The first few pages of Alyssa Shelasky’s book: Apron Anxiety My Messy Affairs In and Out of the Kitchen is a comedic reading.

“It feels liberating,” she wrote, “to confess that I once thought “kale” was the name of a rock band, that the Laduree luxe macaron was the same as Passover’s canned macaroon, and that a growler involved a kinky bedroom, not a nice, cold beer.”

In Apron Anxiety, Alyssa Shelasky honestly presents her life story of leaving her work at People magazine and high society scenes in vibrant New York City to live with a celebrity chef in vibeless Washington, DC and learning to cook for the sake of love.

Published last year, the book is a life story, a drama, a cookbook, a humor book, a foodie encyclopedia and a love story rolled into one. It is a bit heart-wrenching when Alyssa candidly implies her identity crisis, feeling displaced and discouraged, not knowing how to cook and feeling suffocated by the chef’s foodie friends.

Alyssa does not hesitate to use harsh terms in swearing over disappointments when the chef fails to fulfill his promises in many occasions such as attending a sophisticated gathering in New York. Yet Alyssa is also generous with beautiful words in illustrating intimate moments.

Recipes related to Alyssa’s stories follow each chapter in Apron Anxiety, The Kitchen Reader’s  October book. In chapter 5, Will Cook for Love, for example, two recipes follow: Martha’s Mac “n” Cheese, and Ma’s Salad Dressing.

While most chapters end with two recipes, chapters 8 and 9, stories about Alyssa’s life in California when she tries to stay away from the Chef who thrives in Washington, DC end with three recipes each. Chapter 10, the saddest part of Alyssa’s love story has only one recipe: Easy Pizza after a Tough Time.

Surprisingly the least memorable part of the book, chapter 11: Benito Bagel and Other Exotic Things, has four recipes worth trying: lamb meatballs garnished with pomegranates seeds and resolutions, Nigella’s fusilli with toasted pine nuts and feta, luscious chocolate clusters, and filthy fizz.

As in many food memoirs Alyssa provides a flash back to her family eating habit that defines her tastes of food. Later she recounts how mom, dad and sister Rach are always there for her in times of unhappiness (cooking included).

How exactly did Alyssa Shelasky turn from one who can’t even make tea to an accomplished cook that feeds dedicated gourmands in Los Angeles and later a food writer with enviable track record? Alyssa’s turning point in life is when she questioned herself: What can give us (her and the chef) that togetherness. Mom is also encouraging her to give cooking a try. But in my opinion besides her perseverance in mastering the kitchen it is her writing skills and her network of friends that boost her self-confidence and open doors to lucrative writing assignments.

In an article by Sara Benincasa: The Accidental Foodie: A Q&A With Alyssa Shelasky,  Alyssa reveals: “I would never have written this book if I didn’t have chef’s blessing. We are both with other people now, but he’s still in my life, extremely important to me and I have no interest in causing him any trouble.”

Reading Apron Anxiety from cover to cover shows how life as a celebrity chef is tough and can strain a relationship. Without reading it, however, I would not have believed that its author Alyssa Shelasky who now writes about food for media outlets such as New York Magazine, Bon Appetit and Conde Nast Traveler once thought that escarole (leafy green vegetable) was escargot (snail).

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Text: Amanda Niode

Images: Valery Sidelnykov/Shutterstock, Random House, Omar Niode Foundation