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A review by sunforsavannah
Cooking as Fast as I Can: A Chef's Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness by Cat Cora
4.0
I chose to read Cat Cora's memoir mainly because I hadn't yet formed an opinion on her which was the perfect basis for eliminating basis upon reading a book. Despite my affinity for The Food Network, I never caught Cora on a show. About as much as I knew about her--her height, her hair color, and her cooking style--I could learn on her Wikipedia page. The more intimate details about her--her childhood, her education, her relationships--were mere questions in my mind before reading her memoir, Cooking As Fast As I Can.
This is one of my favorite memoirs because of Cat Cora's Southern charm, no-bullshit badassery, and selflessness. It is the perfect blend of food knowledge, as she includes some of her favorite dishes, childhood connections to cooking, and forays into the culinary world, and personal information, like where she grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, painful memories of sexual abuse, and learning how to navigate her sexuality. I never found myself at a loss for either food or secrets because Cora so effortlessly weaved the two together in an engaging way.
I appreciated Cat Cora's candidness about her life, especially her obvious, plentiful love for her family, her genuine remorse for her mistakes, and irrefutable passion for cooking. This is not one of those memoirs that simply reinforces how talented or successful a chef the author is. More than that, I was left realizing that above being a force in the culinary world, Cat Cora is also a devoted Southern girl, family woman with secrets like all the rest of us. The only difference between her and us is that she shares those secrets instead of harboring her regret.
This is one of my favorite memoirs because of Cat Cora's Southern charm, no-bullshit badassery, and selflessness. It is the perfect blend of food knowledge, as she includes some of her favorite dishes, childhood connections to cooking, and forays into the culinary world, and personal information, like where she grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, painful memories of sexual abuse, and learning how to navigate her sexuality. I never found myself at a loss for either food or secrets because Cora so effortlessly weaved the two together in an engaging way.
I appreciated Cat Cora's candidness about her life, especially her obvious, plentiful love for her family, her genuine remorse for her mistakes, and irrefutable passion for cooking. This is not one of those memoirs that simply reinforces how talented or successful a chef the author is. More than that, I was left realizing that above being a force in the culinary world, Cat Cora is also a devoted Southern girl, family woman with secrets like all the rest of us. The only difference between her and us is that she shares those secrets instead of harboring her regret.