Review: Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen

Title: Bread and Butter
Author: Michelle Wildgen
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Doubleday
Publish Date: February 11, 2014
Source: Netgalley

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a fiction fan.
• You're a foodie.
• You like stories about brothers.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Britt and Leo have spent ten years running Winesap, the best restaurant in their small Pennsylvania town. They cater to their loyal customers; they don't sleep with the staff; and business is good, even if their temperamental pastry chef is bored with making the same chocolate cake night after night. But when their younger brother, Harry, opens his own restaurant—a hip little joint serving an aggressive lamb neck dish—Britt and Leo find their own restaurant thrown off-kilter. Britt becomes fascinated by a customer who arrives night after night, each time with a different dinner companion. Their pastry chef, Hector, quits, only to reappear at Harry's restaurant. And Leo finds himself falling for his executive chef-tempted to break the cardinal rule of restaurant ownership. Filled with hilarious insider detail—the one-upmanship of staff meals before the shift begins, the rivalry between bartender and hostess, the seedy bar where waitstaff and chefs go to drink off their workday—Bread and Butter is both an incisive novel of family and a gleeful romp through the inner workings of restaurant kitchens."

My Two Cents:

"Bread and Butter" is the story of three brothers who grew up in a family where food and cooking was truly an art. Leo and Britt grow up to run a successful restaurant. Their younger brother, Harry, comes back to town and wants to start his own restaurant. Chaos ensues.

For whatever reason, this book really reminded me of some of the foodie reality t.v. shows that you see a lot these days. You as the reader sort of become a fly on the wall watching not only what happens between the brothers (a lot of drama) but what happens in the restaurants. At some points, I did fall out of the story because some of the interactions between the characters seemed to drag on a little bit. Because this feels like a reality show, I sometimes felt that I was merely watching the action rather than being engaged.

I appreciated that the story tackled the relationships of brothers. I feel like I find way more books to read about sisters but not brothers so this was definitely refreshing to me.

I love foodie fiction so I loved reading about all of the foods that the brothers were cooking. Don't read this book when you are hungry or you may be liable to chew on the pages!