When cooking, have you ever wondered why onions stimulate the lachrymal glands? Do you even know what lachrymal means? A freshman at Choate Rosemary Hall does and recently published a book that answers the first question and tells chefs a lot more about the meals they're creating than how to make it.
Charis Freiman-Mendel recently completed her book, "Cook Your Way Through The S.A.T." It has 99 recipes created by Freiman-Mendel, and accompanying each recipe is a fun-fact blurb with 10 words that are used on the SAT and other standardized tests.
"I came up with the idea when I was in seventh grade and beginning to study for the SSAT," Freiman-Mendel said. "I love cooking, and I wanted to incorporate studying with something I love."The SSAT - the Secondary School Admission Test - is a standardized test students take to determine placement in private high schools.
Freiman-Mendel got her love of cooking from her father, and said she used to cook with her brother for fun. Her mother, Jennie Freiman, admits that she's not much of a cook.
"Charis does 100 percent of the cooking," Freiman said. "She's the chef."
The book is self-published, and Freiman helped her daughter with editing and some of the administrative work that went into getting the book produced. The illustrations were done by a student in a college near the family's home in Rhode Island, Freiman-Mendel said. Freiman-Mendel was homeschooled for a couple of years and started on the project as part of her English class.
"It wasn't too hard at first, but once we got further along, and had fewer words left, it got harder," she said.
Freiman said that writing the book helped her daughter learn important research skills. The blurbs with each recipe include information - and SAT words - about an item used in or history associated with the foods. "She would have to look up something interesting about an ingredient in the recipe, or the history behind it," she said.
The process helped her become a better writer, and Freiman-Mendel said that some of the words she used in the book came up again on the test. The book contains a wide variety of recipes, but Freiman-Mendel said her favorite is a cheesecake recipe she created during Passover. "We couldn't have bread during Passover, and cheesecake you usually make with graham cracker crust," she said. "I was crushing up nuts in the food processor, and I left them on too long, but I found that with the oil in the nuts, it made the perfect crust. It's a really creative recipe."
Freiman-Mendel isn't the first Choate student to publish a book, but Lorraine S. Connelly, manager of marketing, communications and media relations at Choate, could recall only one other. Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, now a student at Yale, published "My Little Red Book," a collection of essays by women about the first time they got their periods. Freiman-Mendel's book, published on Sept. 6, is available on Amazon.com and will also be in bookstores. She said she has plans for a few book signings. While she had a good experience writing the book, she said she's interested in a career in business.
"I think coming up with a product line would be interesting," she said.
The two-year process from concept to publication was a bit daunting for the 14-year-old. Freiman-Mendel said there were times when it got tough, but she's glad she stuck it out. "It was so hard, at times, I didn't want to do it," she said. "It's a lot easier to read a book than write a book. But it was worth it to experience the feeling when it was finished."