Comfort Food | 
| Author: Kate Jacobs
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $11.73
You Save: $13.22 (53%)
New (46) Used (18) Collectible (1) from $10.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 4193
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0399154655
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780399154652
ASIN: 0399154655
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this smart, delicious novel by the bestselling author of The Friday Night Knitting Club, a celebrity chef shows her friends and family the joy of fulfillment and manages to spice up her own life at the same time.
Shortly before turning the big 5-0, boisterous party planner and Cooking with Gusto! personality Augusta Gus Simpson finds herself planning a birthday party shed rather nother own. Shes getting tired of being the hostess, the mother hen, the woman who has to plan her own birthday party. What she needs is time on her own with enough distance to give her loved ones the ingredients to put together successful lives without her.
Assisted by a handsome up-and-coming chef, Oliver, Gus invites a select group to take an on-air cooking class. But instead of just preaching to the foodie masses, she will teach regular people how to make rich, sensuous mealsreal people making real food. Gus decides to bring a vibrant cast of friends and family on the program: Sabrina, her fickle daughter; Troy, Sabrinas ex-husband; Anna, Guss timid neighbor; and Carmen, Guss pompous and beautiful competitor at the Cooking Channel. And when she begins to have more than collegial feelings for her sous-chef, Gus realizes that she might be able to rejuvenate not just her professional life, but her personal life as well. . . .
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 I enjoyed it July 24, 2008
I haven't read Kate Jacobs' first novel (but now I will). The subject matter all appealed to me: food, reality TV, mothers and daughters, set in New York.
If you are interested in any of those topics, and enjoy an easy read without much profanity or sex, you'll find this book to be the perfect Comfort Food.
 Very average! July 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Kate Jacob's "Comfort Food" revolved around Gus, a popular TV show host for the Cooking Channel. Despite that Gus's program was the longest running series on the channel, the number of viewers had gone down, and Gus' bosses begin to wonder if Gus is too old for the program. Gus, was afterall in her fifties. In order to spice up her series, Gus was paired with a former beauty pageant from Spain who will join her in her cooking show. Her working life was obviously not going well, and even her personal life was problematic. Gus' two adult daughters were complete opposite of one another. Aimee, an Economist, was serious, studious, and felt she was neglected due to the neediness of her younger sister, Sabrina. Sabrina had commitment problems and despite many engagements, she's still unmarried, and unable to commit to one person. To make her life worse, the producers decided to put her entire family, and a few others (including Sabrina's ex-boyfriend, Gus's friend who is a recluse).
This was an okay read for me. The pace of the book was a little slow for me, The book was fairly well-written, but unfortunately not very engaging and rather predictable too. It wasn't one of those books where you can't put down. If you are a huge fan of Kate Jacob, this may be for you. But if you are looking for a more interesting read, there are definitely better ones out there. Very average!
 A delicious examination of relationships, aging, and the power of food June 30, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Kate Jacobs's debut novel, THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, was a word-of-mouth bestseller, catching on not only among avid knitters but also among fans of women's literature in general. It's now even set to become a feature film starring Julia Roberts, which will release sometime in 2009.
With her second novel, COMFORT FOOD, Jacobs again delves into the lives and loves of a group of interconnected friends and family. This time, however, the ending is decidedly less weepy and more, well, comforting.
Augusta (Gus) Simpson is a familiar face to millions of Americans. She's the star of the longest-running series on the Cooking Channel, "Cooking with Gusto," and her face adorns not only countless television sets but also her own line of cookware and other household products. But as Gus's fabulous lifestyle (her TV show is filmed out of the spacious kitchen in her Westchester manor home) marches on, so does time --- and Gus is staring 50 squarely in the face. Is it possible that this energetic, hot mama has left her youth behind her?
It seems that Gus's bosses at the Cooking Channel are asking themselves the same questions. With a roster of new, hip television chefs and a handful of new extreme theme programs designed to appeal to ever-younger viewers, perhaps Gus's show seems a little, well, old. Can Gus and her friends at the network figure out a new format that will preserve it from cancellation?
For Gus, the answer to her problems is right under her nose --- at her kitchen table, in fact. When an unexpected cancellation leaves Gus scrambling for show guests, she recruits her friends and family to serve as co-hosts and sous chefs, with humorous, and delicious, results. This accidental pairing of Gus's closest friends and family --- including her twenty-something daughters Sabrina and Aimee, Sabrina's ex-boyfriend Troy, and Gus's painfully reclusive neighbor Hannah --- with aspiring Cooking Channel host (and former Miss Spain) Carmen Vega leads to a new hit show...and plenty of tension. As the guests come together at Gus's table, tempers flare, tensions mount, and there's plenty of time for everyone to discover not only delicious food but also new truths about themselves.
At times, COMFORT FOOD can seem like a glimpse into a particularly fractious group therapy session, as sisters bicker with each other (and their mother), as former lovers try to become friends, as jealous co-workers negotiate professional boundaries, and as at least one woman tries to overcome her past mistakes. Jacobs successfully balances these somewhat tiresome exchanges, however, by offering numerous flashbacks into each character's past, providing much-needed character development that can help gain readers' sympathy for these sometimes prickly individuals.
Gus herself is a winning character, and readers will be cheering for this mature, lively heroine to achieve both professional and personal success --- which may even include love, an ingredient that's been missing from Gus's life since her husband's death years before. Happy endings and a mid-life shot at romance will leave readers of COMFORT FOOD satisfied but looking forward to another helping of feel-good women's fiction from Kate Jacobs.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
A Fun Read June 20, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read mostly history, detective and SF/F stories, but I have to say that I enjoyed this book. The pacing was well done, and I had a hard time putting it down. I just wish that the ending did not come so quickly. A great second effort!
LOVED IT! May 20, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am now a true follower of Kate Jacobs! I have just finished Comfort Food and I really believe this one is better than the first! And the Friday Night Knitting Club is #1 on the NYTimes Best Sellers list! I do enjoy cooking and am a cooking show fanatic, so it was only natural that I would love this book. MUST READ!
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