The Art of Eating in by Cathy Erway

Name: Caitlin

Grade: 12+

Book: The Art of Eating In: How I learned to stop spending and love the stove

Author: Cathy Erway

I love food. This is a fact very known to my friends and family as well as most people I talk to for more than fifteen minutes. Having said this, a book that has recipes for delicious sounding meals as well as a witty author is right up my alley. When I picked up this book, however, I wasn't expecting to like it. I thought it would be some boring, non-fiction book about someone who liked to eat at their own house; I didn't have high expectations. I was pleasantly surprised when I read the first chapter and couldn't put it down.

This book follows Cathy Erway, author of the popular foodie blog Not Eating Out in New York http://noteatingoutinny.com she makes the life changing decision to stop eating out, fast food, sit-down restaurants and frozen foods alike. This is a drastic decision for someone who lives in New York, the eating out capital of the world. Throughout her 2 year fast, Erway discovers that eating in saves a lot more than just her cash; eating out is also more environmentally friendly, has a great community and is also very rewarding. The book follows these discoveries as well as her mishaps and successes in cooking. She has plenty of humorous stories including one about a failed dinner club, S.O.S., where she tried to play matchmaker for 3 different couples and cook a five-star meal all in one night. Though the author writes as if these experiences were a disaster at the time, she looks back at them with humor and wit in the pages of her book.


All in all, this book was a surprising quick read and also had wonderful recipes and stories; not to mention, I actually learned a few things and now have inspiration to cook more at home than take my hard-earned cash to a restaurant for one measly meal. It was definitely worth reading and I'm glad I started it on a whim in the first place.

Why I picked up this book: I was a fan of Cathy's blog for a long time and when I saw her book, I thought "Why not?"

Why I finished it: It was surprisingly entertaining and hard to put down.

I'd give this book to: Foodies, or generally people who like food or cooking.

My Rating for this book: *****