Peter Gethers' mother - 93 year old Judy Gethers - always understood the importance - and interconnectedness - of food and family. Her father owned the legendary Jewish kosher dairy restaurant Ratner’s on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She discovered a passion for gourmet cooking when she was in her 50s, taking her first job, in the kitchen of the ground-breaking Los Angeles restaurant Ma Maison, when she was 53. She became a mentor and friend to some of the most famous chefs in America, including Wolfgang Puck, Nancy Silverton, and Jonathan Waxman, and eventually ran the Ma Cuisine cooking school, teaching alongside Julia Child among many others. Learning to cook changed her life—and the lives of those around her—and she created her own legendary status in the food world. As her health eventually began to fail, her taste remained, as did her sense of humor and her determination to live life on her own terms.

In her 80s, she was robbed of her ability to cook by a debilitating stroke. But her love of food remained, helping her to recover and bringing her closer than ever to her son. At least twice a week, Peter visits her so he can make her dinner, ask questions about her colorful past, and learn her kitchen secrets. Peter decides to learn how to cook his mother the meal of her dreams and thereby tell the story of her life to all those who have loved her.

MY MOTHER’S KITCHEN is generously seasoned with Peter’s trademark wit and knowing eye. The book includes a selection of recipes ranging from Ratner’s Matzo Brei, to Tarte Tatin, and from a loaf of challah to salmon coulibiac, as well as family photos. Peter Gethers has written an unforgettable memoir about how food and family can do much more than feed us—they can nourish our souls.

About the author: Peter Gethers is an author, screenwriter, playwright, book editor, and film and television producer. His previous eleven books include The Cat Who Went to Paris, the first in a bestselling trilogy about his extraordinary cat, Norton. He is also the co-creator and co-producer of the hit off-Broadway play Old Jews Telling Jokes. He lives in New York City, Sag Harbor, New York and, when possible, Gangivecchio, Sicily.