‘Tis the season for receiving gift certificates. If one of yours this holiday is to Amazon.com or a local bookstore, then I suggest you spend $23.95 of it on the culinary travel memoir Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France’s Cote d’Azure and Italy’s Costa Bella.
I learned of this book after the author, David Shalleck, contacted me through CharterWave to see whether I wanted a review copy. He told me he had written the book about the time he spent as a chef onboard a sailing yacht. To tell you the truth, I get a lot of requests like his–and the books written by current and former yachties usually aren’t that good. I asked him to send his tome along without making any promises.
My first clue that something was different about his project was right there on the book’s cover, which reads “Foreword by Mario Batali,” the celebrity chef who is celebrated worldwide for his Italian cuisine. I also noticed that the author’s byline says “with Erol Munuz,” who is a Massachusetts-based writer. Clearly, Mr. Shalleck was not just another former yachtie penning his memories. This is a guy who worked with some serious professionals to create his book.
And it shows. I found myself carrying Mediterranean Summer all over the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania area this past holiday week, squeezing in time to read chapters in between holiday and family functions. I hated to put the book down, it so drew me in.
Mr. Shalleck writes beautifully about his time as a yacht chef, explaining in detail exactly what goes on behind the scenes during onboard dinner parties and events. The boat he worked aboard was not in charter, but in some cases it functioned as if it were. For anyone interested in what the crew are doing and thinking onboard luxury yachts, Mediterranean Summer will be an excellent read.
Even better for people like me–who like to cook–Mr. Shalleck includes a handful of his favorite recipes from his time in Europe, dishes such as “grilled tuna panini” that you read about him making in the galley and then can attempt yourself. The instructions are clear and far simpler than you might imagine. I personally can’t wait to try a few of these crowd-pleasers in my own kitchen.
If you’re interested in buying Mediterranean Summer, here’s a link to its page on Amazon.com. If you’re browsing in your local bookstore, the cover looks like this:
