One of the things that I have missed most during the COVID pandemic has been the casual browsing of the shelves in the public libraries of Cambridge and Brownsville, VT.  Now that vaccinations and boosters have reduced the risk (at least somewhat), I’ve been spending lots of time in both places, and this book is the outcome of one of those visits in Cambridge.  The title caught my eye and having removed it from the shelf, I loved the photographs and was intrigued by the blurb about the story.

This sorta-memoir is either written by Analiese Gregory or by Hilary Burden who is credited with the ‘narrative text’ and since it refers to Gregory in the third person, perhaps Burden was the one who wrote it.  As the young folks say, Whatever.  It’s an interesting story about a woman who was born in rural New Zealand and left school early to travel to Europe to become a chef.  She worked in some of the best known Michelin-starred restaurants in London, Paris, and rural France before heading back to Australia to be second in command at Quay, a renowned Sydney dining spot.  One day, stressed to the max, she walked out and bought a rundown 100 year old farmhouse in rural Tasmania. There she developed another much sought after restaurant, Franklin, in Hobart where she remains today, cooking natural ingredients that she’s foraged, hunted (opossum, wallaby) or fished (abalone, sea urchins, crayfish) from her surroundings.

The story is accompanied by beautiful photographs of the spectacular scenery of New Zealand and Tasmania as well as a complement of recipes.  I doubt if I’ll ever prepare opossum sausages, poached rooster, or dry aged carpaccio of Dairy Cow, but there were some that did appeal and looked doable.

Get this book for the photographs and one woman’s story of ambition, stress, courage, and rediscovery of her real loves.