The communal family table bears witness to our lives. The way we approach each meal speaks volumes about who we are and what we are going through in that very moment. It's where the spirits of those who left too soon can be conjured back to mind through taste and smell. Still, we underestimate its pull and often miss the soulful nourishment and magic that happens at sobremesa—the time spent talking after a meal—due to our increasingly busy lives.
In her coming-of-age adventure, Caminos Oría travels to her family's homeland of Argentina in search of belonging—to family, to country, to a love, and ultimately, to oneself. Steeped in the lure of Latin culture, she pieces together her mom and abuela's pasts, along with the nourishing dishes—delectably and spiritually—that formed their kitchen arsenal. But Caminos Oría's travels from las pampas to the prairie aren't easy or conventional. She grapples with mystical encounters with the spirit world that lead her to discover a part of herself that, like sobremesa, had been lost in translation.
Just as she's ready to give up on love all together, Caminos Oría's own heart surprises her by surrendering to a forbidden, transcontinental tryst with the Argentine man of her dreams. To stay together, she must make a difficult choice: return to the safe life she knows in the States or follow her heart and set a new table, one where she can be her full self, unapologetically, in full-fledged Spanglish.
Deliciously soulful and chock full of romance, this otherworldly, multigenerational story of a daughter's love and familial culinary legacy serves up, in 13 courses, a gastronomic meditation on the tables we set for ourselves throughout our lives—knowingly or not. It's a story that lures us to slow down, to savor meals mindfully and see where the communion of food takes us, beyond the plate. It's there we find our one true voice, look within, and face the questions we've been running from: Is this the table I envisioned for myself before the world told me who I am supposed to be? If not, reset it. Do I belong? Do the people around me lift me up? If not, change tables. Where am I seated? At the head? In the middle? There is no right or wrong answer, but does my chosen seat position me for the role I'm meant to fulfill in this lifetime? If not, change places.
Sobremesa invites us to savor the healing embrace of time-honored food and the wisdom it espouses. It's a reminder that that home really is anywhere the heart is. And for all looking to find their place, it's an invitation to claim your seat at sobremesa's endless table, where everyone is welcome.
Josephine (Josie) has always joked that she's an Argentine girl who speaks Pittsburghese and thinks she's Carolinian. Born in the city of La Plata, Argentina, Josie was raised Stateside from infancy on. Her family split their time between Pittsburgh and Hilton Head Island. Gathering around a table large enough to sit her family of eight, plus two for her abuelos on her mom's side, food, and the sobremesa that accompanied it, was how Josie learned to make sense of the world. Stories of where she came from, and the people she'd left behind, were served up during family sobremesas she savored like meals. Those tales nourished Josie's imagination and sense of self, setting the table for a second act focused on Argentine food and culture.
It was in her early 40s, with five young children in tow, that Josie took a chance on herself, leaving a C-level career to take a chance on a career in writing. She is the author of "Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food & Love in Thirteen Courses (Scribe Publishing, Co., May 2021) and the cookbook, "Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, and Sweet Traditions" (Burgess Lea Press, February 2017). Today Josie and Gastón are livin' la vida Low Country in Charleston, S.C., with their children and two dogs, Iñaki and Avi (short for Avocado, of course).
On the daily, Josie is a luxury real estate specialist with St. Germain Properties. Prior to moving south, Josephine founded La Dorita Cooks, the first culinary incubator in Pittsburgh, PA and was the long-time CFO of the tri-state medical diagnostics company, Med Health Services.
"One of the best romance novels I've ever read — and it's not a romance novel! Truly genre-defying, this is a bildungsroman, a love story, and a story of searching for belonging where one doesn't fit in." — Tracy Shapley Towley, Book Riot
"Sobremesa takes us inside Josephine's kitchen where we get the chance to explore her unique culinary journey and her beloved Argentina. Josephine's story tells us about a side of Argentine cuisine and eating culture that isn't usually written about: the importance that family, friendship, delicious food, and vino have at the table. A delight to read that will warm your corazón." — Allie Lazar, Argentina-Based Freelance Eater and Writer, Creator of Pick Up the Fork Food Blog
"As a young girl, I enjoyed Josephine. But even more, I have loved meeting Josefina. I found myself transported to extraordinary middle places: Argentina and the United States, the ghostly limbos between life and death, youth and adulthood. Sobremesa reads like a cross between magical realism and the food section of the New York Times. Delicioso!" — Beth Ostrosky-Stern, Pittsburgh Native and New York Times Bestselling Author
"At once a magical matrilineage, recipe book, and love letter to Argentinian culture, Josephine's Sombremesa is not only a moving culinary memoir, but a timely cultural portrait and call to return to a slower, more sensual relationship with our loved ones and ourselves." — Allie Rowbottom, Author of Jell-O Girls
"Josephine didn't just find a love for Argentina, reconnecting with her family's past and heirloom recipes. She's uncovered a sisterhood in sobremesa, and wants to extend it to those who still don't know about it or who don't yet know they just might need it most. Because it's there, in the intimacy of our own kitchens that we join forces, connecting in the place that, for so many people and families, is a meeting point, a place where culture lives on and transforms itself." — Sofía Pescarmona, CEO and Owner, Lagarde Winery and Fogón Restaurant in Mendoza Argentina
"The memoir Sobremesa is a reminder of a slower time, an exuberant, passionate place, and love as vast as the Argentine pampas." — Kristine Morris, Foreword Reviews
"I highly recommend Sobremesa - a memoir of food and love in thirteen courses. Inspired by generations of family members, Josephine honors her family legacy by writing this compelling story. A page-turner of a book, I could relate to Josephine's close-knit family and her own sense of love, joy, loss and disappointment that life places at our feet. The book is universal in its theme but personal at its core. In essence, sobremesa is a reminder that home is anywhere the heart is." — Cindy Running, Grape Experiences
"Some books will make you hungry; some will make you want to cook even if you don't love cooking; and some will make you wish you'd been born in another country — to a culture where sitting around a table with loved ones is the national pastime. Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses did all three for me. The second book by Argentine-American cookbook author Josephine Caminos Oría, the memoir is a delicious paean to her roots and to the culture that informs her life's work." — Joy Ramirez, Chapter 16
