Eating Between the Lines

Secrets of the Tsil Café

BlueHen Books, 224 pp., $23.95

Both literary and popular fiction abound with stories of families that struggle with the issues of race and religion, but Secrets of the Tsil Café is possibly the first book about a family that is regularly disrupted over the issue of food. Author Thomas Fox Averill introduces readers to the Hinglers, a multigenerational family of varied ethnic backgrounds filled with love but torn by betrayals and secrets. Maria Tito Hingler, raised by Italian-American immigrant parents in St. Louis, now operates the very successful Buen Appetito catering business from the second-story kitchen of her own family home in Kansas City. Robert Hingler, son of Anglo parents who embraced many aspects of the Hispanic culture in New Mexico, is the chef/owner of the Tsil Café on the first floor of their building. Their son, Weston Tito Hingler, is the fulcrum on which the story hinges. Young Wes is constantly caught in the conflict between his parents' two cuisines. Maria Hingler cooks with what her husband dismissively describes as "Old World" ingredients, and her well-respected catering business is known for its creative and eclectic gourmet fare. At the Tsil Café, however, the volatile, unbending Robert prepares food with only ingredients indigenous to the "NewWorld." His highly spiced menu offerings are designed to provoke and challenge the palates of the clientele of his struggling cafe.

Young Wes is born into this contentious culinary situation, and the book is really his coming-of-age story told with recipes from the kitchens of both his parents. Wes learns his letters from avocado to yucca and his colors from the orange of pumpkins and the blue of native corn. His parents feed him pepperoncinis when they read Peter Piper and plums with the story of Jack Horner. Wes starts public school with a very adventurous palate for a kid but finds that the eclectic foods packed in his lunch box and served in his home have a tendency to isolate him from his more mainstream schoolmates. At a very early age, he begins to spend less time with friends and schoolwork and more time around the family building with his mother's business upstairs and his father in the Tsil Café on the street. He watches as battles over Thanksgiving menus, restaurant reviews, and infidelity tear his parents' marriage apart. He observes them as they cook their way toward reconciliation and second chances.

Considering the amount of tension around food in the Hingler home, it seemed a wonder to me Wes was able to eat or cook at all, but he ultimately does find his own form of culinary expression. While most of the recipes included in the book are ostensibly from Maria's catering kitchen or Robert's cafe, a few of the later recipes are credited to Wes as he finds his own cuisine as a young man. Author Averill has done extensive research on the New World ingredients for Robert Hingler's very distinctive menu at the Tsil Café and the recipe sidebars are very informative. Readers will find thought-provoking recipes for Robert's courtship dish of Avocado-Gooseberry Pudding With Raspberry Sauce, the fiery blue potato salad Papas Estilo Diablo with habaneros, cayennes, and jalapeños, and his Sweet Potato Fries With Chipotle Barbecue Sauce. From Maria's kitchen, they can try Buen Appetito Crab Cakes with Pineapple Mango Salsa or her reconciliation dish, Stuffed Prunes. Secrets of the Tsil Café makes for an interesting culinary adventure on paper, but I have to admit that just reading some of Robert's more outlandish recipes and the family's constant battles over food gave me indigestion more than once.