During this time of year, food is on a lot of people's minds. MHL has plenty of cookbooks available, but we also have books for people who aren't looking for recipes, but just want to read about food. Here are memoirs from chefs and food critics, as well as food histories and science. No matter what you're craving, these books should give you some food for thought!
|
|
Coming to my senses : the making of a counterculture cook
by Alice Waters The award-winning executive chef of Chez Panisse in California presents the story of her tumultuous culinary journey, describing her efforts to promote distinctive flavors in a time of uniform convenience foods, her achievements within the bohemian 1960s cultural circuit and her ongoing reflections as the head of one of the world's most influential restaurants. |
|
|
A cook's tour : in search of the perfect meal
by Anthony Bourdain From Japan where he eats traditional Fugu, a poisonous blowfish that can only be prepared by specially licensed chefs, to a delectable snack with the Viet Cong in the Mecong Delta, a fascinating book follows the author, who combines his two greatest passions--cooking and travelling, as he embarks on a quest around the world to find the ultimate meal. |
|
|
Bound to the fire : how Virginia's enslaved cooks helped invent American cuisine
by Kelley Fanto Deetz Kelley Fanto Deetz draws upon archaeological evidence, cookbooks, plantation records, and folklore to present a nuanced study of the lives of enslaved plantation cooks from colonial times through emancipation and beyond. She reveals how these men and women were literally 'bound to the fire' as they lived and worked in the sweltering and often fetid conditions of plantation house kitchens. These highly skilled cooks drew upon skills and ingredients brought with them from their African homelands to create complex, labor-intensive dishes such as oyster stew, gumbo, and fried fish. However, their white owners overwhelmingly received the credit for their creations. Focusing on enslaved cooks at Virginia plantations including Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and George Washington's Mount Vernon, Deetz restores these forgotten figures to their rightful place in American and Southern history. |
|
|
The comfort food diaries : my quest for the perfect dish to mend a broken heart
by Emily Nunn A former New Yorker editor chronicles her quest to overcome the convergence of the sudden loss of her brother, being dumped by her fiancé, and being evicted from her apartment by cooking her way across the country while staying with friends and family. |
|
|
Yes, chef : a memoir
by Marcus Samuelsson The Top Chef: Masters winner and James Beard Award-winning proprietor of Harlem's Red Rooster traces his Ethiopian birth, upbringing by an adoptive family in Sweden and rise to a famous New York chef, sharing personal insights into his challenges as a black man in a deeply prejudiced industry. |
|
|
Blood, bones, & butter : the inadvertent education of a reluctant chef
by Gabrielle Hamilton The chef of New York's East Village Prune restaurant presents an unflinching account of her search for meaning and purpose in the food-central rural New Jersey home of her youth, marked by a first chicken kill, an international backpacking tour and the opening of a first restaurant. |
|
|
Relish : my life in the kitchen
by Lucy Knisley A graphically illustrated, recipe-complemented memoir by the indie cartoonist author of French Milk describes her food-enriched youth as the daughter of a chef and a gourmet, key memories that were marked by special meals and the ways in which cooking has imparted valuable life lessons. Original. |
|
|
The Reporter's Kitchen
by Jane Kramer A volume of culinary essays by The New Yorker journalist and accomplished home cook also draws on her extensive international travels and includes chef profiles, a reflection on how her husband and she hosted a July Thanksgiving in Umbria, and a piece on how she helped an acclaimed Danish chef foraged for edible sea grass on the Nordic coast. |
|
|
Love, loss, and what we ate
by Padma Lakshmi The host of the Emmy Award-winning Top Chef presents a memoir about her immigrant childhood and complicated life in front of the camera, tracing her formative experiences in her grandmother's South India kitchen and her relationships with people who influenced her culinary skills and career. |
|
|
A really big lunch
by Jim Harrison An array to be published on the one-year anniversary of the author's death collects many of his food essays for the first time—from the titular New Yorker piece about a French lunch that went to 37 courses to pieces on the relationship between hunter and prey and the obscure language of wine reviews. |
|
|
The fortune cookie chronicles : adventures in the world of Chinese food
by Jennifer 8. Lee Chronicling the Chinese-American experience as reflected by its food, a New York Times reporter describes her quest for excellent Chinese cuisine while offering insight into such topics as the contributions of illegal immigrants and the relationship between Jewish people and Chinese food. |
|
|
Blue plate special : an autobiography of my appetites
by Kate Christensen The PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of The Great Man builds on her popular food-centric blog to recount her unconventional upbringing and her unusually happy and occasionally sorrowful life of literary and culinary sensuality. |
|
|
Garlic and sapphires : the secret life of a critic in disguise
by Ruth Reichl A new installment in the Gourmet editor-in-chief's series of memoirs recounts her visits to some of the world's most acclaimed restaurants, both as herself and as an anonymous diner in disguise, to offer insight into how her dining experiences changed according to her character and whether or not she was recognized. By the author of Comfort Me with Apples. |
|
|
Bento box in the heartland : my Japanese girlhood in whitebread America
by Linda Furiya The syndicated food columnist blends childhood memories, food, and cultural identity in a memoir revealing what life was like in the 1960s for the only Asian American family living in the farming community of Versailles, Indiana. |
|
|
Gulp : adventures on the alimentary canal
by Mary Roach The humor scientist behind Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife takes a tour of the human digestive system, explaining why the stomach doesn't digest itself and whether constipation can kill you. |