Seattle author, Erica Bauermeister’s first novel The School of Essential Ingredients (Putnam $24.95) is pure delight. It tells the story of eight students who gather each week for a cooking lesson from Lillian, a world-class chef who needs no lists and no recipes. For her, smells are “what printed words are for others, something alive that grew and changed.” She tells her students they will learn what they need to. With each lesson, friendships form, memories are evoked, and the characters learn as much about life as they do food. The writing is as sensual and satisfying as a good, slow meal. As Lillian says, the most essential ingredient of all is time -”the weeks it takes to ripen a tomato, the years to grow a fig tree. And every meal you cook is time out of your day – but you all know that”. Read this book on a Sunday afternoon, then create a pot of soup! ~Carol Santoro