Part memoir, part social analysis, and part cookery book, the book works both in reading it from beginning to end, and by dipping into the individual vignettes which make up the tale. She also points out a number of truisms, such as the very different ways men and women cook, the problems encountered when cooking in someone else's kitchen, and how women really do seem to take on the characteristics of their mothers, but in such a way as to be a celebration of all these facts.

Birth, life and death are all covered in this heart-warming account, written in a style that makes you think that you are in a kitchen being chatted to whilst someone is at work. It leaves you with a warm feeling, almost as though you have just finished eating your favourite home-cooked meal.