Cooking for Gracie

April 18, 2011
Novelist (The Art of Losing) Dixon combines more than 40 healthful (but not always simple) recipes with an account of his first year of fatherhood in this appealing memoir. When baby Gracie is born five weeks early, Dixon and his wife are duly concerned. The author, who works as a technology editor at the New York Times, decides to assuage his worry with his passion for cooking, reasoning that by preparing healthy foods for his breastfeeding wife, he is cooking for Gracie and at the same time caring for himself. As Gracie begins to grow and thrive, Dixon faces the various hurdles of new parenthood: sleep deprivation, leaving Gracie with a sitter, his first solo evening with his newborn, teething, baby acid reflux, and dealing with shifts in time (a week can seem like a minute, but a minute can drag on like a week). Dixon confronts the hurdles humorously and honestly, though perhaps pressing dough, washing basil leaves, and grating pecorino cheese isn't what every dad does between diaper changings. In fact, sometimes the leap from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or a genetic counseling scare to recipes for chickpea minestra with fennel salad, or fish tacos, seems jarring. Foodie dads and moms will love Dixon's voice, and wish he were cooking at their house as they order take-out pizza.

April 1, 2011

New York Times writer Dixon (The Art of Losing, 2007, etc.) chronicles his labors with the different phases of new parenthood and his endeavors to keep his family fed.

With the arrival of a new baby, Gracie, the author realized that he had to modify his cooking habits and routines. "I must adapt, or we'll do without," he writes. "Soon I'll have to learn to cook all over again." Eventually, his defeat turned into tagliatelle with braised veal and gremolata pesto, short ribs with carrot-rosemary puree and chickpea minestra with fennel salad and chive oil. Though many of the recipes sprinkled throughout the text may seem daunting for some readers, the author also provides simpler recipes like salads and less-complicated pastas dishes. Dixon ably pulls readers into the kitchen with him, and conveys all the defeat, doubt, loneliness and trepidation that the author and his wife experienced as new parents. When bread and water seemed like the only option for the sleep-deprived father, Dixon rallied, creating delicious concoctions like ginger scallion rice with fried egg, spaghetti with anchovies, walnuts, mint and bread crumbs and black bean soup with bacon and cumin. The narrative also examines the challenges of preparing food under extreme circumstances, and Dixon proves to be a relentless, dedicated learner and doting father.

An enjoyable journey through parenthood and then back to reality, though somewhat unreasonable in its culinary expectations, particularly for new parents.

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