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Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella
Mass Market Paperback
Published January 1, 2008
7 people want to read
About the author
David Shalleck
3 books12 followersI am a chef. I specialize in the western Mediterranean style of cooking. It is a very agreeable way to eat. However, I don’t have a restaurant. But I have worked and cooked in just about every part of the food business.
I have been around the arts and the culinary art for a long time. I have a degree in set and lighting design. My mother is a fine artist, my father was a television director, and my brother designs performance spaces. My “graduate” school-of-life was a five-year and very immersed food-driven work/live sojourn in France and Italy on land and at sea. That experience is featured in my book.
Working in food television was an easy blending of this background. A kitchen in a television or photography studio makes sense to me. You’d be amazed how much goes into cooking food no one will eat! Don’t worry, its taken care of and very little, if any, is wasted. And writing about food whether in prose or a recipe is ironic considering I didn’t do very well in freshman English!
Simplicity with food took a while for me to grasp. Part of the allure is that it’s been around for a very long time. And much of what’s crave-able is a timeless desire. It bodes favorably for well-being and is available to everyone.
For example, take a thick slice of a perfectly ripe red tomato, put a room temperature chunk of real “fior di latte” mozzarella cheese on top, drizzle some supple extra virgin olive oil over, add torn fresh basil, sprinkle some coarse sea salt, and finish with a few turns of freshly ground black pepper. I am sure you’ll agree, just like the perfect bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, this isn’t going out of favor any time soon.
It is very gratifying to choose ingredients-- then slice, dice, sear, sauté, simmer or roast toward the enjoyment of flavor to be shared with others.
The Italians have a famous proverb that says, “at the table, no one gets old.”
This makes me hungry.
I have been around the arts and the culinary art for a long time. I have a degree in set and lighting design. My mother is a fine artist, my father was a television director, and my brother designs performance spaces. My “graduate” school-of-life was a five-year and very immersed food-driven work/live sojourn in France and Italy on land and at sea. That experience is featured in my book.
Working in food television was an easy blending of this background. A kitchen in a television or photography studio makes sense to me. You’d be amazed how much goes into cooking food no one will eat! Don’t worry, its taken care of and very little, if any, is wasted. And writing about food whether in prose or a recipe is ironic considering I didn’t do very well in freshman English!
Simplicity with food took a while for me to grasp. Part of the allure is that it’s been around for a very long time. And much of what’s crave-able is a timeless desire. It bodes favorably for well-being and is available to everyone.
For example, take a thick slice of a perfectly ripe red tomato, put a room temperature chunk of real “fior di latte” mozzarella cheese on top, drizzle some supple extra virgin olive oil over, add torn fresh basil, sprinkle some coarse sea salt, and finish with a few turns of freshly ground black pepper. I am sure you’ll agree, just like the perfect bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, this isn’t going out of favor any time soon.
It is very gratifying to choose ingredients-- then slice, dice, sear, sauté, simmer or roast toward the enjoyment of flavor to be shared with others.
The Italians have a famous proverb that says, “at the table, no one gets old.”
This makes me hungry.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 23, 2025
I love books that combine a culinary memoir with recipes. This is a really enjoyable example of that genre. It would make a great travel or beach read.
After completing a series of demanding internships in restaurants across Provence and Tuscany, the author is offered the opportunity to be the chef aboard an elegant yacht to sail the Mediterranean for five months. The yacht is owned by one of Italy's most wealthy and prominent couples. During their interview of him, they challenge him to "prepare all the meals for them and their guests for the summer, with no repeats, comprised exclusively of local ingredients that reflect the flavors of each port, presented flawlessly to the couple's uncompromising taste — all from the confines of the yacht's galley while at sea." No small challenge that. And he would have to cook for the crew as well. They would eat separately.
Shalleck was at their beck and call for that entire summer, at least for the weekends and days the couple and their guests were aboard. He did get some occasional down time to visit the ports of call. And, of course, he was shopping in local markets for the freshest most representative products with which he would create sumptuous feasts. But there were also the times when, for example, he was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by a racket, and one of the crew came to say, "la Signora wants pasta for everyone. Penne with spicy tomato sauce." For how many, David asked. "Maybe thirty or forty, most friends of the kids." The name of the yacht was "Serenity." Clearly serenity for some and not for others.
This book gives an up close and personal view of how the rich live: Their outsized demands and expectations, the vastness of their wealth, their competitiveness, and sometimes their obliviousness to other people. It's an excellent complement to The Haves and Have Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich by Evan Osnos, or for that matter, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
It's also excellent travel writing and culinary memoir. The author paints a very detailed picture of life aboard a yacht. The final 40 some pages consist of recipes, including for the spicy tomato sauce that Shalleck was asked to make at 2:30 a.m. that one memorable morning. Oh, and the Marinated Chickpea and Arugula salad is very good.
After completing a series of demanding internships in restaurants across Provence and Tuscany, the author is offered the opportunity to be the chef aboard an elegant yacht to sail the Mediterranean for five months. The yacht is owned by one of Italy's most wealthy and prominent couples. During their interview of him, they challenge him to "prepare all the meals for them and their guests for the summer, with no repeats, comprised exclusively of local ingredients that reflect the flavors of each port, presented flawlessly to the couple's uncompromising taste — all from the confines of the yacht's galley while at sea." No small challenge that. And he would have to cook for the crew as well. They would eat separately.
Shalleck was at their beck and call for that entire summer, at least for the weekends and days the couple and their guests were aboard. He did get some occasional down time to visit the ports of call. And, of course, he was shopping in local markets for the freshest most representative products with which he would create sumptuous feasts. But there were also the times when, for example, he was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by a racket, and one of the crew came to say, "la Signora wants pasta for everyone. Penne with spicy tomato sauce." For how many, David asked. "Maybe thirty or forty, most friends of the kids." The name of the yacht was "Serenity." Clearly serenity for some and not for others.
This book gives an up close and personal view of how the rich live: Their outsized demands and expectations, the vastness of their wealth, their competitiveness, and sometimes their obliviousness to other people. It's an excellent complement to The Haves and Have Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich by Evan Osnos, or for that matter, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
It's also excellent travel writing and culinary memoir. The author paints a very detailed picture of life aboard a yacht. The final 40 some pages consist of recipes, including for the spicy tomato sauce that Shalleck was asked to make at 2:30 a.m. that one memorable morning. Oh, and the Marinated Chickpea and Arugula salad is very good.
August 24, 2024
Very well written memoir. Amazing travel adventures. Well worth a read.
If you are interested in more information...
https://www.mediterraneansummer.com/c...
If you are interested in more information...
https://www.mediterraneansummer.com/c...
August 6, 2025
Really painted a picture of the scenery, I felt like I could taste the food, smell the ocean air, and feel his feelings. Such a cozy, summer read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews