Brie Larson plays Elizabeth Zott, the protagonist of 'Chemistry Lessons', by Bonnie Garmus, in the Apple TV+ miniseries that adapts the novel under the title 'Cooking with Chemistry'.
Apple TV+
Chemistry Lessons,
by Bonnie Garmus (Editorial Salamandra) is a gastronomic novel where gastronomy is barely talked about.
But the plot would not make sense if it did not take place in a kitchen converted into a laboratory;
in a recipe book that seeks perfection through scientific knowledge, not even without a protagonist who is not a cook, but a chemist.
Here there are no nostalgic evocations of a family, nor aromas that take the characters to emotional moments in their lives.
No. Here cooking is treated in chemical terms and this makes it different.
“The objective of these vents (referring to a filled puff pastry) is that the water molecule has the necessary space to transform into steam and find an exit route.
Without those ducts, her puff pastry would be like Vesuvius,” says the protagonist at one point during her cooking show on television.
The novel flows harmoniously at times making us smile, with that humor of brilliant and cultured characters, who do not correspond to the world of the living;
to others, engulfing us in rage over gender inequality;
and, to many, in the wonder of what the culinary world is about.
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In the first chapters, the author places us in the character: Elizabeth Zott, one of the few chemists of the time, rejected by her colleagues, expelled from the world of research for being a mother, passionate about cooking and a woman with ideas. very clear.
This character's life takes a turn due to a random event: a simple theft of the lunch box that she prepared for her daughter to take to school.
From there, in a short time, she became the most popular presenter on television with her program
Cena at six
.
Without any rules other than those dictated by her research in the kitchen (“cooking is pure chemistry”), without hesitation when talking about the liberation of women in the home, with no other purpose than to try to convey her fight for equality and his passion for gastronomy.
Cover of 'Chemistry Lessons', by Bonnie Garmus (Editorial Salamandra).
“I know from experience that there are too many people in the world who do not appreciate the work or sacrifice that comes with being a wife, a mother, a woman.
(…) At the end of these thirty minutes that we will spend together, we will have managed to do something worthwhile.
We will have created something that will not go unnoticed.
We will have prepared dinner,” says the protagonist, in one of her television programs.
The characters are believable from the first moment.
Even down to the talking dog,
Six Thirty
(named for the exact time Elizabeth rescued him from the street).
Topics such as motherhood, marriage, friendship, the search for roots... all are introduced into the test tube with a good dose of humor, thus creating the magic potion of an absolutely delicious book.
“Chemistry is inseparable from life;
Chemistry, by its very definition, is life.
But, like this cake, life requires a solid foundation.
In your home, that solid foundation is you.”
The author, Bonnie Garmus, at 60 years old, with more than 90 noes and her respective doors closed, achieves the first yes and with it, an overwhelming success (to date, the novel has been translated into 39 languages).
This fills this novel with even more value, because it is the demonstration that it is never too late to start a professional career, that there is no age to achieve a dream, that there are no limits when you believe in what you are doing.
Portrait of Bonnie Garmus, author of 'Chemistry Lessons', provided by Salamandra publishing house.Serena Bolton
Part of the success of this novel is that the rights to it were quickly acquired by Apple TV+ and, in 2023, the miniseries starring Brie Larson (
The Room
,
Captain Marvels
…) and Lewis Pullman (
Top Gun Maverick
or
The battle of the
sexes
The film respects the narrative structure of the book, removes a good dose of feminism (which is constant and necessary in the novel) and correctly underlines the plot of the search for identities that is so important in the development of the story.
As an addition, and trying to make a transmedia start, the platform offers an extra where you can see the two protagonists in a real television program preparing, precisely, the lasagna.
A recommendation: don't watch it, it takes away a lot of brilliance, especially from Lewis Pullman, who I think has never played a plate in his life.
In short, a go-to book for those people who like to understand cooking processes.
Sara Cucala is a writer,
filmmaker
and journalist specialized in gastronomy.
The creator of one of the first gastronomy and travel blogs, she has written numerous books, coordinated the culinary content of TVE's afternoon magazine and directed several films and documentaries.
She is founder and co-owner of the food bookstore and cooking school A Punto.
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