Good Reads - Nonfiction

Food for Thought

Culinary Memoirs - A peek into the lives of people who define themselves by the food they love.

641.5 BOO
Let Us Eat Cake: Adventures in Food and Friendship by Sharon Boorstin - 2002
The idea for this book was hatched when the author came across a tattered notebook. It was filled with recipes that her girlfriends had shared with her over a span of 35 years. Boorstin shares the memories this discovery unearthed, as well as recipes from each era of her life.

641.5 HES
Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes by Amanda Hesser - 2003
Half memoir, half food diary, this book unveils a budding relationship between a culinary writer for the New York Times and a man who has only mustard and an unwrapped block of cheese in his refrigerator.

641.5 VOL
Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family by Patricia Volk - 2001
With wit and affection, Volk celebrates her big, brash New York family. Food was the center of their lives and their livelihood starting back in 1888 when her great-grandfather introduced pastrami to America.

641.59442 LOO
On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town by Susan Herrmann Loomis - 2001
After studying cooking in Paris as a young woman, Susan returned to France with her husband and son to renovate a convent in the Normandy region. She tells humorous stories about encounters with their neighbors and about adjusting to their new culture.

641.59455 CHE
Rosemary and Bitter Oranges: Growing Up in a Tuscan Kitchen by Patrizia Chen - 2003
Because of the dietary preferences of her grandfather, Patrizia grew up in Livorno with an uncharacteristically bland diet of mostly white foods. One day she discovered amazing aromas emanating from the kitchen and learned that Emilia, the family cook, prepared simple, savory and sumptuous repasts for her own meals. Patrizia's world was forever changed.

641.5962 ROS
Memories of a Lost Egypt: A Memoir with Recipes by Colette Rossant - 1999
Although her wealthy grandmother often admonished her that a girl of good breeding does not go into the kitchen, Colette was drawn there throughout her childhood. Raised in Paris and Cairo, she unveils the hodgepodge of cultural influences she experienced and the memories that still nourish her.

Biography FUSSELL, B.
My Kitchen Wars by Betty Harper Fussell - 1999
After starting married life feeling incompetent in the kitchen, Fussell conquered that arena to become a gourmet cook and noted food writer. Other household skirmishes fought during her marriage were less successful. Her entertaining memoir speaks for a generation of women who felt ambivalent about (or even trapped by) their domesticity.

Biography OPINCAR, A.
Fried Butter: A Food Memoir by Abe Opincar - 2003
Multi-layered memories are triggered by food for San Diego columnist Abe Opincar. Poignant and humorous vignettes unfold chapter by chapter in this evocative memoir that explores how he experiences the world one bite at a time.

Biography PEPIN, J.
Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin - 2003
At the age of six Jacques Pepin discerned that food could be much more than sustenance. His path to a life in food seems like a natural progression in the pages of this easy-going biography, peppered with humorous and engaging stories.

Biography REICHL, R.
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl - 1998
Reichl serves up stories of her Greenwich Village childhood with a cooking impaired mother, and continues through a full menu of experiences that defined her passion for food. A natural storyteller, Reichl takes up the tale in 2001's Comfort Me with Apples, recounting her days as food critic for the New York Times and as editor of Gourmet.

Biography WEST, M. L.
Consuming Passions: A Food Obsessed Life by Michael Lee West - 1999
The author of Crazy Ladies and She Flew the Coop introduces us to her eccentric Southern relatives, their irreverent gossip and their down-home recipes.

Cookbooks with a Story to Tell - Recipes and more…

641.5 BRO
Cooking with Memories: Recipes and Recollections by Lora Brody - 1989
Warm family episodes, interwoven with over 100 recipes, illuminate the life of this noted food writer.

641.5 GRI
Hollywood Dish!: Recipes, Tips and Tales of a Hollywood Caterer by Nick Grippo - 1998
Grippo offers insider celebrity stories along with recipes for California party food.

641.5944 CHA
Clementine in the Kitchen by Samuel Chamberlain - 2001
Originally published in 1943, this gastronomic diary of an American family in pre-World War II France includes 170 recipes from their beloved cook Clementine.

641.5945 TUC
Cucina and Famiglia: Two Italian Families Share Their Stories, Recipes, and Traditions by Joan Tropiano Tucci and Gianni Scappin - 1999
Northern and Southern Italian families pooled their knowledge and memories to produce this handsome volume. Includes the recipe for the impressive timpano from the film Big Night.

641.59458 SIM
Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food by Mary Taylor Simeti - 1989
Simeti presents a banquet of information about the culinary delights, social history and fascinating folkways of an ancient culture.

641.59593 LOH
It Rains Fishes: The Legends, the Traditions, and the Joys of Thai Cooking by Kasma Loha-unchit - 1995
Both colorful and charming, this volume transcends the ordinary cookbook format and conveys the joy connected to the food and culture of Thailand.

641.5972 TRI
Seasons of My Heart: A Culinary Journey through Oaxaca, Mexico by Susana Trilling - 1999
Enticing recipes accompany stories of an unspoiled region and its people.

641.5973 CLA
The Route 66 Cookbook by Marian Clark - 1993
Homespun diner recipes complement the nostalgic history of America's "Mother Road."

641.5973 HAY
Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked by Joanne Lamb Hayes - 2000
A nostalgic tour of wartime households told with recipes, quotes and advertisements.

641.5975 EDG
A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South by John T. Edge - 1999
Southerners of every stripe share more than 400 recipes along with their remembrances of a region and a way of life.

641.5977 BIR
Up a Country Lane Cookbook by Evelyn Birkby - 1993
The author shares recipes for Midwestern comfort food and warm stories of rural life in the 1940s and 1950s.

Eating Between the Lines - Other Good Reads for Foodies

641 NAB
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods by Gary Paul Nabhan - 2002
In an effort to get in touch with his surroundings, Nahban spent a year eating only foods grown, fished, or gathered within two hundred miles of his home.

641.013 KUH
The Last Days of Haute Cuisine by Patric Kuh - 2001
Kuh presents a deft analysis of the evolution of the high-style restaurants of the 1940s into today's less pretentious dining scene.

641.013 STE
The Man Who Ate Everything: And Other Gastronomic Feats, Disputes and Pleasurable Pursuits by Jeffrey Steingarten - 1997
Whether he's savoring fun-size Milky Way bars or Beluga caviar, Vogue's Jeffrey Steingarten writes about food with gustatory enthusiasm and outrageous humor. In 2002's It Must've Been Something I Ate: The Return of the Man Who Ate Everything he continues his compulsive search for the ultimate epicurean indulgences.

641.3 TIS
The Best Thing I Ever Tasted: The Secret of Food by Sallie Tisdale - 2000
A contributing editor to Harper's Magazine explores America's evolving relationship to food, and highlights the influence of culture, fashion and technology.

641.5 COL
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin - 1988
Warm, cozy food essays from a novelist with a remarkable gift for conveying domestic details.

641.5973 THO
Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots by John Thorne - 1996
The author's musings about the roots of American food are well-peppered with classic regional recipes from Maine, Louisiana and other Thorne haunts.

641.5973 TRI
Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco by Calvin Trillin - 2003
Trillin's passion for distinctive food specialties, and the local cultures that inspire them, takes him on a gastronomic hunt from Queens to Ecuador to Nice and beyond.

641.815 SEL
Going with the Grain: A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite out of Life by Susan Seligson - 2002
Seligson gamely goes to far flung destinations in pursuit of the staff of life.

944.9 MAY
French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew by Peter Mayle - 2001
Englishman Mayle explores the diverse culinary styles in his adopted country.

Prepared by Lori Sennebogen, November 2003