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Reader Meet Writer: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses (Virtual Event)
May 6, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
“Sobremesa reads like a cross between magical realism and the food section of the New York Times. Delicioso!” —Beth Ostrosky-Stern, New York Times Bestselling Author
If food is the universal language of love, sobremesa is the romance. Gather around the table with C-level career woman turned foodpreneur, Josephine Caminos Oría, as she cooks up a magical tale, told morsel by morsel, of some of her most memorable tableside chats—sobremesaa—that provided the first-generation Argentine-American the courage to leave the safe life she knew and start over from scratch.
In her coming-of-age adventure, Josephine travels to her family’s homeland of Argentina in search of belonging—to family, to country, to a love, and ultimately, to oneself. Steeped in the lure of Latin culture, she pieces together her mom and abuela’s pasts, along with the nourishing dishes—delectably and spiritually—that formed their kitchen arsenal. But Josephine’s travels from las pampas to the prairie aren’t easy or conventional. She grapples with mystical encounters with the spirit world that lead her to discover a part of herself that, like sobremesa, had been lost in translation. Just as she’s ready to give up on love all together, Josephine’s own heart surprises her by surrendering to a forbidden, transcontinental tryst with the Argentine man of her dreams. To stay together, she must make a difficult choice: return to the safe life she knows in the States, or follow her heart and craft a completely different kind of future for herself—one she never saw coming.
This otherworldly, multigenerational story of a daughter’s love and familial culinary legacy serves up, in 13 courses, the timeless traditions that help Josephine navigate transformational love and loss. It’s a reminder that that home really is anywhere the heart is. Sobremesa invites you to linger at the table, reveal your own hidden truths and savor the healing embrace of time-honored food and the wisdom it espouses.
Josephine Caminos Oría is an Argentine-American cookbook author, entrepreneur and mom. It was in her early 40s, with five young children in tow, that Josephine took a chance on herself, leaving a C-level career to make dulce de leche. Today, Josephine, along with her Argentine husband, Gastón, is the founder of La Dorita Cooks, an all-natural line of dulce de leche products and Pittsburgh’s first resource-based kitchen incubator for start-up and early stage food makers (see www.ladorita.net for more information). In addition, Josephine is the author of Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, and Sweet Traditions (Burgess Lea Press, February 2017).