Persimmon Frost

I really wasn't sure what to expect from this book. Was it a cookbook? A memoir? A book about Big Sur? A celebrity tell-all? Fortunately it wasn't the latter, but for the most part it was the other three all rolled into a beautifully illustrated volume. Romney Steele is the granddaughter of the people who made Nepenthe, a magical place in Big Sur that is part restaurant, part sanctuary, part artist's colony. The Fassett family, who started the first restaurant there, were Bohemian souls with social consciences, more talent than any single family should possess and a great love of good food. They created Nepenthe, making it up as they went along, and true to the idea of if-you-build-it-they-will-come, people flocked there. Henry Miller lived there for a time. Burton and Taylor were guests during the filming of The Sandpiper. Nepenthe became more than the sum of its parts.

Steele is one of the people who helped make it what it is, opening her own cafe on Nepenthe grounds. She writes lovingly of her family and the friends who helped them make Nepenthe so alluring. It's a fascinating history of a place that exists almost outside the stream of time. And woven through the narrative and the photos, a whole lot of recipes that date all the way back to the early days of Nepenthe, with a short history of each one. None of them are terribly complex, and most reflect a sense that simplicity is the essence of great eating.

If, like me, you read cookbooks like novels, and cherish the personal and the quirky when you find it, I think you will love this book.