This is a review for Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses. I was sent a copy for a review.
I remember as a child going to visit my dads parents. My grandmother would make dinner and there would be tables set up throughout the kitchen so we could all be together and talk.
If the phone rang we didn’t answer it until everyone had finished eating. Then the women would move into the living room or the men would go outside to chat and smoke.
The kids would stay behind in the kitchen to clean up the dishes. Most of the time my grandmother would stay and help because she said this was the one time she was able to spend time with us.
Getting to know the kids better and what they liked and what they had been up to. My dad would come into the kitchen or a Aunt or Uncle and tell her to go sit down but she wouldn’t.
I miss those times with my family. Even though I try and get David and Charlie to sit with me and turn the TV off so we can visit neither of them wants to.
There to busy and when Charlie has grandchildren I don’t want it to be like that. Which is why I was excited to share Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses with Charlie and David.
I had them watch the Trailer. Since then Charlie has asked me if we can have an Old Fashioned Christmas and invite all of our family over. I can’t wait because Charlie hasn’t ever experienced this and neither have my nieces or nephews.
Charlie and I have been reading Sobremesa and making notes of what we want to prepare for dinner. As well as what we would like to happen at our dinner.
. Charlie has even been asking to study the Country Argentina in our Geography class so he can share tips at our next Family Night with my sister.
Having a copy of Sobremesa has brought Charlie and I closer. I can never thank the Author or the Lord enough for bringing Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses into our lives.
About:
Argentinian Culinary Memoir Explores Deeper Meaning of Table Side Chat
Sobremesa—the Argentinian/Rioplatense regional tradition of post-meal gab and relaxation around the kitchen table—has long been considered a cornerstone of Latin and Hispanic culture.
Around the table is where chatter and laughter, memories of past loves and heroic tales of grandeur are served up as final, Soulful nourishment. There’s an unspoken obligation to remain seated until the last drops of conversation percolate over the table. Remarkably, it has no English language equivalent. Yet.
Releasing today —
Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses (Scribe Publishing Company), author and entrepreneur Josephine Caminos Oría explores how the meaning of the word Sobremesa has connected her to both her family’s past and her present life as a first-generation Argentinian-American.
The passion and lure resulting from year after year of obligatory Sobremesas richly infused Caminos Oría’s Argentine-American upbringing.
Today, these post-meal tableside gatherings serve as an evocative storytelling medium for culture, refuge, connection, self-discovery and remembrance of things past.
In Sobremesa, Caminos Oría travels to Argentina in search of belonging—to family, to country, to a lover, and ultimately, to oneself. Steeped in the lure of Latin culture, she pieces together her mom and Abuela’s pasts, along with the nourishing dishes—delectably and spiritually—that formed their kitchen arsenal.
Here’s the book trailer to check out:
Sobremesa postprandially taps our commonalities: the need to eat, the desire to share, the longing to belong, the craving to embrace a slower way of life.
True to the slow-food lifestyle that Sobremesa espouses, the book’s narrative invites readers to do just that: to stay awhile and reflect on their own personal path, family history and dreams.
Sobremesa touches on topics like:
- Biculturalism—being fully neither, nor fully both and how it ties into the #sintraducción movement that suggests “There will always be a part of you that simply doesn’t translate”
- Sisterhood, motherhood, friendship and what it means to maintain or create a multi-generational connection with the important women in your life
- What Sobremesa means and how it can allow us to connect with others and the encompassing idea that everyone is invited to sit and stay at the table
- Sobremesa as a central theme in today’s growing slow-food movement
- Sharing recipes—the function of food in culture and what it means to pass down generations of family recipes
- How food intertwines with romance, similar to Laura Esquival’s Like Water for Chocolate
- Life’s threads of magical realism that incite wonder and emotion
- Gender bias, political correctness and what Vogue Magazine refers to as “Malbec with a side of machismo”
- Leaving a career later in life as a mom and breadwinner to take a chance on yourself
EARLY PRAISE FOR SOBREMESA:
“Sobremesa takes us inside Josephine’s kitchen where we get the chance to explore her unique culinary journey and her beloved Argentina. Josephine’s story tells us about a side of Argentine cuisine and eating culture that isn’t usually written about: the importance that family, friendship, delicious food, and Vino have at the table.
A delight to read that will warm your corazón.”—Allie Lazar, Argentina-Based Freelance Eater and Writer, Creator of Pick Up the Fork Food Blog
“As a young girl, I enjoyed Josephine. But even more, I have loved meeting Josefina. I found myself transported to extraordinary middle places: Argentina and the United States, the ghostly limbos between life and death, youth and adulthood.
Sobremesa reads like a cross between magical realism and the food section of the New York Times. Delicioso!”—Beth Ostrosky-Stern, Pittsburgh Native and New York Times Bestselling Author
“Josephine didn’t just find a love for Argentina, reconnecting with her family’s past and heirloom recipes. She’s uncovered a sisterhood in Sobremesa, and wants to extend it to those who still don’t know about it or who don’t yet know they just might need it most.
Because it’s there, in the intimacy of our own kitchens that we join forces, connecting in the place that, for so many people and families, is a meeting point, a place where culture lives on and transforms itself.”—Sofía Pescarmona, Entrepreneur and Viticulturist, CEO and Owner, Lagarde Winery and Fogón Restaurant in Mendoza Argentina
About Josephine Caminos Oria
Josephine was born in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Josephine Caminos Oría was raised Stateside from infancy on in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Gathering around a table large enough to sit her family of eight, plus two for her Abuelos on her mom’s side, food and the Sobremesa that accompanied it, was how Josephine learned to make sense of the world.
Stories of where she came from, and the people she’d left behind, were served to Josephine during family Sobremesa she savored like meals. Those tales nourished Josephine’s imagination and sense of self, setting the table for Josephine’s second act–a family and professional life focused around Argentine food and culture.
It was in her early 40s, with five young children in tow, that Josephine took a chance on herself, leaving a C-level career to make dulce de leche. Today, Josephine, along with her Argentine husband, Gastón, is the founder of La Dorita Cooks, an all-natural line of dulce de leche products and Pittsburgh’s first resource-based kitchen incubator for start-up and early stage food makers (see www.ladorita.net for more information).
In addition, Josephine is the author of the cookbook as food-memoir, “Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, and Sweet Traditions” (Burgess Lea Press, February 2017).
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
