Chef and restaurateur Marc Meyer highlights the stories of 27 immigrant workers who help sustain his restaurants--and the New York City restaurant industry--in his dynamic, timely Voices from the Kitchen.
Meyer is a chef-partner of the Bowery Group, which owns five Manhattan restaurants, including Cookshop and Shuka. In a brief introduction, he praises the "strength, creativity, humor, and humanity" of the contributors. He then lets the narrators speak for themselves to share their struggles, triumphs, and essential food memories. Each personal narrative is a savory dish, flavored with the cuisine and memories of the speakers' homelands, including Honduras, Peru, El Salvador, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, and many contributions from Mexico.
The narrators speak matter-of-factly, detailing danger from gangs or war; recounting long and often harrowing journeys to the U.S.; and humbly celebrating their triumphs, such as working their way up the restaurant ranks, buying a house, or supporting their families back home. Each story also contains striking sensory details: the savory flavors of Honduran tapado; the warmth of homemade tortillas; the sensation of being crammed into a water truck with other immigrants; and the chaos and bustle of a restaurant kitchen. Although each story is distinct in its particulars, there are several through lines: a lack of opportunity in the contributors' home countries (sometimes paired with violence or danger), the desire for a better life, and years of unrelenting hard work.
Spirited and moving, Voices from the Kitchen celebrates the vital contributions of immigrants to the literal and metaphorical nourishment of their adopted country. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams