I had the pleasure of meeting first-time author Jael McHenry at the Eat, Write, Retreat food bloggers conference in Washington, D.C. last month. She was there giving her tips on getting published and participating in the events as the voice behind The SIMMER Blog, where she is able to showcase her passion for all things culinary. She was kind enough to sit down with me over a coffee on a rainy afternoon when we returned to New York to talk about her book The Kitchen Daughter and how it came into being.
From the opening pages, the reader knows that the main character isn’t going to be a typical heroine. Ginny Selvaggio is facing the sudden death of her parents. Her coping with the upheaval that this life-altering circumstance causes is a bit more complex than for her sister and the others in the story because she has Aspergers Sydrome.
While trying to come to terms with the chaos these deaths bring into her ordered, regular world, she takes refuge in one of her safe places: the kitchen. Once she starts the process of creating a dish, Ginny’s cares fall away as she finds herself in a familiar, comforting zone. What happens next, however, is just as much a surprise to her as it is to us. Through her culinary skill, she discovers she has the power to bring up ghosts that relate to her and her past by making their recipes, step by step.
From there she stumbles upon a family mystery. Solving it becomes her goal, using her newly-found psychic ability, but there are a few roadblocks along the way. Can this help her heal from her losses and enable her to build a new relationship between herself and the outside world in which she needs to function?
Each chapter leads off with a recipe, all of which were specifically created for this book. They are woven into the theme of the narrative as an integral part of the storyline. We see Ginny grow and develop throughout the book, much like a dish is built from each of the individual steps and ingredients that go into creating it. As Jael remarked, we don’t know what she’s capable of at the beginning of the book and neither does she.
Jael said Ginny came from the desire to create a character who likes food and cooking, as those are the things that she enjoys doing as well. To make the experience of the story more interactive for its readers, Jael is in the process of creating sample menus for book clubs to use based upon these recipes. These dishes align with the twists and turns in the plot that take the reader where he or she didn’t expect to go, which is what makes The Kitchen Daughter for me one of the most refreshing and unique novels that I’ve picked up in a while and a great summer read.
Jael McHenry will be participating in a book reading and signing at One More Page in Arlington, VA on July 16, 2011.
The Experimental Gourmand is the story of a blogger, food writer, and experimental home cook. She enjoys exploring the local food event scene and finding fresh ingredients with which to make great meals at her farmers markets.
