The Goldbergs – The Beverly Goldberg Cookbook

By: Ariba Bhuvad

The 80s were all about cooking shows and one of their biggest fans was Beverly Goldberg (Wendi McLendon-Covey). Her chef inspiration is Julia Childs and she would spend a lot of her time watching Childs’ show “The French Chef.” The entire family would have to be the guinea pigs that tried out all the different dishes Beverly would make as a result of watching the show, including a “French cheesy phase.” All this cooking and watching shows inspire Beverly to create a cookbook of her own, but she doesn’t seem to have much luck after being rejected by multiple publishers.

Upset and heartbroken, Pops (George Segal) finds her upset and crying and learns that she got a stack of rejection letters. Telling her it can’t be that bad, Beverly hands him the letters and begins to read what they have to say, which include mocking her for mixing foods that shouldn’t ever be paired together.

Barry (Troy Gentile) is surprised to learn that he needs recommendation letters to go with his college application and learns that Geoff (Sam Lerner) and the JTP [ “Naked Rob” (Noah Munck), Andy (Matt Bush), and Matt (Shayne Topp)] have all taken care of these letters. In fact, Erica (Hayley Orrantia) brags to say that Geoff has a total of twelve letters. Unaware of what these letters actually are used for, Barry finds out that he has to approach his teachers to ask them and it’s something he’s not looking forward to. Upon hearing the word college, Murray (Jeff Garlin) shows up and is annoyed to learn that Barry hasn’t done this part of his applications already. Barry decides to approach his Science teacher, Dr. Katman (Steve Guttenberg), who has a reputation for being the nicest teacher in school because he says yes to everything. And it turns out that Dr. Katman is more than happy to write this letter for Barry.

After her rejection letters Beverly decides to do a cooking show so she can use it as a platform to promote her cooking book. She approaches Adam (Sean Giambrone) who isn’t too enthusiastic about helping her out. He tries to get out of it by saying that filming isn’t his thing, which Beverly knows is the biggest lie in the world. A camera is constantly in Adam’s hands and it’s something he spends all his time doing. Pops finally convinces Adam to help Beverly out and tells them to put the show on something called Public Access.

Barry gets his recommendation letter from Dr. Katman and is excited to share the news with Erica and Geoff. However, Erica gets in his head when she starts to say that Dr. Katman is too nice and may not be someone Barry can trust. This prompts Barry to try and open the letter, which goes completely sideways. He uses an iron to open the flap (something he picked up from Murder She Wrote), but it ends up making the ink run and smudges a part of the letter. He then proceeds to use the iron to dry the ink, but ends up burning the letter entirely. Barry attempts to ask Dr. Katman for a new letter, but he refuses to do so and tells Barry to ask someone else. Trying to ask other teachers goes horribly for Barry because he realizes that he has not done substantial work in any of his classes.

Beverly and Adam prepare for Public Access by having Pops do practice run-throughs with them. It doesn’t exactly go as planned because Beverly starts changing her voice and acting oddly. Adam confesses that he finds this entire thing embarrassing. Beverly reminds him that he does embarrassing things all the time but she always supports him and loves him regardless. However, it doesn’t seem like he feels the same. At school the next day Adam finds out that Chad (Jacob Hopkins), Emma (Stephanie Katherine Grant), Dave Kim (Kenny Ridwan) and his girlfriend Jackie (Alexis G. Zall) all think he is embarrassing–although, Jackie says she finds it endearing. Adam then proceeds to get annoyed that Beverly has protected him with all her compliments so much that he doesn’t even know that he’s weird. But Dave Kim points out that Adam is unjustified in his way of thinking, which leads Adam to decide to co-host a cooking show with Beverly on Public Access.

After being rejected by all his teachers, Barry returns home to tell Erica what is going on. They have the conversation in code by whispering the word “college” so Murray doesn’t hear them. They end up having a great conversation until one of them says “college” out loud and Murray shows up inquiring about school, learning that Erica got into Barry’s head. It turns out that Murray knows about Barry burning the letter and hands him another one that he says he got from Dr. Katman. But with the new letter Murray makes Barry swear he won’t open the letter and try to peek inside this time.

Arriving at Public Access we see Adam and Beverly start recording the cooking show. Beverly does an amazing job, but Adam freezes and is unable to go through with it. He feels extremely humiliated for doing a horrible job, but Beverly tells him that she is so grateful that he supported her with her passion even if it meant he would look bad. She now has the confidence to keep going with her cookbook and knows that one day she will complete it. But until then, Adam and Chad can continue to film their cooking shows as they always have (and the actual footage at the end of the episode is proof that they do).

Barry finds out that Dr. Katman wasn’t the one that wrote the second letter after his teacher tries to give him a new letter at school. He feels bad for denying Barry and changes his mind about it all. It turns out that Murray wrote the letter for Barry, which Barry and Dr. Katman open and read. It’s a heartfelt letter supporting Barry wishing that his son had the same belief in himself as Murray does in him. Murray and Barry share a moment when Barry tells him that he knows about the letter, and is grateful for it. With the final application and letter out, Barry is ready for what comes next, which includes a ten-year reunion with all of his friends.