Each summer, with nightly lesson planning not consuming my time, I put reading on my to-do list. I make it a personal goal to read real books, not my usual go-to of cookbooks, newspapers, and magazines. Book recommendations help me narrow my search and get me started quickly. Recently, a teaching colleague passed along Bite by Bite, a thought-provoking book of food memories and facts. It was an enjoyable read that prompted me to think of other food-related books.
Different from cookbooks and academic books written by chefs, the selection below offers learning of a different kind. I am drawn to memoirs and many of these books are or have a memoir quality to them. The following list of books engaged me and are worth considering.
Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees
By Aimee Nezhukumatathil
In this book, the author’s short essays share her own experiences with foods ranging from shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans through memories and personal reflections. In doing so, she investigates how food shapes our identities and is rooted in memory and heritage. Each chapter is accompanied by a beautiful illustration by Fumi Nakamura and intriguing food facts.
Blood, Bones, & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
By Gabrielle Hamilton
Readers might know of the author via her acclaimed restaurant Prune in New York. While this memoir invites the reader into Prune, it mostly follows the author’s 20-year journey leading to its opening as she seeks to find purpose and meaning in her life. Hamilton’s search takes her to many kitchens from the food-centric rural kitchen of her childhood to the competitive kitchens in France, Greece and Turkey as a nineteen year old. Readers also see the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, which reveals a challenged marriage. The reader gets insight into the life of an aspiring chef and eventually a full-time chef told with honesty, humor, and passion.
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up At the Table
By Ruth Reichel
This memoir by Ruth Reichl showcases her passion for food, the unforgettable people she dined with, and her gift of storytelling. Her book captures her discovery early in life that “food could be a way of making sense of the world. If you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were.” People that shaped Reichl’s life and lead her to be one of the world’s leading food writers include her mother, the notorious food-poisoner known as the Queen of Mold; gourmand Monsieur du Croix, who served Reichl her first foie gras; and people at Berkeley who championed the organic food revolution in the 1970s. The book includes humor and some of Reichl’s favorite recipes.
Yes, Chef: A Memoir of Marcus Samuelsson
By Marcus Samuelsson
Until reading this book, I didn’t know where the phrase, “Yes, chef!” heard often at The Chopping Block originated. This memoir showcases the trials and tribulations of what it takes to become and achieve success as a chef. Not only does Samuelsson’s personal journey as an adopted Ethiopian boy in Sweden draw the reader in, but so does learning about how he earned a New York Times three-star rating at the age of 24. The reader will be engrossed to learn of Samuelsson’s career that includes White House state dinners, reality show wins, and eventually the opening of his famous restaurant Red Rooster in Harlem. A restaurant that provides a home-like feel to everyone from presidents to jazz musicians and aspiring artists to bus drivers.
Life on the Line: A Chef’s Story of Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way
By Grant Achatz
One can’t help but be engrossed by a local celebrity and a familiar setting. This book has both. I recall vividly the scene of Achatz walking around the block to pass time before his interview with Charlie Trotter at his namesake restaurant in Lincoln Park and the scene driving down Dempster for an interview at Trio. The early 2000s brought Achatz much acclaim for his cooking and his conceptionally innovative restaurant. Around the same time, he was diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. With his sense of taste lost and a prognosis grim, he trained his chefs to mimic his palate and learned to cook by depending on other senses. Life on the Line, a memoir, showcases survival, the power of creativity, and profound friendship.
Delancey: A Man, A Woman, A Restaurant, A Marriage
By Molly Wizenberg
Molly Wizenberg supported her husband’s proposal of opening a pizza restaurant because she didn’t think he’d follow through with the idea. Readers follow Molly and her husband Brandon, as they sign a lease, gut and renovate the space, develop a menu, hire staff and pass inspections. Molly stays committed to the project and its success to convince herself she is happy about her new life. The reader is left in suspense many times regarding what her next choice will be. Recipes Molly made at home or tried at the restaurant dot the book. I have been to Seattle, but not before reading this book. If I ever return, I will most certainly check out Delancey.
Sautéed Dates with Olive Oil and Sea Salt: an appetizer served at Boat Street Café, a restaurant in Seattle where Wizenberg’s husband Brandon worked prior to his Delancey days
Don’t Try This At Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World’s Greatest Chefs
Edited By Kimberly Witherspoon & Andrew Friedman
If you are anything like me, you’ve had some culinary disasters. In reading this book, take comfort in knowing that you are not alone. Even culinary greats have experienced mishaps in the kitchen. Michel Richard’s story of blaming dogs on a wedding cake wrecked in traffic and fixed with a whipped cream and strawberries bought during the wedding was one of the most memorable catastrophes. I also liked reading stories of cooks I’ve heard of, including Sara Moulton, Marcus Samuelsson, Anthony Bourdain, and Paul Kahan. The behind-the-scenes accounts are entertaining and revealing. This book is a great read for short story readers, as each story can be enjoyed independent of the others.
Give a Girl A Knife: A Memoir
By Amy Theilen
Amy Theilen has worked for talented chefs including David Bouley, Daniel Boulud, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten in some of New York City’s finest kitchens. Before those experiences, Theilen grew up in northern Minnesota with the nation’s largest French fry factory nearby. She was a keen participant to her mother’s cooking which dripped with tenderness, drama, and an overabundance of butter. As an adult, Amy moved north to a rustic cabin deep in the woods of Two Inlets, Minnesota with her husband. Though the nomadic life and cooking with found goods, proved to be too much, it developed Theilen’s interest in the culinary scene. This book illustrates how food memories can foster passion and commitment to the field, even when fighting against the ranks of some male-dominated kitchens.
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
By Lucy Knisley
I completed my first graphic novel with this book. Lucy Knisley is the daughter of a chef and a gourmet, which nurtured her food obsession early. The funny memoir traces her experiences by what she ate and learned about food, cooking and life. Each chapter ends with an illustrated recipe ― many of them treasured family dishes - and a few of them Lucy's original inventions. The book celebrates food and its connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth. It is a very entertaining and easy read.
Shepard (Fairey) Pie
Knisley made this for her fellow art school classmates during finals season to provide them with something nutritious. She had just completed her paper on the aptly named artist early and wasn’t completed frazzled studying for finals.
Stanley Tucci: What I Ate in One Year
By Stanley Tucci
What I Ate in One Year is bit like Relish, but written by an author familiar to many. Tucci records twelve months of eating—in restaurants, people’s homes, on film sets, at home and away with family, friends, strangers and alone. In this diary of food, he reflects on his constantly changing life, the passage of time, loss of loved ones, and prepares for life to come. I could relate to his family’s varying dinner times to accommodate everyone’s schedules. The reader gets a backstage view of his life in film, as an author, and sought-after speaker. Like Relish, the book demonstrates the huge role food plays in our lives. Tucci’s humor is smattered throughout this excellent memoir.
If reading is on your summer bucket list, these books are fine contenders. If developing cooking skills and food memories for your palate is planned for the summer, be sure to check out our offerings. There are so many great classes from which to choose. Hands-On Chicken Butchery and Cookery on the Grill, Hands-On Filipino Feast and Hands-On Date Night: Summer Dinner Party are just a few to get you started.
