Kitchens of the Great Midwest

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal is a entertaining story complete with recipes.  This is the story of Eva Thornvald as it unfolds mainly through stories of the people around her.  Each chapter seems at first to be about someone completely different, sometimes at first seeming totally unrelated to the chapter before.  Then it becomes clear how the chapter and the people in the story will fit into the life of Eva.  Each of the chapters presents a dish or ingredient that will play an important role in Eva's life.

Eva is the child of a tragic beginning, the daughter of a chef and his wife who discovers she has more of a passion for wine than motherhood.  From this union Eva is blessed with a once-in-a-generation palate.  She has the ability to eat extremely hot peppers and to be able to taste the individual ingredients in a dish.  As an adult Eva and a friend create a dining experience different than any other in the country.  This sought after dinner reservation with Eva as the mystery chef creates the culmination of Stradal's expose of America's midwestern culinary experience.  We are invited to experience the Lutheran church bake-off, the county fair, the chili-pepper eating contest and the opening of deer hunting season as they all relate to Eva's life.

We are also introduced to the beginning of the foodie culture of farm to table.  Cooking with all natural fresh ingredients, using only locally sourced ingredients.  This is a statement on the growing trend away from the comfort foods of our childhoods and toward the vegan, gluten free, soy free, GMO free, locally sourced recipes that are popular today.  One of the character's, Pat Prager enters her peanut butter bars in the Petite Noisette recipe contest.  When she sizes up the competition she quickly realizes she will lose.  "Gone was the hope of five thousand dollars; gone was the job in the Cities and the dance lessons with Rodrigo.  Pat had overreached; she had fallen prey to temptation, and her greed and selfishness had led to desires that had brought her to this sinful place.  ..She suddenly felt sorry for these people and their awful food.  She suddenly felt sorry for these people, for perverting the food of their childhood, the food of their mothers and grandmothers, and rejecting its unconditional love in favor of what?"

This book is a fun story delivering a fun poke at the way society has gone through many changes in  the way we eat from farm fresh ingredients to the quick packaged and modified foods we ate during the 1900s and now back to farm fresh non processed foods.  It is also the story of Eva, who finds success and happiness in the food she prepares and shares with others.