"Gabrielle Hamilton has given me a number of things - before Prune, a signal New York City restaurant of my semi-misspent New York City youth, I had never encountered caperberries, maître d'hôtel butter, suckling pig, or the mind-bending concept of a sour-cream omelet - and now, with her new memoir, one more, a character assessment for the ages: "He can charm the rats off a cheesecake.""
"'He' in the formulation is the chef's father, Jim Hamilton, alternatingly charming and abusive. Though he has some tough competition from her mother, a French American dancer for whom 'everything should be found amusing' but whose answer to any filial request is invariably 'no,' it's old dad who emerges as Next of Kin's most vivid character."
"As evoked by Gabrielle - his youngest daughter and one of five siblings - the cheesecake charmer is part P.T. Barnum and part Peter Pan, the co-host of a million meadow-held country dinners and a narcissistic entertainer who chose to attend his own tap-dancing recital over his oldest son's Stanford graduation."
Gabrielle Hamilton encountered caperberries, maître d'hôtel butter, suckling pig, and the concept of a sour-cream omelet. She presents a character assessment of her father, Jim Hamilton, who "can charm the rats off a cheesecake" and is alternatingly charming and abusive. Her mother, a French American dancer, expects everything to be amusing and routinely answers "no" to filial requests. Jim mixes P.T. Barnum showmanship with Peter Pan whimsy, co-hosts meadow-held dinners, and prioritizes performance over family milestones. He is urbane in rural Pennsylvania, nicknaming it "Hobbitsville," and awkward in the city. After a leg amputation he learns to tap-dance on one leg, joking, "My tempo's not great."
Read at Grub Street
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