Name: My Berlin Kitchen
ISBN: 9780670025381

Luisa Weiss

The creator of "The Wednesday Chef" blog discusses her youth spent shifting between her father's home in Boston and her Italian mother's home in Berlin and her decision to pursue a culinary vocation in Germany.

A Love Story, with Recipes

My Berlin Kitchen

The Wednesday Chef cooks her heart out, finds her way home, and shares her recipes with us It takes courage to turn your life upside down, especially when everyone is telling you how lucky you are. But sometimes what seems right can feel deeply wrong. My Berlin Kitchen tells the story of how one thoroughly confused, kitchen-mad perfectionist broke off her engagement to a handsome New Yorker, quit her dream job, and found her way to a new life, a new man, and a new home in Berlin—one recipe at a time. Luisa Weiss grew up with a divided heart, shuttling back and forth between her father in Boston and her Italian mother in Berlin. She was always yearning for home—until she found a new home in the kitchen. Luisa started clipping recipes in college and was a cookbook editor in New York when she decided to bake, roast, and stew her way through her by then unwieldy collection over the course of one tumultuous year. The blog she wrote to document her adventures in (and out) of the kitchen, The Wednesday Chef, soon became a sensation. But she never stopped hankering for Berlin. Luisa will seduce you with her stories of foraging for plums in abandoned orchards, battling with white asparagus at the tail end of the season, orchestrating a three-family Thanksgiving in Berlin, and mending her broken heart with batches (and batches) of impossible German Christmas cookies. Fans of her award-winning blog will know the happy ending, but anyone who enjoyed Julie and Julia will laugh and cheer and cook alongside Luisa as she takes us into her heart and tells us how she gave up everything only to find love waiting where she least expected it.

Adventures in Love and Life

Laura Mauler

The writing wasn't very tight, and there were a handful of typos, which I always find very distracting, yet I truly enjoyed this book. The author's search for her place in the world resonated very deeply with me, and her descriptions of Berlin made me want to pack up and move there ASAP. I haven't tried to make any of the recipes in the book, so I can't speak to their deliciousness or ease. They sounded rather tasty when I read through them, though.

Jeannette Ordas

I was really looking forward to this book but I felt a little disappointed. Maybe I wanted more of the stories to unfold themselves slowly without stating the obvious and I felt the recipes were sort of tacked on to the end of each chapter, trying to find a way to weave each recipe in. That said, I'm a sucker for a love story and a wedding and Luisa's wedding seemed gorgeous and perfect. The book had me yearning to visit Paris and head back to Berlin to wander more neighbourhoods. And the recipes seem comforting and good, so I'm sure I'll try my hand at a couple.

Shawna Gavas

**I recieved this book free through goodreads firstreads!**

There is something wonderful about getting to read a book before it's officially released....it's like being let in on a juicy secret! And this was a wonderful secret!

Firstly, let me say that I do not know how to cook. If it's not frozen with instructions on the box, I'm absolutely lost. But ironically I like to read about people who can in fact cook.

Luisa Weiss however, makes me WANT to learn how to cook. The way she weaves her memories around certain foods and recipes has inspired me to try and give my own children some of those traditions.

"Be brave." That she was. I can not imagine my family living more than a quick car ride away, let alone scattered across the pond. The way Luisa took control of her life through trial and error is amazing. I wish I had her courage.

I loved the cover art - it's appealing yet simple (and actually looks like my handwriting on the cover!)

Overall, the best words I can think of to describe this book is COZY and COMFORTING. The fall/winter season is a perfect time to release it as it made me want to put on fuzzy socks, make a pot of tea and curl up under a blanket (even though this is the hottest time of year!) I only wish Luisa had included some simpler recipes for those of us who are cooking/baking challenged!

My Berlin Kitchen A Love Story, with Recipes

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