Review of Cheesecake by Mark Kurlansky
Mark Kurlansky is known more for his deeply researched nonfiction on single subjects (cod, salt, milk, onions) than his fiction. Cheesecake marries the two genres in a highly entertaining novel incorporating the oldest written recipe for its namesake into a tale about the gentrification of the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
The only surviving book by the ancient Roman author Cato the Elder focused on farming, but it included not one but two cheesecake recipes, one simple and one more complex. It is the latter that figures in the plot of Cheesecake, the novel, as competing groups of striving West Siders develop their own interpretations.
The Katsikas family emigrated from a Greek isle to run a diner called the Katz Brothers (they thought it would be “a better name for the neighborhood.”) The recipe they adapted from Cato became a drawing card for their diner. In the 1970s, Manhattan was a scruffy place to survive but a cheap place to live. The neighborhood was filled with characters from many cultures and income levels, all united in their appreciation of a good dessert. Katz’s Cato’s New York Cheesecake became an object of envy and curiosity. Its progress became a metaphor for the sociological evolution of the area.
For interwoven into the gastronomic odyssey is a less light-hearted topic: the greed of landlords and the subversion of rent protection, causing the evolution of the Upper West Side into the unaffordable enclave it has become. Sadly, this progression has included the disappearance of local delis and bakeries as collateral damage.
So the book becomes a sort of elegy for the lost mores of a late-twentieth century neighborhood and the food culture that was flourishing there. It’s nostalgic, witty, poignant, and furious all at once. And, in an appendix, there’s a history of cheesecake, with recipes. What more could one ask for?
Cheesecake: A Novel by Mark Kurlansky, Bloomsbury Publishing, July, 2025