---
product_id: 17662607
title: "The School of Essential Ingredients (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel)"
price: "R464"
currency: ZAR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/17662607-the-school-of-essential-ingredients-a-school-of-essential-ingredients
store_origin: ZA
region: South Africa
---

# The School of Essential Ingredients (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel)

**Price:** R464
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- **How much does it cost?** R464 with free shipping
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## Description

The School of Essential Ingredients (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel) [Bauermeister, Erica] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The School of Essential Ingredients (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel)

Review: Abuelita's Star Student - A lovely book, The School of Essential Ingredients was written about Lillian's students in her Monday night cooking class. Like her students, Lillian has a story of her own, a sad one, that led her to the opening of her upscale restaurant and the weekly cooking classes. Erica Bauermeister does such a great job of describing the current scenes and the back stories of the eight students that the reader feels like a part of the group...or maybe like a fly on the wall who can see and hear and taste everything with clarity. Being a teacher may be one reason I enjoyed the book so much. Every term there's a new cast of characters, each with a history and reason for being there. In some ways, students are always the same, and in other ways they're very different from each other. Lillian's students were old and young, married and single, sad and glad. Through the preparation and consumption of food, memories are evoked, friendships are born, and lives are changed. The reader gets to see snapshots of the students' former lives, and the author's sketches of their individual pasts are so well written that I could see Chloe's disrespectful boyfriend becoming angry at her attempts at cooking, feel the tension in the room when Helen told Carl of her affair, and sense Ian's pleasure in preparing the tiramisu for Antonia. In our book club, we chose favorite characters. This was hard, for we liked them all. My choice was Isabelle, probably because of her comments about her adult daughters not understanding her decisions. Then there was the line about getting a crick in her neck from looking up at her sweet boy as he sat on her roof and talked about his new love interest. I liked Claire, the young mother, and could well empathize with the demands of a growing family on one's time and psyche. And lest I forget, I liked little Chloe and felt like saying, "You go, Girl!" when she found the strength to leave the lout she was living with. The truth is that all of the characters were interesting people whose past had fed into their present and made them who they were. In the end, everything is resolved, and all is well for the moment. Isn't that just like life itself? Everyone is interesting, everyone has a story, and things are the way they are for the moment. Who knows what's next on the horizon?
Review: Hard to believe it is a debut novel - This was a book that I purchased eons ago and just never got around to reading. It had been highly recommended and I was in need of a book that would capture my attention and allow me to escape a very hectic time in my life. This was the book I selected and it was great! While a novel, it is almost a collection of short stories about a successful chef/restauranteur and the participants in a cooking class she conducts. Each individual comes to the lessons for different reasons and at different points in their lives. Ms. Bauemeister does an excellent job of fleshing out a large number of characters which was quite a feat for a newer author. They are all multi-dimensional and interesting. The chef's own backstory is part of the book and may have been one of the more interesting storylines. Descriptive, lush writing that never seemed overdone. Interesting characters and an interesting setting. Light enough to be entertaining but with enough complexity to remain with the reader after the book is finished. Bottom line: I enjoyed it quite and bit and plan on reading the book after this, "The Lost Art of Mixing".

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #122,590 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1,552 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction #2,863 in Contemporary Women Fiction #3,849 in Literary Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,152) |
| Dimensions  | 5.51 x 0.71 x 8.19 inches |
| Edition  | Reprint |
| ISBN-10  | 0425232093 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0425232095 |
| Item Weight  | 8.2 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Part of series  | School of Essential Ingredients |
| Print length  | 261 pages |
| Publication date  | January 5, 2010 |
| Publisher  | Berkley |

## Images

![The School of Essential Ingredients (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91edDdPR3TL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Abuelita's Star Student
*by J***S on August 28, 2010*

A lovely book, The School of Essential Ingredients was written about Lillian's students in her Monday night cooking class. Like her students, Lillian has a story of her own, a sad one, that led her to the opening of her upscale restaurant and the weekly cooking classes. Erica Bauermeister does such a great job of describing the current scenes and the back stories of the eight students that the reader feels like a part of the group...or maybe like a fly on the wall who can see and hear and taste everything with clarity. Being a teacher may be one reason I enjoyed the book so much. Every term there's a new cast of characters, each with a history and reason for being there. In some ways, students are always the same, and in other ways they're very different from each other. Lillian's students were old and young, married and single, sad and glad. Through the preparation and consumption of food, memories are evoked, friendships are born, and lives are changed. The reader gets to see snapshots of the students' former lives, and the author's sketches of their individual pasts are so well written that I could see Chloe's disrespectful boyfriend becoming angry at her attempts at cooking, feel the tension in the room when Helen told Carl of her affair, and sense Ian's pleasure in preparing the tiramisu for Antonia. In our book club, we chose favorite characters. This was hard, for we liked them all. My choice was Isabelle, probably because of her comments about her adult daughters not understanding her decisions. Then there was the line about getting a crick in her neck from looking up at her sweet boy as he sat on her roof and talked about his new love interest. I liked Claire, the young mother, and could well empathize with the demands of a growing family on one's time and psyche. And lest I forget, I liked little Chloe and felt like saying, "You go, Girl!" when she found the strength to leave the lout she was living with. The truth is that all of the characters were interesting people whose past had fed into their present and made them who they were. In the end, everything is resolved, and all is well for the moment. Isn't that just like life itself? Everyone is interesting, everyone has a story, and things are the way they are for the moment. Who knows what's next on the horizon?

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hard to believe it is a debut novel
*by H***Y on August 20, 2017*

This was a book that I purchased eons ago and just never got around to reading. It had been highly recommended and I was in need of a book that would capture my attention and allow me to escape a very hectic time in my life. This was the book I selected and it was great! While a novel, it is almost a collection of short stories about a successful chef/restauranteur and the participants in a cooking class she conducts. Each individual comes to the lessons for different reasons and at different points in their lives. Ms. Bauemeister does an excellent job of fleshing out a large number of characters which was quite a feat for a newer author. They are all multi-dimensional and interesting. The chef's own backstory is part of the book and may have been one of the more interesting storylines. Descriptive, lush writing that never seemed overdone. Interesting characters and an interesting setting. Light enough to be entertaining but with enough complexity to remain with the reader after the book is finished. Bottom line: I enjoyed it quite and bit and plan on reading the book after this, "The Lost Art of Mixing".

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Entertaining and Enlightening
*by L***N on May 4, 2015*

The School of Essential Ingredients is a novel, but it's really a collection of short stories focusing on each of the students of the cooking class, and their teacher. I loved it. The author is a skillful writer, and she must be a very good chef, because her knowledge of and love for food and the entire preparation/serving process is remarkable. Very rich. She does add a pinch too much simile, plus repetitive use of people running fingers over this surface or that, but I'll forgive her because her descriptions are just wonderful. I think that may be her strongest suit. Here are examples: "...Margaret's mother raised the cup of milk away from the pot, and Lillian looked at the sauce, an untouched snowfield, its smell the feeling of quiet at the end of an illness, when the world is starting to feel gentle and welcoming again...", and "The beef bourguignon was bubbling in the oven, the smells of meat and red wine, onions and bay leaf and thyme murmuring like travelers on a late-night train." There is a theme running through this novel, that of women offering themselves up for family - a noble and rewarding pursuit, but one which leaves them feeling a bit hollowed out (remember the Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein?) But another theme, that of slowing down and treasuring, savoring, indulging in, the simple things, works to help heal these people. In fact, after I finished the book, I found that the act of closing up my home for the night seemed a richer experience. I walked through the rooms thinking, "This is my beloved home. I love this room. I love these windows." etc. The characters are well-developed and relatable, and there is a gratifying warmth between them as they struggle with the normal difficulties of life. There are several places in the book where one character reminds/asks/encourages another to answer the question, "what did you do today that made you happy?" Wouldn't we be better off for asking ourselves this question?

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*Product available on Desertcart South Africa*
*Store origin: ZA*
*Last updated: 2026-03-09*