Comfort Food

by Kate Jacobs

Now in paperback from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Friday Night Knitting Club... Shortly before turning 50, TV cooking show personality Augusta "Gus" Simpson discovers that the network wants to boost her ratings by teaming her with a beautiful, young new co-host. But Gus isn't going without a fight-whether it's off-set with her two demanding daughters, on-camera with the ambitious new diva herself, or after-hours with Oliver, the new culinary producer who's raising Gus's temperature beyond the comfort zone. Now, in pursuit of higher ratings and culinary delights, Gus might be able to rejuvenate more than just her career.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, Food, Audiobook, Book Club, Cooking

388 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 6, 2008

About the author

Kate Jacobs is the New York Times-bestselling author of Comfort Food, Knit Two, and The Friday Night Knitting Club, which has over 1 million copies in print.

Kate grew up near Vancouver, British Columbia, in the scenic and delightfully named town of Hope (pop. 6,184). It’s an area filled with friends and family and Kate loves to visit. Back then, of course, it was tremendously boring, as only home can be to a teenager. As a result, Kate begged her parents to send her to boarding school in Victoria, BC. From there she traded in her navy blazer to earn a Bachelor’s degree in journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa. Next, in a fit of optimism/courage/naivete – take your pick – she followed it up with a move to bustling New York City (pop. 8,143,197).

The plan? Breaking into magazine publishing. First she received a Master’s degree at NYU and worked at a handful of unpaid internships, then got a spot as an assistant to the Books & Fiction Editor at Redbook magazine. It was here that Kate answered multiple phones, read a ton of slush (getting to know some wonderful writers- to-be), and began to experience the impact of sharing women’s stories. Around this time, Kate settled into an apartment complex that housed about as many people as her entire hometown in Canada: It seemed that she wasn’t just a small-town girl anymore.

Professionally, Kate made it a priority to explore content that resonated with women: She was an editor at Working Woman and Family Life and was later a freelance writer and editor at the website for Lifetime Television. Personally, as a newcomer to New York, she learned the power of building a surrogate family and stitching together friendship connections that will endure. Exploring the richness of women’s relationships is a key focus of her novels.

After a decade of Manhattan living, Kate moved to sunny Southern California with her husband. (And discovered that she likes suburban living just fine, thank you very much.)

She relished the idea of her very own home office but found herself setting up the laptop on the dining table, just as she’d done in New York, and writing late at night in her pajamas.

A firm believer in the creative power of free time, Kate loves to recharge by tackling knitting projects that she can finish quickly (all the better to feel that sense of accomplishment). She’s also a fan of taking naps, especially when she’s on deadline, snuggling under a favorite green-and-yellow afghan knitted by her grandmother decades ago. Her beloved liver-and-white English Springer Spaniel, Baxter, often snoozes alongside.

Reviews

[Lain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zzz... oh, I'm sorry, did you say something? I apologize -- I was put into a deep sleep by this latest book from Kate Jacobs. A great cure for insomnia!

I couldn't make it past 100 pages. Too much telling, not enough showing, and no clue where the book was going or why. If I read one more word about poor little Gus the TV star, who seems like a total unlikeable control freak, I was going to scream. Nothing happened, and I didn't really care if it did or not.

The inconsistencies really got to me, too... she doesn't own a cookbook but somehow has a copy of Julia Child's French Cooking Vol. II in her house, who doesn't wear a seatbelt even though her husband died in a horrific traffic accident... whatever.

This is going on my "will never finish" list.

[Kristin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe I actually finished this book. Halfway through, I realized I was still waiting to like it. I kept plowing ahead, hoping that the next chapter would redeem all of the awfully written and constructed previous chapters.

That never happened.

Characters were dull, the story felt rushed and incomplete, and the food seemed like an after thought. Over all, the whole story was contrived. The ending was saccharine and came together far too neatly to even be remotely believable, entertaining, or satisfying.

I would give this book zero stars if it were possible.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first three hundred pages. The details are on, the story line is engaging, and I am willing to suspend some disbelief.

But, I figured out my trouble with Kate Jacobs. She runs this huge ensemble cast of characters through her novels, and this forces a contrived ending to wrap up all the different characters.

The over all effect is that everyone is a little too good, and that things work out perfectly, just like that. I think this book and Friday Night Knitting would be better if she used one narrator, and focused on no more than 3 main characters, maybe less.

I see how she's been influenced by ensemble TV for sure ;)

[Cortney]

I only made it past the first chapter. It just didn't engage me. At all. Maybe it's something about reading in the third person that I don't like? Maybe it's something about Kate Jacobs drilling into my head the characteristics of Gus Simpson over and over and over and over....
With so many books on my to-read list, why waste time with something I'm not enjoying? It's so very hard for me to give up on a book because it may very well be a fabulous book after you muddle through _____ number of pages/chapters. I'm just not in the mood to muddle. I want something good and I want it now (as I type "I want it now" I have Veruka Salt of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory singing in my head... I want the world, I want the whole world.... I want it NOW!) What brats both of us are!

Edited to add... after writing my thoughts on this book I looked up other reviews and found that I'm not the only one that thought it was painfully boring. So now I don't feel bad for giving up on it.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gus Simpson is turning 50, has two 20-something daughters, and her own cooking show which is experiencing a ratings slump. The story revolves around her need to heal from tragedy, develop better relationships with her children, and define who she is and what she wants out of the rest of her life....with a little romance thrown in the side.

One problem I had with The Friday Night Knitting Club is that there were too many darn characters in the book. It's even worse in this book because the book isn't as long. It just seemed like the characters didn't get developed as well as I would have liked. And the ending? Don't even get me started. I love a happy ending, but this one was so ridiculous it was like nails on a chalkboard.

I read this because I needed a little mind candy. And, it is good for that. I thought the premise was good (better than knitting, for me personally) and there were even a few moments where the author really explored some raw feelings. But, other times the story was just over the top and not very believable.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok. It was the kind of book that if I had been at the airport and didnt have a book and bought it, I wouldn't have been angry that I had to read it. But it was really predictable and had some parts that really annoyed me. I don't know if it was because I read it on kindle but it was confusing how the point of view shifted very abruptly, sometimes I couldn't tell it was even a new paragraph and suddenly the story was from someone else's perspective. It's also a pet peeve of mine when authors tell you the same information more than once, like you're not smart enough to remember that they just told you who a character is. And my last complaint about this book is that I know it's a standard of chick lit but do all male and female characters who work with each other have to fall in love, really? I gave it two stars instead of one because the main character's name is Gus (but she's a woman, gasp!).

[Sue Gerhardt Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy-breezy, fun read.

Not a fan of watching cooking shows but when food is featured in a book you can’t keep me away.

The delicious food, the whacky cooking show and the likeable characters made this a thoroughly enjoyable read.

*Book #26/72 of my coffee table to-read pile challenge

[Lorrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read all of this author's books. This was good just not as good as the others. I do feel like baking a coffee cake in the morning so I did get something out of it. I can't remember the last time I baked...

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Caveat - I 'read' this in the audio version, which may or may not have affected my experience.

So, hitting the library looking for something light to keep my commute to and from work from being an endless litany of radio bad news is a very hit or miss proposition. And I should know by now that I really should avoid anything that smacks of chick lit. But I don't think I've ever read any novel whose author seemed to dislike ALL of her characters so much. I was six disks into the book before any of them did anything that seemed to smack of the slightest inclination of a redeeming characteristic. Gus, the central character, is so consistently condescending to everyone around her and yet she is offered as someone to be admire. Seriously, how is it Kate Jacobs could spend all the time it takes to write a novel creating such unlikeable people?

Throw in cliched writing and exposition that was so jumpy that when I accidentally skipped disk 2 it took me until disk 4 to realize I had missed something and I can say that listening to the litany of political news on the radio would have been a far better choice for me.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not sure where to start with this one. It wasn't until I reached the last chapter of this book that the hope for something worthwhile was finally crushed. What was wrong with it?
-The plot- What plot? This book is a string of contrived coincidences.
-The characters- Of the main seven, three (the underdeveloped ones, at that) were tolerable; the other four were so thouroughly dislikable I couldn't believe it.
-The writing itself- It was tell, and tell, and more tell, and never any show. Long paragraphs devoted to backstory, or something completely unrelated to the story. A an entirely pointless thirty pages devoted to a ridiculous team building retreat.
After annoying, endless descriptions of how Elegant, how Confident, how Perfect Gus is, what Gus is wearing today (surprise-she's overdressed again), I was hit my the realization that now, whenever I need to explain to someone what a Mary Sue character is, I can point them to this book and watch them squirm in agony, gnash their teeth, and scream aloud to the heavens.

If you can't tell, I think this never should have been published, and am thouroughly ashamed that I wasted my time reading it. Don't make my mistake. If you want something light to read, pick up a trashy romance. At least with those, you know what you're in for.

[Helena Rodrigues (Aromas de Cor ~ Livrólicos de Cá e de Lá) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doce, leve e fofo! Um livro ideal para as férias de Verão ou qualquer outra pausa porque se lê depressa e de uma forma muito divertida. Ficamos a conhecer Gus, uma apresentadora de um programa de culinária muito famoso mas em queda. O programa assim como Gus, precisa de uma lufada de ar fresco, de uma renovação... o que Gus não espera é que este ar chegue de forma mais caliente, na pessoa de Cermen Vega, uma cozinheira em ascensão e sua rival.

Gus e Carmen vão constituir uma dupla culinária fogosa, divertida e inesperada! Juntas vão criar um programa de culinária que tem um sucesso retumbante e que servirá também para conhecermos oitras personagens, como as filhas de Gus e respectivos companheiros, a vizinha que tem uma história de vida misteriosa e que a pouco e pouco vamos conseguindo desvendar.

É certo que dei por mim a desejar que Carmen sofresse um acidente na cozinha, mas também aqui tiramos uma lição, Carmen tenta mostrar que nem sempre a aparência é importante mas o conteúdo. Até aqui seria fácil não fosse as pessoas a julgarem e ela ser algo mais uqe uma cara bonita.

Uma leitura simples para uma tarde de chuva, uma tarde de praia ou uma tarde de preguiça no sofá...

[Danny Lynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated all the characters in this novel and that made this impossible to like.

Our main character, a universally likeable TV personality, was overly preachy and tight– like a detestable version of Martha Stewart. Her grown daughters were inexcusably whiny. In fact, our entire cast was shockingly immature, childish and catty (and not in a entertaining Real Housewives way). Even the weirdly omniscient narrator didn't know when to shut-up—not allowing the reader to infer everything for themselves and instead spelling everything out with a gaggable optimistic tone.

We start out with a misfit cast— characters that don't like each other; characters competing for the same spotlight; characters with unpleasant pasts; characters with personal baggage— and by the end of the book they've all come together to be best friends, each in turn, saving the day and having each others backs. Throw four men and four women in a room and watch them all conveniently pair off and fall in love.

So combine irritating characters with a predictable plot... this book is anything but comforting.

[Adelaide Silva · Rating 2 out of 5]

História pouco interessante, que não acrescenta nada de novo e que só acabei porque não deixo livros a meio

[Moira · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book appears to be by, for, and about wealthy, perfect people. If that describes you then maybe you will love it! But I hated it!

Our main protagonist (I guess? Are we supposed to root for her? I was not immediately convinced, at first I thought this was a novel about comeuppance for a smug, oblivious jerk) is innately wonderful at everything she touches, plus she is super lucky, and thus has been rewarded for her wonderfulness with her own tv show(s), so she's very rich, and also she has a great figure (seriously, her lovely slender figure is remarked on time after time)! She has loved and lost, but mainly she has won, by virtue of her perfect perfectness that is so effortlessly perfect.

In the first chapter alone, we are treated to numerous descriptions of her extravagantly dreamy (too big! nineteen rooms! ha ha being rich is so ca-razy) home, and her tax deductably renovated kitchen (really? two descriptions of her granite countertops within three pages? Is that fun for ANYone?) plus PS she also has a fancy car. Neat! Despite her no-sweat no-training comes-naturally gift for cooking and entertaining and also everyone loving her so much, she feels weird about aging. Oh... kay? Perfect skinny rich people, they're just like us!

It's not just this one character that is shoved in the reader's face as wealthy and flawless. One character's introductory paragraph includes the type of sheets she owns, where she bought them, and how much they cost. Why? Who needs to know that? "Ooh I used a Macy's coupon once plus I also sleep in sheets, so we might be best friends in real life!" Another major character is a beauty queen- a literal beauty queen- whose main frustration is that people think she is Miss Europe when really she is MISS SPAIN. Come on, get it right people! So relatable! Glad I am spending my time reading about this person!

The plot is not the worst, and the writing is not the worst. I've heard good things about this author and I'm not prepared to discount her entirely. There are some fun scenes and fun ideas. There are other characters and some of them seem ok, and the end is very tidy.

But ultimately it all feels very... pre-recession. It feels very privileged. Very tone deaf. Like Nancy Meyers missed the chance to turn this into a movie with Patricia Heaton and Katherine Heigl with a cameo from Paula Deen and a Gwyneth Paltrow exec producer credit. In other words I HATED THIS.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What always blows me away about every book by Kate Jacobs isn't the amazing writing, the creative plots, or the unique characters. It's the fact that no matter what she writes about, it makes you want to do it. For example, her series The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Too, was why I wanted to start knitting. And why I did start knitting. You become so enveloped in the story that you too want to learn how to make a great meal with some Spanish accents or a 3 layer cake with amazingly difficult icing. A book is a good book when it makes the reader want to go out and try something new. I have many scarves and the start of a blanket going because of her first series. And I am sure that once we move into our new house I will be cooking up a storm and trying the recipes in the back of the book.
The story was pretty good and the characters well developed. But the read standout is the fact that it makes me want to step away from all of the other things in my life and try something new. That, friends, is a great book. Or at least in my humble opinion.
3.7/5 stars

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

CD/Unabridged: This is my first Kate Jacobs book and it was fun. It's about a woman who just turned 50 and is the perky host of a cable cooking show. Think Paula Dean, only thinner. She is a widow with two daughters when her professional life falls apart. Her show is in jeopardy of getting the boot when a Spanish internet host joins her show: think Penelope Cruz. There is a wide cast of characters including the bald, handsome producer, disgraced ex-tennis player neighbor, daughter's boyfriend still in the picture, and group counselor. I found most of the book enjoyable with the right amount of drama and tension mixed with comedy and lilt. The best part is Oliver stuck in the elevator by himself. The narrator, Barbara Rosenblat, does a great job with the different voices and accents. I had to slow down my listening because I didn't want it to end. I do recommend this and a good summertime read.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing read after her first book, Friday Night Knitting Club, which was so good. I don't want to hurt the author's feelings but I found Comfort Food to have shallow, superficial characters that weren't developed enough. The section with the 60's style "retreat" was just dumb. I will still read her next one coming out, but I sure hope it's better than this one or she's lost a reader.

[cheryna27 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the books which I can share with my mum and talk about it. The mother-daughter relationship is something you can get from this book - especially when your mother is also single! And...the best part of the story is that the romance does not has to end with happily ever after. Your partner doesn't have to be elder or wiser in order for you to love back:)

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

My current trend seems to be self-involved middle-aged women. Still, this story was fine. Nothing amazing or memorable and not the the best written but still a pleasing story about a TV cooking show host, her friends and daughters, and the second life-changing event that alters the course of her future.

[Genine Franklin-Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightweight chick lit.

Is it a problem that I am irritated with characters who are so lacking in insight, but suddenly see all in the end?

And still I read the whole thing!

Sigh.

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!! 4.5 stars. I haven't read any one else's reviews so maybe I missed some big flaws but this had a lot of things I love-- great characters, a foodie element, and an engaging (albeit a little cheesy) plot. There is a lot of happily ever after= coupling up and a lot of potentially unhealthy relationships, but I bought into it. This book is about a woman named Gus who hosts a cooking show on a channel like the Food Network. Her ratings are going down so her show is in danger of being cancelled. In order to prevent that, the network requires her to start a new, live TV show with a hot young Latina woman named Carmen. What follows is the crazy adventure of the new show and how it all ends up. I thought all of the characters were great and it was really just a charming book. It reminded me a lot of Next Food Network Star and so many other shows that we love to watch. Highly recommend!

Update after reading other reviews: I am sticking with my high rating. I agree with others that there are a lot of characters, however I could easily keep them straight in this one and felt like they all had unique personalities. I also agree that the ending where everyone just couples up and is in love is really cheesy and convenient, but I went in expecting something like that so it didn't bother me. I'd still say give this one a read if you're into the Food Network at all and like women's fiction.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
Gus is a widow with 2 grown daughters- Amy and Sabrina. Amy is the typical oldest child and Sabrina is pretty typical baby. They still live together and haven't really branched out into their own lives yet. They still fight and bicker just like sisters. When Gus' ratings are down, she is tasked with doing a live show that includes herself and her cohost Carmen as well as her daughters, her sous chef Oliver, the produce supplier and former lover of Sabrina named Troy, and Anna- her neighbor and infamous former tennis star. They are trying to create a show that teaches the average Joe how to make meals at home in spite of all the little disasters that happen in real kitchens. By involving the family, there are so many hijinks that ensue. People who are uncomfortable in the kitchen make mistakes and its funny to watch. At first Carmen and Gus do not get along at all. The older, well loved Gus is threatened by the new, young thing and vice versa. Throughout the story they grow to be friends and I loved seeing them put aside the cattiness and side together. In the very end, Gus ends up getting her own new live show and Carmen gets her own as well. In the middle, we find out that Gus was taken a fool by her investment manager and he stole all her money, but luckily she's okay anyway. Oliver, her sous chef falls in love with her and they end up leaving the industry for awhile and traveling around then coming back together to make a show. Sabrina is supposed to get married (for the millionth time) and gets to the aisle then freaks out and runs but her fiance sticks with her and says its fine to go back to dating. She's finally found the one because he's willing to wait. Anna, who had previously been trying to hide because she's so ashamed of her scandalous career (she threw matches so her dad could bet on them) but she is outed and makes peace with it. She no longer feels the need to hide and she falls in love with Troy, helping him to get over Sabrina. I thought it was so funny when the whole crew had to go on a bonding retreat. The activities were so silly and I could totally empathize.
Great book! Much better than Friday Night Knitting Club if you ask me!

[Chrystyna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs - Trite and Predictable

I have no idea why I read this. Can't remember where I picked it up or why. All I know is I was only a few chapters through when I considered giving up but, for some reason, I pressed through to the end. I guess is was just easy to read and mindless and I was looking for something easy.

Gus Simpson is a widow with two grown up daughters and a successful tv cookery show. But of course there are issues with the ratings, she's been single a long time and about to turn 50, her daughters don't have happy private lives, her friends and colleagues are equally dissatisfied etc. etc. Throw into the mix a new cookery co-host who is desperate for her big break and as jealous of Gus as she is of the new girl.

All the usual trials and tribulations until everyone lives happily ever after. Why did I waste two days reading time on this predictable nonsense?

[Kayla Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs was a light hearted easy read. I acquired this book in a mystery box from Half Price Books and it was one of the better ones in the box. I definitely wouldn’t of picked this one up on my own, and I wouldn’t have been missing much had I not read this one.

The book is incredibly light hearted, and the story itself is fine. Gus was a serious control freak and I definitely wanted to slap her a few times. And her daughters. And Camren Vega. And Hannah Joy Levine. Honestly the men were the only ones in this story I could stand. They seemed the most normal and weren’t caught up in the drama. Then magically at the end everything somehow ties up in a perfect little bow? Honestly, the last chapter could of been cut and the book would of been just fine. The book was almost sickeningly sweet.

There were also way too many narrators for a book this short. It jumped around and was very much a jumbled mess. I would just get into one story line when it would suddenly jump to another. Gus would of been fine as a solo narrator...maybe with a few chapters from Carmen. Given the synopsis I also expected Gus’ 50th birthday to be a way bigger deal. Instead it was a quick blurb and never mentioned again. I thought the book would be leading up to the big 5-0 and instead it was a nonevent.

This made for a good palate cleanser after some heavier reads. Decent, but not great.

3.25 🌟

[Thea · Rating 2 out of 5]

1 star for the writing.
(Extra star is for the food mentioned in the book.)

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

A lighthearted book involving food, TV, and a bit of drama thrown in. I won't say it's on par with the Friday Night Knitting Club series but I still enjoyed it!

[Ann Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Predictable - sappy - and silly.

[Sofia Granja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Custou-me muito avançar com a leitura deste livro. Não é que seja péssimo, mas já não temho paciência para livros sem grande mistério ou profundidade.

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Carole at From My Carolina Home · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, meh. The story had promise, and it sounded like a fun read with a cooking show host having some problems keeping up with the times. But the Carmen character was flat and annoying, the situations overly contrived, and just a little too much at the end to wrap up too many storylines with neat little bows and everyone getting what they wanted. Not as good as her other books.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro en la linea de Kate, aunque me quedo con el club de los viernes.
Ensucrado como se esperaba.
Me quedo como resumen que no podemos contralarlo todo y no podemos decidir por los otros.