Charlotte Au Chocolat: Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood

Charlotte Silver grew up in her mother's restaurant. Located in Harvard Square, Upstairs at the Pudding was a confection of pink linen tablecloths and twinkling chandeliers, a decadent backdrop to a childhood. Over dinners of foie gras and Dover sole, always served with a Shirley Temple and often candied violets for dessert, Charlotte kept company with a rotating cast of eccentric staff members. And after dinner, in her frilly party dress, she might catch a nap under the bar until closing. Her one constant was her glamorous, indomitable mother--nicknamed "Patton in Pumps" by one line cook--a wasp-waisted woman forever clad in stilettos and cocktail dresses who shouldered the burden of raising a family and running a kitchen after her husband left.

Despite its glamour, Charlotte's unconventional upbringing takes a toll, and as she grows up she wishes her increasingly busy mother were more of a presence in her life. But when the restaurant--forever teetering on the brink of financial collapse--looks as if it may finally be closing, Charlotte comes to realize the sacrifice her mother has made to keep her family and the restaurant afloat, and to understand the world her mother has built.

Infectious, charming, whimsical, and at times wistful, "Charlotte au Chocolat" is an appreciation of the magic of a beautiful presentation and the virtues of good manners, as well as a loving tribute to the author's mother, a woman who always shows her best face to the world.