The book draws from columns Hesser wrote while at the New York Times, and recounts her relationship with her (now) husband, from their first date through their wedding. The story is presented as a series of vignettes, each of which involves some sort of meal and concludes with recipes related to that meal. The love story is interesting, particularly considering that "Mr. Latte" (so called because he had the audacity to order lattes after dinner) started out with considerably less interest in food than Hesser has. However, the prose also provides a telling look into Hesser's culinary aesthetic. She seems to truly embrace food without pretension, and she praises fresh, largely-unadulturated food in equal measure with the most technically complex dishes.
The recipes accompanying each vignette are the true highlight of the book. Some chapters provide essentially an entire menu for a particular type of party, while others include just one or two featured recipes. Many of the recipes are suitable for dinner parties, so they are not labor-intensive or can be made ahead of time, though there are some recipes that involve marathon cooking sessions. Hesser's culinary expressions seems most pure when she presents recipes that involve careful seasoning to accentuate ripe fruits and vegetables; she seems to abide by the premise that less intervention often produces the best results. I would recommend this book for the recipes, even if the reader has no interest in the accompanying prose.
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