66 NOVEMBER 2018
REVIEW
WHEN THE NOVELIST TAYARI JONES lived across the
street from a pawnshop, she’d bake for the guys who
worked there because “they act like they’ve never seen
a cake before,” she says, standing in the parlor of her
apartment on the third floor of a Brooklyn brown-
stone. “hey would get cake in their hair,” she recalls,
remembering the satisfaction derived from watching
them. “Baking for men is more pleasurable because
men do not have a hard relationship with food ... they
eat it and they treat you like you’ve invented cake.” A
pair of bracelets sparkles and shifts up and down her
arm as she gathers the spices and citrus for today’s bat-
ter. he baubles are two of many purchased from that
pawnshop; the batter is for food blogger Nik Sharma’s
Upside-Down Orange and Fennel Cornmeal Cake, from
his forthcoming debut cookbook, Season.
Jones will share this cake with her current neigh-
bors—Ms. Jenkins, the septuagenarian owner of theA Cook and a Book Novelist Tayari
Jones cooks through Nik Sharma’s
new cookbook, Season.
By Charlotte Druckmanillustration by FANNY GENTLE