I had a very hard time relating to this book. There wasn't anything that reached out and grabbed my interest at the very beginning that compelled me to want to read the rest of the story. There is a lot of what I consider to be fill that I would consider most readers would not be interested in which specifically is about the food and other details about the main character's job behind the scenes.
I really like the characters in the family. To me they're a very strong "jewish" family who use comfort foods as to break the ice to talk about distressing or delicate subject matters of the heart. Those characters could really be developed into more main characters for this book and proceeding books to make the books entertaining as well as character development.
This book was a little bit too derivative for me--it seems to blend chick-lit with the current trend for mixing food with fiction. But I don't know where you found any Jewish characters. The author clearly states Casey is half Irish, half Italian. And her mother's solution to everything is cannoli--Jewish families make chicken soup!
I did find the references to Julia Child interesting. She's always been a favorite of mine.
