Several months ago I received an advance copy Sobremesa – A Memoir of Food and Love in 13 courses (Affiliate Link) written by Josephine Caminos Oría. I was tasked with reading and reviewing this book that was released this past May. I love my job!
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Please note that I’ve linked to these products purely because I recommend them and they are from companies I trust. There is no extra cost to you when you purchase through my links. Disclaimer: This item was sent to me to review. But the opinions expressed are 100% my own.
Front cover of Sobremesa – A Memoir of Food and Love in 13 courses
Sobremesa – A Memoir of Food and Love in 13 courses
Ñoqui de ricota – Ricotta Gnocchi
My major take away from this beautiful book is that, if food is the universal language of love, sobremesa is the romance. I invite you to gather around the table with C-level career woman turned foodpreneur, Josephine Caminos Oría, as she cooks up a magical tale. She relates her story morsel by morsel about some of her most memorable tableside chats – sobremesas – that provided the first-generation Argentine-American the courage to leave the safe life she knew and start over from scratch.
Coming of age journey
Tortilla Española – Potato and Egg Frittata
Photo Credit: Jonathan Bancek
In search of belonging to family, country, to a lover and ultimately to herself, the author traveled to her family’s homeland of Argentina on a “coming of age adventure”. Steeped in the lure of Latin culture, she has pieced together her mom and abuela’s (grandmother’s) pasts, along with the nourishing dishes, delectably and spiritually, that formed their kitchen arsenal. But Josephine’s travels from las pampas to the prairie are certainly not easy or conventional.
Milanesas – Beef Milanese
Photo Credit: Josephine Caminos Oría
Along her journey she grappled with mystical encounters with the spirit world that lead her to discover a part of herself that, like sobremesa, had been lost in translation. And just as she was ready to give up on love all together, Josephine’s own heart surprised her by surrendering to a forbidden, transcontinental tryst with the Argentine man of her dreams. To stay together, she had to make a difficult choice: return to the safe life she knows in the States, or follow her heart and craft a completely different kind of future for herself. Certainly one she never saw coming.
Berenjenas of Escabeche – Pickled Eggplant
This other worldly, multigenerational story of a daughter’s love and familial culinary legacy serves up, in 13 courses, the timeless traditions that help Josephine navigate transformational love and loss. It’s a reminder that that home really is anywhere the heart is. Sobremesa invites you to linger at the table, reveal your own hidden truths and savor the healing embrace of time honored food and the wisdom it espouses.
Sharing her kitchen
Empanadas al Cuchillo – Knife-cut Beef Hand Held Turnovers
In Sobremesa – A Memoir of Food and Love Josephine shares her kitchen with us. We are given the opportunity to explore her unique culinary journey in Argentina. Her story reveals the importance that family, friendship, delicious food and wine have at the table. This is not something that is usually written about.
About the author
Author Josephine Caminos Oría
The author, Josephine Caminos Oría, was born in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was raised in the United States from infancy on, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gathering around a table large enough to seat her family of eight, plus her two grandmothers 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 related to Josephine during family sobremesas were savored like meals. Those tales nourished her imagination and sense of self. They set the table for her second act, a family and professional life focused around Argentine food and culture.
Josephine, Gastón and their 5 children.
It was in her early 40s, with five young children in tow, that Josephine took a chance on herself. She left 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. In addition, Josephine is the author of the cookbook as food memoir, Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Sories, and Sweet Traditions which was released by Burgess Lea Press in February 2017.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks