Charlotte silver memories of a restaurant girlhood

And at some point I gave up hoping something would happen and just kept reading so I could finish the book. Considering that Charlotte seems to have spent most of her childhood in the restaurant, she should have been able to create a vivid image of t For most of this book, I was waiting for something to happen or for one of the characters to become alive for me or for the restaurant that Charlotte spends so much time in to suddenly become a place I can visualize Considering that Charlotte seems to have spent most of her childhood in the restaurant, she should have been able to create a vivid image of the place in my mind.

But all I got from her descriptions is that it had lots of pink tablecloths and looked dingy when the lights were on. That wasn't enough for me to have any sort of emotional attachment to this place. Same with the characters - they were all two-dimensional. Her mother was the most rounded out, and even she was still very much a mystery to me at the end of the book.

Maybe this is because her mother was a mystery to Charlotte. Maybe Charlotte's memories are all a bit fuzzy. Or maybe she has mixed feelings about her memories and doesn't know quite how to relate them to others. Hard to say. But the only thing she seemed to remember clearly and happily were the party dresses she wore.

The most loving, vivid descriptions in the book were of her dresses. Overall, not a bad book. Just not a particularly compelling memoir. I feel as though this could have been a wonderful book, and it just missed the mark somewhere. Apr 24, Wendy rated it it was ok.

The premise of how the author saw the restaurant world change during her childhood is solid, once I realized that was what the premise was. Before that, I was just puzzled. But I don't think it was enough to make a book, and I suspect they even made this book smaller than most books in order to make it look longer, along with stretching and repetition.

A lot of reminiscences about hanging around a restaurant I've never heard of didn't make for riveting reading; the author seemed to assume a ce The premise of how the author saw the restaurant world change during her childhood is solid, once I realized that was what the premise was. A lot of reminiscences about hanging around a restaurant I've never heard of didn't make for riveting reading; the author seemed to assume a certain amount of knowledge, like that we would understand something about what her life was like because of the kind of restaurant it was.

Which brings up a funny point--the author is a couple of years younger than me, but this book felt like it was written for--and maybe BY--my parents' generation. The author has an odd, old-fashioned, nostalgic style. That does corroborate her claim about being different from her peers, but it made me roll my eyes. Jan 10, Brian rated it it was ok.

This book was a big let down for me. This memoir is a about a girl who grew up with parents who worked in a high end restaurant.

Her mother loves making desserts and has to deal with the heartbreak of dessert. My HUGE glaring issue with this book was that almost nothing happened, and her life was just not that interesting.

It wasn't badly written, but I was looking for the hook, which never came. Mar 23, Adriana rated it really liked it. The setting—or stage set—of my childhood was the velvety pink-and-green dining room of my mother's restaurant, Upstairs at the Pudding, located above the Hasty Pudding Club in a red-brick Victorian building at 10 Holyoke Street in Harvard Square. My life was not a child's life of jungle gyms and Velcro sneakers, but of soft lighting, stiff petticoats, rolling pins smothered in flour, and candied violets in wax paper.

It was a life of manners, of air kisses, of "How do you dos," and a life for which I needed six party dresses a year, three every spring and three every winter. In a little girl's eyes growing up in a restaurant like Upstairs at the Pudding was simply a wonderful dream that you didn't want to wake up from. Who wouldn't want to grow up at Upstairs at the Pudding when you are able to eat dessert whenever you want, stay up late with the grownups, be coddled by the staff, and best of all you get to wear the prettiest preferably pink dresses.

But not everything's right in Charlotte's world. As she grows up things start to change. Her parents' divorce, the staff who were once her friends start to leave, and even her namesake, Charlotte au Chocolat, is disappearing from the menu. Everything is changing and only after the fact does she realize what the restaurant, her mother, and her childhood really meant to her life.

I really enjoyed reading about Charlotte's childhood. It wasn't just her childhood At first it was all glitz and glam but like you know from the quote above on the very first page Charlotte told you how it was. I actually forgot about how the restaurant would inevitably close down because I had immersed myself so much in the here and now of the story.

And what a story it was. Charlotte described her childhood in a way where it was like she was someone else. All wise but not out of touch with what was going on with her life.

It's like she was reflecting on her life while she was telling her story. Her "voice" was one of the most recognizable things that I remember about this book. In Charlotte's world people could be put into two groups. You are either a front room person which means you are like the glitz and the glamour of the restaurant or you are a kitchen person which means you are the backbone and rough, raw passion of the restaurant.

We are all labeled as something or put into categories by someone else one way or another. I see people in different ways just like other people do and like Charlotte does which she got from her mother. It was interesting to read about her view on different people. I could never quite get who front people were. I understand kitchen people. They are easy to understand. They are the strugglers, the hard workers.

I liked her description of her view on different types of people because well I liked how she described everything! I love the way she wrote and this is a perfect example of how she writes. In that wise, and awareness type of tone. I feel like she's in her head a lot and is an observer of the world which I've always felt I am like. It was the same way you might filter someone through a filter of color - thinking of some people in blues, other people in reds - but instead of color, the sensation I latched on to was flavor.

My mother's flavors were always those of the desserts she made - suave caramels and milk chocolates and the delicate, utterly feminine accents of crystallized violets or buttery almonds.

But my father's flavors - my father's flavors were something else altogether. They were subtle and elusive and melted on the tongue only to vanish before you could place them. Dark, adult flavors, and slightly bitter: veal carpaccio, silvery artichokes. And, most of all, mushrooms: chanterelles, chicken of the woods, and - my father's favorite mushroom of all - trumpets of death. I see obvious differences but I also see obvious similarities.

It's like when you see a couple together for a long time. They just fit together. Charlotte's parents did not. Her mother was this very stylish woman who was very She was just tough about emotions.

She's the type of person who probably expresses her love not by words, hugs, or kisses, but by food and advice. I never really liked her but I couldn't say I full out hated her or anything like that. I think it was the resolution in the end. This scene she and Charlotte had together. Charlotte felt resolved after it but I really didn't like what her mother had to say. Her tough attitude wasn't needed then.

Her father is a rough type of person. I don't really think he's the loud type of person which I first envisioned in my head for him.

He's more reserved and secretive which you and Charlotte come to know. After the divorce you figure out who he really is. He photographed brooms and other weird still life. I was as confused by him as Charlotte was. He's completely different than what you expect. Around the time you are discovering what he really is like you get to know the downsides of owning a restaurant. There's this sad undertone to the book but it's not like you feel overly sad or anything.

It's just there. I'm guessing I didn't feel it as much because again how Charlotte wrote her story. It was a closed off view of her life which means you didn't feel overly emotional about those parts in her life. I did feel connected to the story though and couldn't help relaxing into and discovering what's going to happen next. The whole story reminded me of the 's.

You've got what seems like a great life that you wish you had because this book seriously makes you hungry whenever you just look at the cover and you want to stuff a whole cake into your mouth Anyways there is this credit building up and you act like it's not there but for Charlotte she didn't even know.

She didn't know there was a price to her life. It's not like her mother was intentionally wasting money she just wanted the best for her restaurant and life and just like any restaurant it can close down. It's like how when you realize the concept of money and then you fully realize what it takes to feed a family and live in a home. It's her growing up and realizing these things like we all do. It captured those moments in our life where we grow up and your view of everything is different from what you felt the world was like as a child.

This book reminded me of all those things but mainly it reminded me of why I love memoirs. I want to read more memoirs again because of this book more importantly more food memoirs. Overall: Fantastic writing, great story and characters. Loved that I could get a sample of the restaurant world through this book especially when I think of all that food.

The transition of childhood to adult and figuring out how the real world is was wonderful because we can all relate to those changes. Only thing is that scene with her mother in the end. I didn't feel like her story should have been resolved with that scene like I felt it was made out to be. May 20, christa rated it it was ok. She was served bottomless glasses of Shirley Temples, doctored to her Maraschino cherry and citrus garnish specifications.

She sometimes napped beneath the bar. She ate dinners of pheasant and roquefort flan at table A She developed friendships with the steady stream of employees who breezed through the restaurant. At first both her parents work together at the eatery: Dad as head chef; Mom on pastries.

Once a Kim Novak look alike, over-sized sunglasses always in place, a short busty woman proud of her tiny waist and belief that tiger stripe prints are a neutral. Charlotte asked her. Young Charlotte, meanwhile, comes to every meal wrapped in one of her fancy party dresses. She practices manners on the wait staff, always addressing them by name and thanking the back of the house after every meal. She comes of age in this space, growing too big to sleep beneath the bar, sometimes sharing a shift with an eccentric Italian-ophile working at the coat check, eventually playing touchie-feely with those temporary summer employees on college break -- a crew she refers to as her cabana boys.

Unfortunately, most of the time the story has that artificial polish of a dining room with a great dimmer switch. Her memories shimmer and Silver gives only passing mention of the suddenly absent father and mother who is up to her elbows in her signature red pepper soup.

There is a curious amount of focus on what she is wearing -- from the party dresses, to the time when she was at school and puberty busted two buttons from her dress leaving her chest bared, to a sudden interest in vintage clothing and how she was one of the rare people who could fit into a classic s dress.

Silver is in college when she learns that her mother has lost the lease on the restaurant and that it will close in the summer. In real life she struggles to find the right way to say goodbye to the space she once used as a permanent address during a period of frequent moves to different apartments. In the book, she struggles to write about what it has all meant without getting the page sticky with word frosting.

View 2 comments. Nov 07, Jill Elizabeth rated it really liked it. I love memoirs. Like the best kind of conversation, actually — like when you meet someone you click with and sit for hours learning all about them. A lot of memoirs are pretty dark — or at least contain a hefty dose of dark elements. Sadness, disappointment, addiction, and cruelty are all too common to the genre, it seems, because they are most unfortunately all too common in life.

When that happens, the conversation can be oppressive or disturbing. But a lot of them are just fun and interesting and offer insight into vastly different lifestyles. Those are my favorite memoirs — and my favorite conversations. CaC is a perfect example. The book tells the story of Charlotte Silver, born and raised by restaurateur parents together and, ultimately, separately at Upstairs at the Pudding, the restaurant above the Hasty Pudding Club in Harvard Square.

Well, technically both parents turned out to be restaurateurs, although her mother found herself fulfilling that role rather unexpectedly. From her earliest days, she dressed for dinner, dined on wild European boar, and was served the dessert she was named for — Charlotte au Chocolat a confection of chocolate, ladyfingers, and liqueur that sounds to die for.

Her days and nights were split between the Front of the House i. From a young age, she learned that never the twain shall meet — except in the person of her oh-so-glamorous mother, the chef and manager of the establishment. A most elegant childhood, indeed. Also, sadly, often a fairly lonely one. The restaurant busy is not an easy one. Tales of financial woes, legal battles over the building lease, and many long nights spent sitting at a table for one abound.

Still, Charlotte and her mother managed to hold on to the restaurant — and their relationship — with a rather indomitable spirit and sense of self that I believe made for a thoroughly enjoyable read. The book jacket self-describes young Charlotte as living the life of Eloise at The Plaza. There are parallels, to be sure, but there are also healthy smatterings of the less glamorous side of living the high-life — or at least of providing the high-life for others.

If you have any interest in the restaurant business — or unusual childhood stories — give this one a go! May 24, Verena rated it really liked it. I have visited Harvard Square occasionally for almost 20 years, but I had never heard of the restaurant called Upstairs at the Pudding.

It was where the I have visited Harvard Square occasionally for almost 20 years, but I had never heard of the restaurant called Upstairs at the Pudding. It was where the author spent most of her young life, and she was nurtured as much by the quirky staff as by her parents who were busy trying to keep the business solvent.

Early on, the author developed a taste for sophisticated food by ordering her own dinners off the menu. After dinner she crawled under the bar and slept until she was taken home at closing time. The author has affectionate memories of her unusual life and the colorful characters on the staff who came and went through the years.

This was a quick and delightful reading experience with descriptions of delectable desserts that made my mouth water.

Nov 13, Janis rated it it was ok Shelves: book-club. I was torn between 2 and 3 stars. I'm familiar with the area and the reputation of the Hasty Pudding Club and Harvard kids, so that drew me in. However, pretty much nothing happened and Charlotte's story line and nostalgia just get stale. It is very hard to keep a restaurant going and boo on the real estate company for doing in the restaurant, but neither the restaurant nor Charlotte nor her parents ever became "real" enough for me to care about.

May 27, Elise rated it liked it. I enjoyed the writing in this book, and of course the setting of the old stomping grounds is fun. But to me the memoir felt oddly detached. Very little emotion is expressed, even while describing a sad-sounding and lonely childhood.

Jun 20, Megan rated it really liked it. I am totally biased because my friend wrote it, but this is a swift and sumptuous read. It is not as sunny as the cover suggests, but there is a melancholic sweetness that resonates throughout the memoir.

Sep 15, Julie rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fic. Not as sweet as you might think, growing up "in" a restaurant. These memories have a sadness yet they are delicious and feel true. I related to the idea of restaurant crew as family as I have experienced that myself. The descriptions of the food will have you drooling for a five star meal. Mar 25, Rain rated it liked it.

Pleasant enough, but probably would have been more interesting if I had actually been to the restaurant that is the focus of the book, because it sounds like it was pretty awesome. Mar 30, Sherry rated it did not like it Shelves: did-not-finish. I said that I read it - but I did not because it was unreadable. Apr 08, Tara rated it did not like it Shelves: memoir. I wanted to like it - but I couldn't - -very surface, no depth. Liked the references to Cambridge etc Jun 17, Tish Vanoni rated it liked it.

I enjoyed reading this memoir. It was an interesting commentary on growing up in the 80's and 90's in the restaurant business. What was constant, inspiring and sometimes cold was her mother, who insisted on always wearing heels, never crying in public, and keeping the Pudding running at any cost. Chapters take as their theme special butcher shop visits with her father, annual Christmas parties, and Sunday a cappella sets that delighted customers and drove waitstaff and line cooks crazy.

Children of restaurant owners and chefs might have been untapped resources for food memoirs up to now. But clearly they are no less equipped to understand the unique struggles, quirks and triumphs of the restaurant business, and they have just as many stories, if not more, since Charlotte traversed the two worlds of the restaurant kitchen and floor.

It is nostalgia at its best, full of detailed description and nuanced observations of the different types of people that make up a successful or not restaurant: cooks, waiters, bartenders, regulars, tourists and entertainers.

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