Cooking for Me and Sometimes You: Recent Reviews
Cooking for Me and Sometimes You is a gem of a book. Part journal, part cookbook, all passionate love for Paris.
Rhonda May reviews Cooking for Me and Sometimes You in this article in City Food Magazine.
And here's review by local writer, Duncan Holmes, whose writing can be found at his site.
With Cooking for Me and Sometimes You, Barbara-jo McIntosh carried us to her Paris flat, and there, in the shadow of Notre Dame, shared her kitchen, her month of supplies, and yes, even it seems, her bed, as her gentle story folded back the covers of a life being discovered. Food is central to all of BJ's tale—a stainless-steel frying pan constantly sputtering with beurre, and a parade of goodies that she gathers along her Parisian way. But it is a tale too of the heart, where her words and feelings are beautifully squeezed, sometimes with tears, onto the pages of Cooking for Me and Sometimes You. As the rain soaks the City of Light in late February, and it feels like her Vancouver, BJ writes of her friend and perhaps lover: "We both have so much to be grateful for in our individual lives, but when one lives too long without identifying one's pain, it is possible to, indeed, become lost." And she continues: "I am beginning to believe that this time we are sharing together is helping to melt the ice that has frozen over the core of both our hearts." Haven't we all been here before? Or at very least close? This is a cookbook—an icon BJ knows so very well—but it also a personal and revealing journal that Paris has inspired in so many who have bared their souls to the city's siren call. There are unanswered questions in Cooking for Me. Hopefully, this lady will soon take 'pen' in hand and write more. I know that we will be glad to be the Sometimes You, as often as she invites us in.
Duncan Holmes
June 2010
Rhonda May reviews Cooking for Me and Sometimes You in this article in City Food Magazine.
And here's review by local writer, Duncan Holmes, whose writing can be found at his site.
With Cooking for Me and Sometimes You, Barbara-jo McIntosh carried us to her Paris flat, and there, in the shadow of Notre Dame, shared her kitchen, her month of supplies, and yes, even it seems, her bed, as her gentle story folded back the covers of a life being discovered. Food is central to all of BJ's tale—a stainless-steel frying pan constantly sputtering with beurre, and a parade of goodies that she gathers along her Parisian way. But it is a tale too of the heart, where her words and feelings are beautifully squeezed, sometimes with tears, onto the pages of Cooking for Me and Sometimes You. As the rain soaks the City of Light in late February, and it feels like her Vancouver, BJ writes of her friend and perhaps lover: "We both have so much to be grateful for in our individual lives, but when one lives too long without identifying one's pain, it is possible to, indeed, become lost." And she continues: "I am beginning to believe that this time we are sharing together is helping to melt the ice that has frozen over the core of both our hearts." Haven't we all been here before? Or at very least close? This is a cookbook—an icon BJ knows so very well—but it also a personal and revealing journal that Paris has inspired in so many who have bared their souls to the city's siren call. There are unanswered questions in Cooking for Me. Hopefully, this lady will soon take 'pen' in hand and write more. I know that we will be glad to be the Sometimes You, as often as she invites us in.
Duncan Holmes
June 2010