A Pseudo Book Review - Modern Cafe by Francisco Migoya

To be honest, this isn't really a book review; just notes on a book I find interesting and want to study more carefully. During my breaks at work, I've taken to hustling to the nearest bookstore and flipping through their selection of books on food. The most recent was The Modern Cafe by Francisco Migoya. I spent a brief half hour with it. The book itself as an object is a wonderful thing - it's big and heavy, with beautiful modern design. The premise of the book is that North America has been increasingly adopting the European café culture. From Migoya's description however, it still sounds like café culture is only available to the rich, and his recipes, mostly precious and over done with expensive ingredients, reflects this attitude. What's useful to me in this book are the descriptive blurbs on how to run a café. For example, he discusses the need for café food to be ready quickly, then describes in his recipes how to pre-prep complex meals to make them ready in 5 minutes or less. Migoya's description of the type of service the customers of the cafés he's discussing are expecting is different from what I'm going after - a place where people meet and spend time, talk, discuss, plan, where neighbours and friends can bump into each other, where art is inspired and, linking it all together is good comfort food, perhaps with a twist or two.