Eating Authors: Lisa Mantchev

Here to talk about her most memorable meal with us is Lisa Mantchev. She’s the author of the Théâtre Illuminata trilogy (Eyes Like Stars, Perchance to Dream, and So Silver Bright), a series of YA novel of the theatre and magic guaranteed to delight readers of any age. And believe me when I say, you are going to love her protagonist, Beatrice “Bertie” Shakespeare Smith.

Lisa’s yet another of those authors living in one of those Pacific Northwest States, and so it’s been years since our paths have crossed. And yet, through the magic of email we reconnected and she was only to happy to share the following memory.

LMS: Lisa, I don’t think you and I have actually shared a meal, which makes it even more important to me to find out what you consider to have been your most memorable one.

LM: The best meal I ever had was the morning after my wedding. After months and months of wrangling and planning and obsessing over every last detail, the vows were made, glasses raised, and dinner eaten. We barely tasted the elaborate dessert buffet, because I was too busy distributing wedding cake–apple brandy with cream cheese frosting, made by my mother–and baklava, made by my mother-in-law.

The next morning, everyone went down to the main farm house for breakfast. It was then that we found out that our very lovely caterer had packed up the entire dessert buffet and cheese course for us. The owners of the B&B brought out the brie with sun dried tomato pesto, baguettes, lemon and raspberry tartlets, crème brûlée, and chocolate pots topped with whipped cream. Both families sat in the sun porch, all of us eating and laughing and looking out at the ocean. The event banners we’d rented were still snapping in the breeze as everyone made up for all the food we’d been too busy to eat the night before.

Each year, on our anniversary, I try to recreate that breakfast for my husband. The best part, though, is that he was the one who mastered the fine art of crème brûlée.