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“A sweet and savory treat.” —People “An impressive feat of narrative jujitsu . . . that keeps readers turning the pages too fast to realize just how ingenious they are.”—The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Pick From the New York Times bestselling author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a novel about a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country’s most coveted dinner reservation. When Lars Thorvald’s wife, Cynthia, falls in love with wine—and a dashing sommelier—he’s left to raise their baby, Eva, on his own. He’s determined to pass on his love of food to his daughter—starting with puréed pork shoulder. As Eva grows, she finds her solace and salvation in the flavors of her native Minnesota. From Scandinavian lutefisk to hydroponic chocolate habaneros, each ingredient represents one part of Eva’s journey as she becomes the star chef behind a legendary and secretive pop-up supper club, culminating in an opulent and emotional feast that’s a testament to her spirit and resilience. Each chapter in J. Ryan Stradal’s startlingly original debut tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother- daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life—its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises. It marks the entry of a brilliant new talent. Read more
Publisher : Penguin Books
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : July 28, 2015
Language : English
File size : 2.7 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Kindle
This book is an absolutely delightful read! The characters are quirky and complex. And I’m going to miss them now that I’m done with the book. I never thought a bar bake-off could make me laugh so hard. One of the delights of the book was a literary technique I’ve never seen before. Generally the “all-knowing” narrator is static throughout the book and doesn’t have his or her own personality. In this book, Stradal changes the narrator in each chapter to take on the personality and often the cluelessness of the primary character in that chapter. So, for example, when Eva’s cousin, Braque, calls her mother a “master choreographer of anxious micromanagement” and says “the menace of her manic perfection made it impossible to relax,” the narrator declares that Braque is nothing like her mother. But we’ve seen Braque’s schedule in the beginning of the chapter. So, we know she’s exactly like her mother, just manifested in different ways. Instead of telling us what the characters are clueless about, we get to know them well enough to know when they are totally in denial since the narrator is speaking from their POV. That is so much more interesting than spelling it out for us. I know some readers didn’t like the ending because it was not a satisfying Hallmark ending, but I loved it! Without giving too much of the plot away, I thought it was perfect that one of the prominent characters did an incredibly selfish act at the beginning of the book, and did a completely selfless act at the end to the same character. It was the perfect bookend to the story. I also loved that Stradal believes in karma, and that the nasty characters generally got what was coming to them. There is one loose end I wished had been tied up. When one of the characters gets stopped for driving drunk at the end of a chapter, I’m still dying to know how it was resolved. In order to sleep at night, I told myself that Eva arranged to have the character stopped so they wouldn’t get away. Do not deny yourself the laughter, tears and delight of this book!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2025 by Janet L. Piraino
Format: Kindle
Fans of reality TV might possibly recognize the name of the author. J. Ryan Stradal is the producer of some of the more popular entries in that genre, shows like "Ice Road Truckers" and "Deadliest Catch," both of which my husband has watched over the years. I'm not a fan of reality TV myself; I prefer my TV shows to be unreal. I am a fan, though, of Stradal's writing. Kitchens of the Great Midwest is his first novel and it is a winner. He shows great originality and a sure touch for the development of characters and a character-driven plot. The structure of this book reminds me very much of another book that I dearly loved, Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. As in Olive, we get to know the main character of Kitchens by seeing her through the eyes of other characters. Plus, the physical descriptions of both Olive and Eva Thorvald, the main character here, are somewhat similar. Both are tall and physically imposing women. We meet Eva first as a baby, just a few months old. Her father is a foodie and she is the apple of his eye (Pun intended!). He looks forward to introducing her to the glorious foods that he loves. Her mother, on the other hand, has come to the realization that she does not want to be a mother and she abandons her daughter and husband, running off to New Zealand with a dashing sommelier. Father and daughter settle into the routine of single parenthood, in this case with assistance from the father's brother and his partner. When the unimaginable happens and the father dies of a heart attack, the uncle and his wife take over as parents. Eva never remembers the birth father who loved her so much. Though she doesn't remember him, she has inherited his love of food, along with a once-in-a-generation palate. She is a food prodigy and as she grows, her gastronomic talents are honed to perfection until, by the time she is in her late twenties, she has gained remarkable renown throughout the Midwest and even farther afield as a chef. Eva's character is developed through eight chapters as we see her first through the eyes of her adoring father and then through a female cousin, a teenage boyfriend, an envious rival, several ancillary characters that she meets during sojourns in the kitchens of various restaurants, and, in the final chapter, through the eyes of that birth mother who abandoned her. In only one chapter do we see things from Eva's point of view, when she is almost eleven and is enduring the taunts of some truly hideous bullies at her school. Throughout the novel, the characters move through several sites in the Midwest, from Minnesota to Iowa to Chicago to Wisconsin and the Dakotas. It's a region that the author seems to know very well and he conveys its zeitgeist perfectly. He also gives us a quirky and often quite amusing perspective on the modern phenomenon of the foodie culture, as well as an insightful view of the role that food plays in the creation of a sense of community and identity. All in all, this is a very sensual reading experience. However, the sensuality of it was not always pleasurable. For me, the word snot is one of the ugliest and most offensive in the English language. I couldn't possibly explain why. It is simply my visceral reaction to the word. Stradal seems to love it. Maybe it has something to do with his experience in reality TV. He lovingly describes snot running down the face of a character, snot collecting on the shirt of a character after it has run down her face and then rubbing onto the shirt of another character when he hugs her. He even describes snot-colored food (lutefisk)! That kind of literary tic - the overuse of a particular word - is the sort of thing that grates on my reading nerve endings and can totally put me off a book. Nevertheless, I persevered and was rewarded with a mostly enjoyable reading experience. Kitchens of the Great Midwest has received much critical acclaim and it is well-deserved. It is a remarkable first novel.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2016 by PlantBirdWoman
Format: Kindle
This is an unusual story, told in an unusual fashion. The book is set in parts of the upper Midwest, from Minnesota, to Iowa, to the Dakotas. The characters and their lives are unfamiliar to me which many times is a plus. But in this story, the point of view and the years jump around. I think those shifts in chronology and point of view made it very hard to connect with the characters. The plot really needs the character connection or it just does not hold together. Our main character is Eva. She was abandoned by her mother, and “orphaned” by her father’s death when she was an infant. Eva was reared by a loving aunt and uncle and very close to her cousins. The reader only sees short scenes before the story jumps to another voice, time and place. (Strange scenes usually with significant drama.) Eva is not always in the forefront of those scenes either. Just as you begin to get attached to a character, they shift off out of view for an extended period. By the time that they come back (no guarantees on that) it was hard to remember who they were. Consequently, things that should perhaps have been woven into a tapestry were frayed around the edges. Eva is a gifted chef. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but I found the Dinner to be absurd. I would say that the premise of the Dinner was totally unbelievable, except we see examples of the Emperor’s New Clothes mentality around us every day. But, based upon my experience, the Dinner would not hold up in the real world of extraordinary epicurean experiences. No Michelin stars for Pat’s Bars or any of the rest. My best advice would be to try to accept it as written and don’t think about it too hard. If you are a fan of resolution, this is probably is not the book for you. The ending is abrupt. All in all, this book left me cold. I preferred this author’s Lager Queen of Minnesota. If I read this book first, I never would have read that one.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2020 by Constant Reader
Format: Hardcover
This linked collection of stories was an absolute joy to read. J Ryan Stradal hasn't just created a little universe for this book, he's created a family of characters, which at times can be a much more difficult task. What's the difference? While making a universe within a book, it's important to have events, locations, and changes of power linked within the in order to create the 'illusion' to the reader. But what the author did here was create a universe of people, a 'family' of people related by blood and not, with an extremely deft hand. What's important is that this is not a book bogged down by exposition, but something you tear through, learning a little more through subtle allusions and callbacks. It makes sense that his background is in screenwriting, because he's incorporated the excellent mechanic of informing the reader of the exposition without SAYING it. Instead, a reader will have full knowledge of an intricate web of connections without feeling like they had to read through a Tolkien-esque lineage of characters. It may seem like an obvious thing to incorporate, but it's an important aspect I've seen ignored again and again in novels. Such a thing is essential when creating a screenplay, in which you only have 30-45 minutes to tell what you need to. The mechanics are at the heart of the stories, but the soul is what really brings this book together. Stradal perfectly captures the complicated personalities of midwestern folk: the blue-collar restaurant workers, the personally oblivious obsessives, the no-nonsense Lutheran housewives. But he doesn't necessarily satirize them or try to paint characterizes. He presents them with a relatable simplicity, highlighting that these people don't just fit in the box we would like them to, and he doesn't blame them for that. He presents them, warts and all, walking us through their logic and hypocrisies, their mistakes and triumphs, their pride and their sadness. The result is a book full of characters that may be very different from your own life experience, but feel intimately connected with as people. Like any good writer, he has found a shortcut to the reader's empathy and simply illuminated the path. In addition to these things, the story is heartwarming, but not unrealistic. Their is a lot of the good old-fashioned midwestern humbleness we'd come to expect from the stereotypes we've been lead to believe. But there is a lot of blood, strife, and sadness along the way, which is just as important to highlight. The thing that he nailed in this book was that that midwestern, god-fearing kindness like to project isn't a result of an easy, saccharine life. It's a by-product of a life filled with loss and bitter weather, where people learn to appreciate life, offering what they can because they know exactly how bad it can get.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2016 by Matt Lewis
Format: Kindle
I thought I’d die laughing at the beginning of this novel with the lutefisk episodes! As a Minnesota native who gagged down a bite of this dish every Christmas until I left for college, these chapters were my favorite. I have to admit that there were some chapters with way too much profanity in the dialogue, but I know the language was necessary to maintain the persona of the characters. I love the way this story ebbs and flows as we watch Eva grow up. The ending was perfect! Thank you!
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Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2023 by Laurel S.
Format: Hardcover
This book is so much fun meeting Eva, her family, her friends plus other characters who drift through her life. The book is divided into eight chapters all concerning different characters, different places. The story begins before her birth. Father, Lars Thorvald, and his younger brother, Jarl, finds they must prepare lutefisk for Scandinavian Lutherans. Lars doesn't like preparing lutefisk, but wants to be a chef, to prepare good food. After he graduates high school he leaves Duluth and heads for the twin cities to apprentice as a chef. He loves his work. He is fussy about what he uses in his cooking. He goes to the farmers market and is particular about who he buys his produce from. The book is set in Minnesota, the twin cities for the most part, with other midwest states, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota. Lars marries Cynthia, a waitress, where he is chef. Eva is born, but Mom feels a career is more important than a family. She feels she would never be a good mother. So she leaves Lars to bring up their only child. Lars hopes Eva will want to follow in his footsteps. He introduces his daughter to different food, different tastes, different spices, this right after she is born. This shocks the pediatrician, she is only an infant, can't eat that kind of food. But it works. Eva will become a famous chef. The family is poor, but aunts, uncles, cousins love Eva and make sure she knows how much they love her. At an early age she begins cooking and can't understand how others like take out such as hamburgers, pizza, frozen foods, instant meals. Even at an early age she has sophisticated tastes. A very tall child at eleven, she is five feet seven. At sixteen she is six feet two. I tried to read this book slowly to make it last, but couldn't do it. I intend to put the recipes strewn through out the book to use. One of my favorite characters is good hearted, great cook, Pat Prager, very religious, very generous. But there are so many quirky, full of fun characters, some I don't like. Eva is well like by those around her. Octavia thinks highly of herself, the best looking lady in any room she is in. Others, for some reason, don't care for her. A friend, Celeste, tells Pat Prager she likes her because she is the most real person she knows. Fun going to the county fair, then the state fair, going to great restaurants for great meals. This book is so full of fun, especially after reading dark literature. Very enjoyable trip through the midwest and its cooking and kitchens. Lakes for good fishing to catch tasty fish. Eva wants only the best to serve her guests. She charges well though. A book filled with fun.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2015 by josephine briggs
Format: Hardcover
l Being from the Midwest, I 0f course loved a book that takes place in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This book is funny, funny, funny. Only a Minnesotan understands: “Theirs was a mixed race marriage –between a Norwegian and a Dane.” It’s a great parody of the “foodie” craze in the USA. The characters are perfect: an incredibly talented chef who rises from humble beginnings and has a heart of gold, a mother who deserts her family to become a wine sommelier, a devout Lutheran who wins first prize at the county fair for her peanut butter bars, a fabulously wealthy party host who made his money selling real estate in the sub prime mortgage market. The list goes on and on. Each chapter is told from a point of view of incredibly flawed characters who reveal their sometimes poignant and sometimes disgusting selves. The book is tied together by each character’s relationship to the talented chef, Eva (even though Eva doesn’t always appear in all chapters). This book is somewhat like Olive Kitteridge (yes, the writing is that good!) Recipes are included. I plan on trying them! The only flaw in my estimation was the ending. The author left too many loose ends and failed to resolve a major conflict as well as some minor ones in the book. Not tight enough at the end but well worth the read. I had to read funny parts out loud to my husband.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2015 by Amazon Customer
Format: Kindle
This book is beautifully written. The author's style is fluid, almost lyrical and he has a light touch. He makes very mundane characters seem complex, because, after all, none of us are so mundane deep in our souls. I started out loving it but in the end, I found it frustrating. The first section starts with Lars Thorvald, a talented chef. He finds a wife, has a daughter and is a very happy man...until his wife decides she's a lousy mother, hates being a mother, and leaves him. He then drops dead of a heart attack. In the next section, Eva is eleven. She's awkward but brilliant and has an incredible sense of taste. She has some painful interactions with boys. The next section focuses on her cousin Braque, a college student. Eva runs away from home to Chicago and we see Braque and Eva (still 11) wandering to various eating establishments, where Eva wins a lot of money eating fiery hot food. After this (spoiler alert!) we rarely see Eva. The book focuses on people around her, but in no case is Eva more than an ancillary character. She is the main character because each vignette details how Eva affects the others, but from this point on we get only glimpses of Eva. It's incredibly frustrating. In later vignettes, we see some of the earlier characters. We surmise what happened (or may have happened) with each of their problems and dilemmas but we rarely get any detail. In the last segment, Eva's mother, having realized that a key part of her life has passed her by, returns and meets Eva. Will there be further contact? We don't know. What did Eva think of the meeting? We don't find out. It's a funny book, with witty insights into the characters, but a very sad book. In a way, Eva carries the touch of destruction. Her own unspoiled genius consistently rubs all the others' faces in their own inadequacies, and the end is a question mark.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2018 by Robert I. Katz