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Review of Creating Empty Bottle Moments
October 25, 2008 @ 11:39 AM- Written by Ria Wallace
Creating Empty Bottle Moments
Clive Berkman
http://www.cookingwithclive.com/
Baxter Press, March 2009
Hardcover 256 pp
ISBN: 1888237716ISBN-13: 978-1-888237-71-9
I purchased a copy of Creating Empty Bottle Moments after stumbling upon Clive Berkman's blog Cooking with Clive, reading through the archives, and thinking to myself that this is not only a cookbook, this is a man who has taken the opportunity to share his life with all that will listen. I knew just from some of the reference pages, that this was not only a book worth reading, but one worth sharing. Focusing on family, friends, the kitchen and life lessons, this is a book for all ages. After receiving my copy in the mail, I started reading it and I am glad I did.
Creating Empty Bottle Moments is basically a cookbook guide written for families on how to take life's moments to the kitchen and teach simple moments that will last a life time. By focusing on actual life circumstances from every age, it provides a lot of very specific and useful advice for families on how to make meal time the focus of family togetherness, from the day's happenings to the preparation of the actual meal. It also shows how life has those moments that we can take to the kitchen and cook up a different outcome. I feel that Creating Empty Bottle Moments is quite useful and applicable for all families that would like to make changes within their lives and learn from every moment, it also has wonderful recipes to help guide a new idea for meals. What's inside that makes it an interesting read for all families? Let's take a stroll through the book and find out.
Inside Creating Empty Bottle Moments
Creating Empty Bottle Moments is broken into two distinct parts. Chapter one makes up the first part, entitled Making Great Memories; it focuses primarily on gaining insight from life's moments, coupled with actual recipes allowing you to put them into a recipe of your own and make your own rich, life time meal. The second part, Life's Richest Lessons from the Restaurant Business, makes up the rest of the book and discusses a lot of the issues that arise from the "Sandpaper Moments" of everyday life. While the division is clear, the individual sub-topics all flow together well enough that the division probably isn't necessary - if one part sounds interesting, the other part is well worth reading and serves as a nice complement.
What's a Nice Jewish Boy like You doing in the Kitchen? Most people spend their life flailing. In fact, I would venture to say that not many people are willing to look at every aspect of their life with humility and take that lesson to improve the quality of not only their life, but the lives of their family as well. As a matter of fact, more often than not, we only want to lay blame and not take responsibility, it would be far to easy to give someone else the credit as to why we can not accomplish our life's passion instead of living life with passion.
People come from all walks of life, yet we all get dressed the same way. Secretly, we all wish things were different, whether it is the relationship with our parents, children, co-workers, spouses, or just plain life in general. I feel there are changes we can all incorporate within our life to make these changes and by doing so; we are creating new, hopeful happier memories.
Reading this book, allowed me to look within myself and be proud of the challenges that life has to bring and affirm the gratitude that I have for simple things in life. Reaffirm that the riches in life only come from life moments because it is these moments that no one can buy. For instance, a millionaire can only provide the finances to have an elaborate meal. It takes all the intricate phases of this meal to make it grand. From purchasing the food, how the table is set to the preparation of the food. It is however, the heartfelt experience that makes it phenomenal. That only comes from within us; no one can buy that because it can not be bought. This is the same principle of family, regardless of the financial status of your family, you are the richest person in the world if you can create moments that only your family can have, and by doing so, share those experiences with others so that they can add to their riches.
Clive Berkman clearly captivates his audiences with flavor and a uniqueness all of his own. His experience as a son, Brother, Father, and Chef to name a few of his accomplishments, brought experiences in life that he could have made other choices with. Instead it is obvious he has a passion for cooking and for sharing his humble insight to help make one's life richer. This book is filled with such gratitude that is leaves you thirsty for more and longing to be a part of the pie.
The Recipes:
While not for everyone, there are well over 50 rich recipes surely to please even the pickiest person. The best part of them is the life stories that come along with them.
Life's richest lessons are given names such as "Sandpaper Moment's ", "Lagniappe", "Oops!", "Before It's Time", "Only the Best", and "Don't Lose Your Lunch Money", all share a very unique, humble, life example incorporated with planning a meal.
Buy or Don't Buy?I personally have several cook books, some of which remind me of my childhood years and others because the recipes just sounded good. None of them however incorporate a true life story or lesson to be learned. This cookbook is in my opinion definitely one to add to any family's collection to pass through to the next generation. This would also make a perfect gift and one to be treasured.
In short, buy this book if you are looking for a new way to bring the family back to the table. The stories are tremendously useful and it shows how a cookbook can be rewarding outside of the kitchen. It is not however, a book to buy if you are not ready to make memorable changes within your life.
Currently this is on pre-sale through http://www.cookingwithclive.com/ as well as various book stores within the Houston, Texas area and is scheduled to go public through Barnes & Noble in March 2009.
