Visiting author pushes 'meals into the realm of ideas'

Ame Gilbert - an artist, author and cook -presents "Cooking Memories" at 4 p.m. Dec. 9 at the Shelton Timberland Library at 710 W. Alder St.

The resident of Brooklyn, New York - who is an artist-in-residence at Hypatia-in-the-Woods in Mason County - will read from the culinary memoir she is writing. She will also take questions from the audience.

Gilbert is an independent food consultant and author. She is co-founder of Communal Table in New York City, where she developed and implemented themed performance events using food. She is also curator at Umani Food and Art Festival.

In a news release, Gilbery said her unnamed culinary memoir started with pondering her mother's recipes following her death, "a grief journal with recipes." The story is evolving into a "coming of age tale," albeit a coming of age in middle age. Throughout, "food plays a key character, speaking not with words but scent, taste, the dance of the cooking, the interaction sharing a meal," she wrote. "Not a love language per se - food roots us in time, place, reveals our circumstance. All the things we long for, the things we feel we have to prove, the hurts, the things withheld - these too get mixed into the batter."

In her artist statement, Gilbert writes, "What I love is pushing meals into the realm of ideas while still keeping them delicious. I like to think of cooking and eating as a form of storytelling, and I love sharing a good tale."

Gilbert studied ceramics, glass and sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and a Master of Liberal Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, with independent study in food and art, and received a culinary certificate from the New York Restaurant School.

IF YOU GO:

WHO: Artist/author/cook Ame Gilbert

WHAT: Reading from her memoir in progress

WHEN: 4 p.m. Dec. 9

WHERE: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder St.

ADMISSION: Free