Kate Christensen (Blue Plate Special) continues her ventures into the slow-food movement in How to Cook a Moose, splitting her time between the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the hip culinary city of Portland, Maine. Divorced and unhappy living in New York City, she longed "for a new life, somewhere else, somewhere clean and quiet." It was with great fortune that she met a man whose family has a farmhouse in the mountains of New Hampshire, which is where Christensen fell in love again, with life and with food.
From these happy moments of rediscovery, Christensen and her new life partner, Brendan, embark on a culinary odyssey. Christensen's conversational tone leads readers through the happy couple's cooking partnerships in the old farmhouse kitchen, where they whip up chicken stews and meals using the mushrooms they've foraged in the woods behind the house, to the streets of Portland, where they buy an older home together. While their Portland kitchen is being renovated, the couple partakes of Maine's bounty in the many restaurants that have given Portland a culinary reputation on par with any large city in the United States.
Christensen does a lovely job of weaving commentary on the variety of dishes they eat with sketches and discussions of the people who grow, pick and cook that food. Readers gain a sense of the individualism that is as integral a part of life on the rocky coastline and forested woodlands of Maine as the blueberries, lobsters, oysters and potatoes the state is famous for serving. The author also includes ample bites of history on a variety of Maine topics, including lobstering, potato harvesting and making a pot of baked beans. The quick synopsis of Portland's history aptly explains why the city's motto, Resurgam ("I will rise again"), could easily be the same saying for the many people Christensen interviews, who have often been dealt a hard hand but have managed to persevere and thrive.
Throughout the narrative, Christensen expresses the joy she experiences in eating really local, really fresh foods, made with love and care by people who are sincerely happy. As an added bonus, she includes many recipes--ones she and Brendan have cooked together and ones she has been given by other chefs--which allow readers to capture a bit of the happiness that slowly wafts from these pages like a tantalizing scent. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer
Shelf Talker: Walk arm-in-arm with a gourmand on the streets of Portland, throughout Maine and parts of New Hampshire, savoring the lush local cuisine.