Walking on Walnuts
by Nancy Ring
Category: Biography & Autobiography

After eight years as a struggling artist and waitress, Nancy Ring decided to find a "survival job" that would bring satisfaction as well as survival. Armed with only chutzpah and a love of baking instilled by generations of her family, she answered a newspaper ad seeking an assistant pastry chef. So began a roller-coaster ride of apprenticeships in New York's high-pressured, ego-infested, and sometimes rat-infested, kitchens. In this culinary memoir, Nancy Ring combines funny and poignant stories of love and work with warm remembrances of a family that celebrates food with gusto and cherishes memories with passion. Through it all, Nancy is sustained by her memories of her Jewish family, and the recipes that were handed down to her through generations. Blintzes, mandelbrot, fruit compote, all made in the steamy kitchens of her relatives, come wafting back to her in times of grief and celebration. It's what fortifies her determination to make it on her own terms--as an artist, as a chef, and as a woman. -->