Cheesecake : A Novel

From New York Times-bestselling author Mark Kurlansky, a delectable novel following an ancient recipe for cheesecake as it spreads through the Upper West Side—from a conniving landlord to the old-school New Yorkers he’s trying to force out.

The Katsikases have found a home in New York. A Greek cheesemaking family who immigrated in hopes of opening a restaurant, they’ve found the perfect storefront on the up-and-coming Upper West Side. They decide to call it The Katz Brothers. (Close enough, they think.) The diner becomes a neighborhood favorite—until Art Katsikas begins buying up all the real estate he can, forcing out their old “regulars” and scheming to replace the neighborhood’s strudel shops and artists with ritzy boutiques and the nouveau riche.

Meanwhile, at The Katz Brothers, the Katsikases rush to prepare for this new clientele by introducing a new “modern classical cuisine,” changing the diner’s name to “Mykonos,” and deciding to serve “Cato’s Cheesecake,” an ancient Roman recipe known to be the oldest ever found. Sure enough, the enigmatic recipe is a hit, even minted by the New York Times restaurant critic. Soon the cheesecake is all over the Upper West Side, and wild interpretations of Cato’s vision appear at the parties, feasts, and bakeries of old New Yorkers struggling to keep their withering community alive. Sometimes laced with green M&Ms, sometimes with sage and spite, the cheesecake becomes a herald of change as the Upper West Side—and New York’s food scene—are transformed for good.