Dogface: Jeff Garigliano

By JULIETTE ROSSANT If you're looking for your summer (or winter beach) escape reading, look no further: Dogface is here! This new book by CondeNast editor and first-time author Jeff Garigliano is packed full of surprises. The hero is a 14-year-old boy who has fumbling wet dreams of Special Forces. His never-married, string-of-boyfriends mother has given up on him -- instead of giving up on her string of boyfriends -- and packed him off to "Camp Ascend!," a hell hole for "mixed up kids" that is really a front for a convicted scam artist. The hero's first love is a ferocious gymnast with a purple streak in her black hair -- whose sole consolation that hellish summer is Food: On the walk to the cafeteria, Liz rehearses her speech. I'm not going to to anything involving meat... I'm a militant vegan... The kitchen is a big industrial setup that could probably feed hundreds. Riap [the Indonesian cook] works out of one corner of it, the only part that's clean -- a single metal countertop and four of the sixteen original burners, plus one walk-in fridge... Coconut comes off the grater like snow, and Liz finds the mindlessness of the work sort of relaxing. Just turn your mind off and do one thing, over and over again... (p. 129) Of course, it is not exactly an ideal place to learn the culinary arts: He gestures to a hallway, and she wanders tentatively down, somehow taking a wrong turn and ending up in a freezer, where she sees an old sack of tater tots the size of a bag of lawn fertilizer. It's open and covered in fuzzy ice that looks years old. Some of the tots have fallen out and now stick to the floor like animal droppings... (p.130) While perhaps not the kitchen of your dreams, yet solace is there. It is with Food that the adolescent hero, Loren, first learns to show love: She watches the white bowl go from person to person, and thinks maybe she made too much... Finally the bowl gets to Loren, and he helps himself to a massive portion, a plateful, more than any eggplant farmer would ever eat. He takes a bite and chews thoughtfully and says, "Mmmmmmm." Liz acts like she doesn't notice, and Loren acts like he's not aiming the compliment straight at her, but still it makes her happy (pp. 167-168) Will the delinquents find deliverance? For those tired of typical bestsellers, Dogface offers a tight story studded with moments of hilarity and poignancy. (Note to self: gotta get that vegan eggplant salad recipe!) Previous articles: James Villas: The Bacon Cookbook Bonny Wolf: Talking with My Mouth Full Gifford & Baer-Sinnott: Oldways Table Modern Indian Cooking: Khanna and Nayak Serves One: Toni Lydecker [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, Jeff Garigliano, Dogface --> back to Super Chef