Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin [Hardcover]

Starred Review. Kenny Shopsin hates publicity the way a magnet must hate metal filings. With a documentary, a New Yorker profile and several New York Times articles clinging to him, this supposedly reluctant restaurateur now adds to his own troubles by releasing a totally hilarious and surprisingly touching treatise on cooking, customer loyalty and family bonds. As his brood grew to include five kids, his Manhattan eatery shrunk in size, yet maintained its idiosyncratic 900-item menu (reproduced here in a 12-page spread). Recipes for more than 100 of the offerings are presented, including Mac n Cheese Pancakes and Blisters on My Sisters (sunny-side-up eggs placed atop tortillas and a rice and bean concoction). But the real treat is Shopsin's salty philosophizing. Sure, pancakes are tasty, but he reminds us that, They are flour and milk drowned in butter and some form of sugar. They're crap. And the customer is always wrong until they show me they are worth cultivating as customers. Two such well-cultivated customers were the writer Calvin Trillin and his wife, Alice. They pop up throughout the book, providing not only happy reminiscences, but a roux of poignancy as both Shopsin and Trillin become widowers, bonded together over the love of a decent meal, quickly rendered. (Sept.)
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“[This book is] gorgeous and breathtakingly detailed . . . Kenny Shopsin is an unreformed hippie who has run a small restaurant in New York City since the 1970s. He cooks with childlike glee (his book contains his brilliant macaroni-and-cheese pancake recipe), and he is famous for turning out guests he finds unworthy of his scrambled eggs. . . . Mr. Shopsin is a man equally obsessed and appetite-ridden, though what pulls the reader through Eat Me is a kind of horrified, hilarious amazement. Is it true that he will flat-out refuse to serve any customer a cheese steak without onions, or a Cobb salad without bacon? Did he really just compare pressing a burger down on the griddle to masturbation? (He knows he shouldn’t do it, because it dries out the beef, but he can’t help it sometimes; then he feels bad afterward.). Reading about Shopsin’s is actually more fun than eating at Shopsin’s; the book provides access to the food without the yelling and the edge of fear.”
–Julia Moskin, New York Times


“[Kenny Shopsin] is outsize in every way, and his food is gloriously excessive. The book not only contains about 100 recipes, it’s a history of the store and a philosophy of life.
–John Hodgman, New York Post


“[At Shopsin’s] I was transported by some of the most satisfying food I’ve ever been privileged to eat. Now, the notoriously publicity-shy Kenny Shopsin has written a book (with Carolynn Carreño) about the philosophy and history of the restaurant, called Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin, and it, too, is an utterly satisfying, utterly peculiar experience. . . . Shopsin’s memoir is like the man: loud, opinionated, warm, exuberant and absolutely delightful. . . . this book is just purely magic. It’s a manifesto for cranky, lovable, excessive individualism. It’s a call-to-arms to woo the muse of the odd and thumb your nose at convention. And it’s got some damned tasty recipes.”
–Cory Doctorow, boingboing.net


“Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin blends recipes with his uncensored thoughts on cooking.”
–Christine Muhlke, New York Times Magazine


“[Shopsin says], ‘People are afraid of being mediocre, of being ordinary.’ Happily, his sensible, ornery book is neither. . . .one of the [year’s] best. Grade: A.”
–Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly


“ . . . brilliant, hilarious and infuriating . . . The book, like the store, is an elegy to a dying New York. . . . Oh yes: There are recipes too. A lot of them, all straightforward and without pretense. . . . wonderfully written . . . Eat Me is probably the safest way to understand and appreciate Kenny Shopsin.”
–Jesse Wegman, New York Observer


“[Kenny’s] no fuss approach to cooking makes his recipes perfect for the home chef–so if he ever refuses to let you in [to his restaurant], at least you can still eat his food!”
–Moderntonic.com


“A riotously funny and magnificently idiosyncratic cookbook.”
–Mark Knoblauch, Booklist


“Kenny Shopsin creates a book of enduring wisdom . . . This could go down as the Book of Five Rings of short-order cookery.”
–New York magazine blog, “Grub Street”


“I have known Kenny Shopsin for 25 years, and he is profane, unreasonable, more than occasionally rude, charming, funny, and totally ridiculous–sometimes all simultaneously. He's also a really good cook who can make me laugh, even while insulting me. So based on all the above, I was thrilled when we received an advance copy of Kenny's cookbook-memoir-philosophical tome, Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin. I knew it would be like Kenny, endlessly fascinating, sometimes infuriating, and totally engaging.”
–Ed Levine, Seriouseats.com


“I never thought I'd say this but Kenny Shopsin is the New York version of me! I love the way he cooks, I love the way he thinks, and I love the way he writes about food, family and life. This is as entertaining as a book can be. And I hope the next time I'm in his neck of the woods, he doesn't throw me out of his restaurant 'cause I am definitely going there!”
–Paula Deen


“Kenny Shopsin hates publicity the way a magnet must hate metal filings. . . . this supposedly reluctant restaurateur now adds to his own troubles by releasing a totally hilarious and surprisingly touching treatise on cooking, customer loyalty and family bonds. . . . the real treat is Shopsin’s salty philosophizing. . . . writer Calvin Trillin and his wife, Alice, pop up throughout the book, providing not only happy reminiscences, but a roux of poignancy as both Shopsin and Trillin become widowers, bonded together over the love of a decent meal, quickly rendered.”
Publishers Weekly (starred)