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BEACH READING
By Catherine Krantz

The Cooking School at Z
By Daniel Kennedy

A couple vacations in Zihuatanejo year after year, they fall in love with the place and dream of living here, sounds familiar? You know it does, it’s the fantasy swirling through half the brains that pass through our beautiful beach town. The fantasy that brought every single expatriate here, “I would love to live here, wonder if I could?”

Jeff and Mia Farrell take the plunge, sell their home in California and put all their eggs in one basket, a cooking school in a beautiful house overlooking Playa La Ropa in Zihuatanejo. This is the premise of Daniel Kennedy’s latest work, The Cooking School at Z, a novel of romance and food in Mexico. An engaging tale of one couple’s dogged pursuit of paradise amid all the chaos, frustrations and adaptations necessary to ex-pat life. Add in lots of mouth-watering food and family drama and you have a fabulous beach read. If it wasn’t about our Zihuatanejo, it would be just as entertaining for the swift tumultuous plot line and the humanity of its well drawn characters. They are so real, you could know them…and maybe you do. Half the fun of this romantic comedy-drama is trying to find the reality behind the fiction, what (and who) inspired what.

Long-time Zihuatanejo visitor, Kennedy knows Zihuatanejo and has clearly done his research on the often exacerbating elements of ex-pat life and hits on most major hurdles here. Hopefully, most of us haven’t had to deal with all the calamities that face the cooking school at Z, but most likely we can relate. Perhaps the most realistic element is the main characters’ all consuming desire to somehow make it work here, the belief that life is somehow just better in Zihuatanejo and the thought of having to go home to our “other lives,” too much to bear. There is something about Zihuatanejo that just inspires a great loyal love and that is apparent not only in the characters Kennedy writes but in the author himself. Kennedy with his wife, Diane, visit Zihuatanejo every year and they feel a great affinity for the city and the friends they have met here. David and Rene Ferguson, owners of Zihuatanejo’s Quinta Troppo, were such friends, and when Rene passed away after a long battle with breast cancer, Kennedy decided to dedicate this, his first novel, to her. In her memory, husband David Ferguson created the Fundacion de Rene Ferguson, A.C., a non-profit foundation that provides scholarships for young women in Zihuatanejo who are dedicated and talented but lack the resources to continue their education. “Mexico gives me a lot each year,” says Kennedy, “so it seemed right to donate proceeds of this book to bright young women needing a hand for further education in Mexico.” All proceeds of the book’s sales in Mexico go to Rene’s foundation, basically every 70 books sold equals a $1,000 dollar scholarship or one year of education for a young woman. More information about the book and the Fundacion de Rene Ferguson, A.C. can be found at www.cookingschoolatz.com and copies of the book are available for sale locally at: Quinta Troppo on the road to La Ropa, Cococabaña Boutique at Coconuts Restaurant in central Zihuatanejo, GalArt at the Hotel Villa del Sol and Hotel Las Palmas on Playa Blanca.

An enjoyable novel for anyone whose done something crazy just to be here or dreams of doing just that, The Cooking School at Z, reminds us why we love Zihuatanejo, the beauty of the place and the people here. And more importantly it reminds us that even amid crisis and turmoil, a good sense of humor and a great love can get you through. Because in the end it is a love story, one couple’s love: for one another, the life they have made for themselves, and for Zihuatanejo.

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