Meet Author Kate Jacobs

It’s a pleasure to “meet” you! My name is Kate Jacobs, and I’m the author of The Friday Night Knitting Club, a novel about a group of women who develop deep and abiding friendships after meeting at a little yarn shop on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It’s a book about the importance of community in our lives and one of the fun things I do in conjunction with my writing is to telephone book clubs who contact me via my website and connect directly with cozy groups of readers. Now, by joining Divine Caroline, I’m so pleased to become part of your wonderful community and have the opportunity to get in touch with all of you. It’s a treat. And I’m especially delighted to be able to share my newest novel, Comfort Food, a story about the power of food to bring people together and the importance of savoring every bite of life. This book focuses on Augusta “Gus” Simpson, the elegant host of a television cooking show who actually feels quite harried as she copes with declining ratings on her program, a much younger colleague angling for her job, two complicated twentysomething daughters, and the arrival of a new and very handsome sous-chef in her kitchen.

Personally, I love to watch food shows on TV—I’m a huge fan of Top Chef—so it was great fun to build this imaginary world and spend time with Gus and her group. I also experimented with new recipes—all in the name of research, of course!—and spent long hours reading cookbooks, which I find soothing. Plus my bedside table is stacked high with kitchen redesign magazines and I spend a lot of time dreaming about how I want to redo my kitchen. (Someday, someday!) But there’s an even more basic element to my love of good food: I have these wonderful memories of going to my grandmother’s house and tucking in to homemade chicken soup, freshly baked buns, fried chicken, and fruit pies with made-from-scratch crusts and peaches and cherries grown in her own yard! When I reflect on those family meals, I recall laughter and a tremendous sense of happiness. The idea of comfort food creates a sense we are slowing down, nurturing ourselves, and enjoying a treat. Now, I’m not a gourmet—just a home cook who opts for easy meals whenever possible. Most of my “cooking” actually goes on in front of a computer, in fact! But I am my grandmother’s granddaughter: I wanted to create my own version of soothing Comfort Food for readers to tuck in and savor. I do hope you’ll take a bite.