Post #2 of the #ReadItAndEat series is inspired by With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. If you're looking for a short and sweet, but inspirational and beautifully written book, look no further! In this young adult novel, the main character is an aspiring chef who gets the chance to take a culinary arts course and put her skills to the test. The book contains three casually written recipes, but also incorporates culinary basics, family recipes, and cuisine inspired by a trip to Spain. For the food portion, I drew inspiration from the culinary class, as well as the Spanish banquet. Be ready to Read It and Eat!
Genre: Young Adult | Pages: 392
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | My Reviews: Goodreads
Synopsis
Since the time she was four years old, Emoni Santiago has had the ability to add a little something magical to everything she cooks. Now, a teen mom, living with her abuela, Emoni is settling into her senior year at Schomburg Charter, a school outside of Philly with college application deadlines looming. There's never been a class she wanted to take more than the new culinary arts course, but she knows she'll be giving up a much-needed study hall period, not to mention she isn't sure how she will swing the course's week long Spain immersion trip, since she's still working at the Burger Joint just trying to make ends meet. What follows is a beautiful look at what family, friendship, drive, and responsibility mean to Emoni, and how to keep her talent burning bright despite the rules set in place for her.
Review
With the Fire on High is a beautiful and vibrant novel about motherhood, sisterhood, where you come from, and what drives you. Emoni Santiago wears many hats: Afro-Puerto Rican high school senior, mother to an adorable baby girl, fierce friend, promising young chef. As you can imagine, Emoni makes many hard decisions over the course of the novel, but she is driven and talented, graceful yet tough, and is a character that I think so many people can look up to, not just young people.
"I've had a lot of things to feel ashamed about and I've learned most of them are other people's problems, not mine."
I always love a book with short chapters, but what stood out to me particularly about With the Fire on High was how some chapters read like short essays or anecdotes. These chapters felt purposeful and meaningful. Re: a chapter about her magical hands when it comes to cooking and her innate ability to tell a story with food; a chapter about her absent father named Julio, who like the name of the month, comes around once a year; the dichotomy of the Philly neighborhood that has left its fingerprints all over her. You can tell Acevedo has the prose of a poet, her voice is truly engrossing and refreshing. I feel like most young adult novels focus too much on small, everyday moments, but With the Fire on High is quite introspective which I loved.
And in between these powerful moments, Acevedo gives you plot points and dialogue that are sweet and to the point and keep the story flowing. You will never spend too much time in one scene, but the amount you learn about and empathize with Emoni is enough to fill your heart.
I've already gushed about the prose, but this book truly felt like a love letter to food and memories.
“I don't know much about pathogens and storing sugar, but damn if I don't know how to cook good food that makes people hungry for more, that makes people remember food is meant to feed more than an empty belly. It's also meant to nourish your heart. And that's one thing you won't ever learn from no textbook."
Emoni knows food can make your whole day sweeter, and while she doesn't have the experiences or memories that food brings the adults in her life, it does nourish the hungriest part of her soul with the places and people she comes from.
Looking for more book recommendations?
More by Elizabeth Acevedo
Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X is a novel is a fifteen-year-old's diary written in verse and short poems, detailing her struggles with her faith, her mother, her body, and all the things in between.
In Clap When You Land Elizabeth Acevedo explores the power of loss and forgiveness, and sisterhood as two half sisters learn of each other after their father dies in a plane crash, all written in verse.
Other books with beautiful prose
In The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, each chapter could be its own book club meeting. Beware of trigger warnings, but it was short and sweet, thought provoking and just a touch mind-bending.
The memoir, Educated by Tara Westover, tells the story of a woman born into a survivalist family, breaking free to attend college, and struggling to self-invent. Her memoir feels like a selection of short stories all of which are truly humbling.
Interested in where people come from and what drives them?
If you haven't read The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett yet, add it to your list! This book explores how two identical sisters lives are shaped the same but different by being Black, but white-passing.
The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers is a true story about a Yemeni-American man who dreams of bringing Yemeni coffee to San Francisco during a civil war. Bonus that it's food related!
Want to learn more?
Connect with Elizabeth Acevedo by visiting her website and following her on Instagram and Twitter. Purchase With the Fire on High here, or wherever you buy books!
Recipe Roundup with a Spanish Twist
Emoni makes some delicious food throughout the book, either basic culinary recipes, Afro-Puerto Rican family recipes, or classic recipes with a Spanish twist. All the recipes have heart and elicit some sort of memory or feeling when eaten.
“Cooking is about respect. Respect for the food, respect for your space, respect for your colleagues and respect for your diners. The chef who ignores one of those is not a chef at all.”
Pudding with a Pop
Recipe Inspiration: Jo Cooks Homemade Chocolate Pudding
Chocolate pudding is the first recipe that Emoni's culinary class is taught to make. The recipe uses staple ingredients and requires the chef to pay careful attention when whisking the ingredients together for several minutes. Glad I know how to make pudding from scratch now in place of the boxed pudding mix from the stores.
And today, for the first time, we are given a real recipe: making chocolate pudding from scratch. We stir cocoa and corn starch and sugar together, then stir in milk. Chef guides us step by step and we all clean our stations as the pudding chills. As I'm putting away my ingredients, a little red bottle in the pantry calls my attention. I snatch it up and sprinkle some on my pudding ... The ancient Aztecs too would pair chocolate with chipotle and cayenne and other spices, although it is not so common now.
Emoni adds some smoked paprika atop her pudding, which gives it a kick. And although her chef and classmates all like the addition, I decided to top our pudding with some fresh berries instead.
Spanish Sweet Potato Chorizo Hash
Recipe Inspiration: NY Times Sweet Potato Confit, The Bitten Word Chorizo and Sweet Potato Hash, Panning the Globe Chili and Brown Sugar Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Chipotle Aioli, and Two Peas & Their Pod Candied Walnuts
The culinary class hosts a winter dinner banquet in order to raise money for their Spain spring break trip. Emoni helps organize and come up with the recipes. One that stands out to many is the sweet potato casserole.
We're in charge of assembling spoonfuls of sweet-potato casserole but with a Spanish twist. That was my idea, a Southern holiday meal meets a twist of southern Spain ... I begin scooping sweet-potato casserole onto ceramic serving spoons while Richard garnishes them with sugared walnuts and Spanish sausage ... Amanda adds parsley and cleans the plate. Chili aioli would make this bomb. A sweet and savory bite.
This dish was delicious! I combined elements of several different recipes to create something similar to what Emoni made, even with her addition of the chili aioli, which did indeed make it "bomb." I baked seasoned sweet potato rounds with a chili and brown sugar coating, topped with Spanish chorizo and onions, candied walnuts, and parsley. The rounds were good, but it didn't look super appetizing. I think it'd be great as more of a bowl with sweet potato chunks that were roasted longer and more crispy.
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