Sunday, January 22, 2017

Mountain Chef

Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service. Annette Bay Pimentel. 2016. Charlesbridge. 40 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Tie Sing was a frontier baby, born high in the mountains in Virginia City, Nevada. Growing up, he breathed crisp Sierra air and scuffed through sagebrush. He learned to write in both English and Chinese.

Premise/plot: A picture book biography of Tie Sing. Who was Tie Sing? The chef hired by Stephen Mather, a millionaire with a big plan for America, a plan to create a National Park system and preserve some of America's greatest treasures. The book quotes Mather saying, "Give a man a poor breakfast after he has had a bad night's sleep, and he will not care how fine your scenery is." Mather was leading thirty men on a ten-day camping trip. And he wanted--no needed--Tie Sing as his trail cook; he had a reputation for being the BEST.

The book is about the ten-day camping trip--this was in 1915.

My thoughts: This one was so beautifully written. The narration is great.
With sky for his ceiling and sequoias for his walls, he stirred silky sauces, broiled succulent steaks, and tossed crisp salads. In his sheet-metal oven, he baked sourdough rolls as light as the clouds drifting above the peaks. (5)
This one is easy to recommend.

© 2017 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

No comments: