded me that I was still me and that I needed to fight for myself. I literally was brought to my knees asking my God for his help and healing. Then a “mom time” outing brought me to a bookstore. I have always turned to browsing books for comfort as sort of a meditative practice. That day I found the book The Power of a Positive Mom by Karol Ladd. I started reading this every day and discovered the secret curative of Quiet time. Finally, the broken pieces of my soul slowly began to mend. The balm of reading God’s word covered my spiritual and mental wounds and calmed my stinging raw emotions. Six months later I finally felt like myself again. It was a bittersweet celebration because it was then I realized how much time I had lost of my son’s first months. However, I knew that the treasures in this trial would help me to be the mother I needed and wanted to be; that I could somehow help others.

After finishing this wonderful novel, I discovered another resource that has helped me to process that depression and also help prepare me for other broken times. It is a Women of Faith Bible Study entitled: Finding God in the Broken Places. I hope whatever your spirituality may be, you find peace and healing if you are suffering and are in a broken place.