When an American from Nashville discovered the secrets of French cuisine

Gastronomic recipes and recipes for life

“Dinner with Edward” by Isabel Vincent is a gastronomic book for cooking enthusiasts combined with a guidebook that includes recipes for life. Edward, 93, was born in Nashville and lives in New York. He wanted to be an actor and playwright but was unable to break into show business. He worked as a carpenter, carpenter, upholsterer, and more to support his family while simultaneously writing plays and poems for his beloved wife Paula and his dear friends. At the age of 70, he discovered the secrets of French cuisine and the amazing ability to prepare meals and drinks. His life and the lives of his acquaintances and loved ones took on a new flavor. The book “Dinner with Edward” is built on the meals around which an unexpected friendship was forged between the elderly cook and his daughter’s friend, Isabel, the book’s author. Each chapter contains an appetizing menu that Edward and Isabel ate, for example, in the first chapter:

Grilled sirloin steak with Bourguignon sauce

Small potatoes

Chocolate Souffle

Malbec wine

In the second chapter:

Sole fish cooked in vermouth with fish stock sauce

Potatoes in goose fat

Baby spinach

Avocado salad with dressing Cheese Blue

Apricot soufflé

Martini, wine and vodka

The book also contains various gastronomic descriptions, for example:

The doorman informed Edward of my arrival, and when I reached the fourteenth floor, a martini glass was waiting for me. The glass was cold, and a perfect layer of ice spread over the cocktail. The glass rested on the Formica surface of the kitchen counter, next to a plastic box filled with goose fat that Edward had asked him to fry half-cooked potato slices in. Edward had done this trick before—peeling the small, somewhat shrunken potatoes, slicing them as thinly as possible, and turning them into a dish called Sarlat, named after a medieval town in the Dordogne region of France. The region was famous for the goose fat it produced. Sometimes, right after frying the potato slices—crispy yet tender—he would sprinkle them with fresh parsley and chopped garlic.

Edward had already warmed two plates and piled a mound of baby spinach leaves on each. He cooked the sole in vermouth, and when it was ready, he placed it on the spinach and added the fish stock he had made from fish bones lightly fried in butter with white wine, carrots, onions, and butter. The sauce cooked the raw spinach slightly. (pp. 23-24).

And here is Edward's martini cocktail:

He put two martini glasses in the freezer and made lemon peel coils. He added the coils to the Pyrex glass, which he also chilled, and after about ten minutes he strained the lemon gin and added the vermouth. He put the drink back in the freezer for a few minutes and finally poured the cocktail into the chilled glasses and added a garnish. We chilled glasses in memory of Paula, and only then did Edward taste his handiwork. (p. 156)

Who is Isabel Vincent?

The speaker in the book “Dinner with Edward” is Isabel, a Canadian journalist in menopause who moved to New York City with her husband and daughter to work at the New York Post. This is the autobiographical story of the author, Isabel Vincent, at a certain point in her life when she felt shaken, torn, lonely and sad. Her marriage is crumbling, her life is unpleasant, the big city is full of troubles, her work on the newspaper’s editorial board is not enjoyable. Edward is the father of a good friend of hers and he is also at a crossroads in his life. His wife, whom he kissed at the age of 95, has passed away, leaving him lonely after 69 years of a perfect relationship. Isabel promises her friend to come eat with Edward at Christmas, and what began unexpectedly as a kind of intriguing commitment from a lonely woman to a good friend continues with additional meals in which Isabel enjoys Edward’s company and his fine cuisine. A quality break in a sad time and much more. A true friendship develops between Edward and Isabel, each of whom gives the other the courage to move on with his life. Edward nourishes Isabel not only with fine meals but also with a loving, appreciative, and encouraging attitude that seems to blend into the carefully prepared food and drinks.

Weekly meals as mystical rituals that restore the soul

Isabel quotes from the book the gastronomic writer, M.P.K. Fisher (1908-1992), who, like a daughter of her generation, Julia Child (1912-2004), who is also mentioned in the book, was an American culinary priestess who brought the gospel of French cooking to her people.

It is not only our bodies that participate in the experience when we are offered bread and wine to our relatives.

Written by the author M.P.K. Fisher. (Dinner with Edward, p. 162). The religious allusion is clear even though the book's protagonists are atheists. The feasts in the book are elevated to the level of secular sacred rituals that bring both Edward and Isabel back to life.

The first meal, to which Edward invited Isabel, took place on Christmas (the birth of Jesus), symbolizing the rebirth of both diners. The Last Supper (the death of Jesus), alluded to in the book, establishes the religious connotation. The book is therefore rich in the mystical meaning of the meal to which Edward invites Isabel every week.

To dine also means to help, to provide/provide, and as the gastronomic writer M.P.K. Fisher, quoted in the book, says, eating bread and drinking wine is not just a physical experience. Every meal with Edward, in which he lovingly prepared food for her, contrasts with that dinner in which Isabel and her partner fought violently in front of their daughter, who scolded them: I will never forget this meal. Love and understanding, constructive bonds, as opposed to harmful bonds that must be cut without hesitation, is another insight that Isabel learned and passes it on to her readers in this wonderful book, which touches the heart of the meaning of life and is therefore wholeheartedly recommended to everyone.

The change Isabel underwent thanks to her encounters with Edward

The book's heroine, Isabelle Vincent, has been going through a very significant process since she met Edward. At first, she tried to ignore the failure of her relationship with her husband, but the love between Edward and his late wife forces her to open her eyes, face reality as it is, and file for divorce. Edward and Paula did not fulfill their professional dream, but that was not the main thing for them. The couple lived in a private paradise, and every day together was a gift for them. It is no wonder that Edward intended to join Paula after her death. If she had not persuaded him to cling to life, and if Isabelle had not come his way, he might very well have fulfilled his intention. His meeting with Isabelle, who provides a purpose for his life, strengthens his motivation to continue demonstrating his rare talents, both in cooking and hosting, and in understanding life and in constructive conversations:

“When I asked him to teach me how to cut up a chicken to make galantine, I knew that what he would ultimately give me would be far more important than the secrets of cutting up a chicken. Looking back, it dawned on me that Edward had forced me to take my life apart, cut it to the bone, and examine the innards, no matter how much mess I might find inside.” (p. 18).

Isabel tells Edward about her job, where she endures endless humiliations, about her attempts to get through menopause, about the difficulty of raising her daughter, and the fears that her parents' impending separation will disrupt her life and leave a traumatic scar on her. Isabel's stories somewhat alleviate the widower's loneliness and the project he has undertaken, bringing Isabel out of the abysmal emptiness into which she has fallen and empowering her femininity, helps him overcome the separation from his wife and restores his appetite for life. Edward had friends and acquaintances outside of Isabel, but only to her did he tell about the death of his father, a heavy smoker, at the age of 68 from cancer. The sight of his father dying in the hospital was the trauma of his life and this was the first time he spoke about it.

Edward nourished Isabel not only with food but also with soul-to-soul conversations:

“I finally learned to follow Edward’s recipes more precisely, whether they were instructions for cooking or for living. His arguments were always based on a few basic ideas – he talked about the ability to recognize the “stranger within us” and achieve what he liked to call “a place of rest for the soul,” and now it dawns on me that he meant self-confidence and our ability to be happy with our lot. Or as he put it, “a place inside the head where we live at peace with our lives and our decisions.” (p. 31).

Breakups, infatuations, friendships, illnesses, dying, deaths – the autobiographical slice of life from the keyboard of a humane, educated and experienced journalist against the backdrop of the New York landscape captured my heart. It is also a book of trips and wanderings around New York for its fans. But most of all, it is an instructive book, full of wise advice, highly recommended for people at a crossroads or even in crisis. The book does not hide the tragedies of life, their frustrations, sadness and transience, but provides tools to deal with them from an intelligent and controlled look at the spiritual love bond that formed between Edward and Isabel at a moment when they both needed attention and affection.

Edward's daughters were not in New York at the time, and Isabel returned everything he had given her with his natural generosity. Edward became her ideal man, and she found herself a suitable partner, in the form of a younger version of the original model. Isabel Vincent successfully shares with readers the process of rehabilitation, tempering, and inoculation she went through when she met Edward, her friend's 93-year-old father, who revealed a wonderful world to her, cared for her like a good fairy, and restored her cheerfulness and joy.

The three-year period she recounts in her book was the worst and at the same time the best of her life. And all thanks to the excellent chef Edward, who shared with her his cooking secrets as well as his insights into how to navigate life. The man in the kitchen who cooked heavenly roast chicken and airy apricot souffle changed her life. When they met each week for the gastronomic dinners he prepared for her and him, he shared not only his recipes for a perfect apple galette or tips for deboning chicken, but also the art of patience, delay, and slowing down. From him, Isabelle learned how to stop life, observe, look, and learn. Thanks to him, she suddenly saw her parents in a new light and was given the tools to choose a suitable partner.

As far as Isabelle is concerned, Edward will live forever. This is probably why the book does not end with Edward's death, even though he feels that his end is near.

The book is available. In this link.