44 pages • 1 hour read
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
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Chapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Sweet Pepper Jelly”
Eva’s cousin, college student Braque Dragelski, details her morning routine, emphasizing her disciplined and healthy lifestyle. She vehemently rejects any fatty or unhealthy foods, viewing them solely as a means to sustain her energy levels rather than for their taste. However, her routine is disrupted when she suddenly feels unwell and vomits. During a visit to a Whole Foods store, she hallucinates seeing the words “pepper jelly” written on a vegan protein shake. A friend suggests that she might be pregnant, prompting Braque to take a pregnancy test, which is positive. As she comes to terms with her pregnancy, her mom calls, revealing that Braque’s cousin Eva has gone missing.
Overwhelmed, Braque reflects on her future as an athlete and Olympian, now seemingly impossible with a pregnancy. She ponders the potential fathers, considering Luc Richard, the tennis player, or Yuniesky Cespedes. Her friends discuss a spicy-themed night that poses a risk to pregnant women, but Braque says that she wants a professional abortion. Returning home, she finds Eva sleeping on her bed, as she has run away from home. Braque hallucinates the words “pepper jelly” on a boulder.
Braque reveals that her family avoids discussing Eva’s birth mother or her previous family. Her mother is unemployed and has an addiction to alcohol, and Braque fears ending up that way. Since Braque needs funds for an abortion, Braque and Eva decide to capitalize on Eva’s high spice tolerance by making money through bets on her ability to consume spicy chicken wings, tricking men who do not believe that a woman could tolerate such hot flavors. Eva even tackles the infamous Truth’s Hell Chili. Braque purchases sweet pepper jelly, claiming that it’s the best she’s ever tasted. She hallucinates a text conversation with herself, deciding to drive to New Mexico for the ultimate sweet pepper jelly. The chapter concludes with both Braque and Eva experiencing a bout of vomiting.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Walleye”
Another college student, Will Prager, reflects on his high school years and the importance of having a passion to attract girls. His passion is music and he forms a band called the Lonesome Cowboys, playing melancholic cowboy music and cover songs. Will falls deeply in love with Eva, the new girl in class. To impress her, he learns how to make French onion soup, a dish she enjoys making with her dad.
Will, grappling with the recent death of his mother in a car accident, finds Eva to be a distraction. Expressing deep resentment toward his father for abandoning their Jewish upbringing to join a Lutheran church and seek companionship, Will turns to Eva. However, when he discovers that his father, Eli, is dating again, particularly on the same night as their planned father-son dates, Will becomes upset. Attempting to bond with Eva by sharing his grievances about his father, Will is surprised when Eva disagrees, asserting that people need each other, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with seeking companionship. He and Eva end up at the Steamboat Inn, where Eva orders grilled walleye pike. During the meal, Eva criticizes the dish for its excessive use of rosemary, prompting Head Chef Jobe Farnum to test her palate. Eva impresses him by correctly identifying every ingredient used in the cooking of the fish.
On the way back from the restaurant, Will and Eva share a kiss in the car and plan a fishing date. Attempting to catch walleye, they end up with only a yellow perch, which they fry and enjoy together. During their date, Eva reveals that she’s interning at the Steamboat Inn, leading to an argument as Will believes that she’s being exploited for free labor. Eva becomes angry when Will implies that the chef is only interested in her sexually and not as a culinary prodigy. The date ends on a sour note, and they part ways.
As their interactions progress through two dates, Eva becomes increasingly uncomfortable with Will’s obsessive attachment. In class, Eva discloses to Will that Jarl lost his job, so she’s now working to support him and Fiona. Despite Will pining for Eva over the next few months, she eventually informs him that she is moving away and has secured a job in a kitchen, signaling the end of their brief romance.
Chapters 3-4 Analysis
In Chapter 3, Eva’s cousin Braque details her rigorous workout routine and strict dietary regimen, driven by her ambition to become an Olympic athlete. Stradal juxtaposes her utilitarian view of food with Eva’s appreciative view, suggesting that Braque is missing out on the beauty of Food as a Source of Identity and Community. A subtle message begins to permeate her consciousness, with “pepper jelly” recurring multiple times in the narrative—an indication that her relationship with food needs to change. Braque and Eva’s journey leads them to “The Truth,” a night dedicated to spicy food and whose name anticipates the transformative change in Braque’s perception of food. She discovers that food is not utilitarian but can also be appreciated for its taste, epitomized by sweet pepper jelly. This spicy jam catalyzes a shift in Braque’s perspective on life, prompting her to question, “[w]hat had she been waiting for?” (108). Her subconscious urges her to embark on an immediate journey to New Mexico in search of the best sweet pepper jelly. This foodstuff represents joy and adventure.
Stradal further explores Defining Family for Oneself through Will Prager, a teenage boy grappling with an obsessive fixation on Eva following his mother’s death in a car accident. Eva becomes a source of comfort and joy during this emotionally challenging period in his life, which he finds difficult to confront. Will describes his mother’s death as “a crack in their concrete driveway—an ever-present, unfixable aspect of his daily life” (118). This imagery is similar to that of the angel wing broken off a statue. Stradal uses metaphors of cracked “concrete” to convey the intense feeling of a rupture in the strong unit of family.
Will believes that, due to their shared trauma, Eva possesses the ability to heal him: “She was a woman whose darkness matched his own, and they could fix each other without even trying” (127). Stradal therefore again highlights the expectations of the emotional labor of women in this cultural context, drawing another parallel between Eva and Cynthia. Eventually, she communicates her inability to handle the intensity of his feelings, leading to her decision to move away and extinguish their brief romance.
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