Mediterranean Summer | How to cook aboard a yacht

One of our favorite books is "Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella" by David Shalluck and Errol Muntz. This is easy summer reading if you like mouth-watering descriptions of food and tales about life aboard a sailing yacht from the crew's perspective.

Amazon's opening description reads, "Having begun his cooking career in some of New York's and San Francisco's best restaurants, David Shalleck undertakes a European culinary adventure, a quest to discover what it really means to be a chef through a series of demanding internships in Provence and throughout Italy. After four years, as he debates whether it is finally time to return stateside and pursue something more permanent, he stumbles on a rare opportunity: to become the chef on board Serenity, the classic sailing yacht owned by one of Italy's most prominent couples. They present Shalleck with the ultimate challenge: to prepare all the meals for them and their guests for the summer, with no repeats, comprised exclusively of local ingredients that reflect the flavors of each port, presented flawlessly to the couple's uncompromising taste-- all from the confines of the yacht's galley while at sea."

From there, the book describes life aboard a yacht, which, as you might imagine, has a rhythm not unlike the sea itself: moments of tranquility interspersed with periods of roiling drama. Yet, at the end of every day, there's a cocktail or a glass of wine served at sundown, followed by wonderful food (as a bonus, recipes from Shalleck's travels are included at the end of the book).