This year, we have seen an explosion of incredible writing that uses food as its foundation. Food writing is the genre that caters directly to those who love the story that surrounds an adored dish, restaurant, or culinary personality. Many of these books go even beyond that to explore food in relation to memory, family, self-esteem and identity. Today, I’ve rounded up just some of the latest (and yet-to-come) books that will move you, entertain you and make you think. Read on …
Recipe for a Kinder Life
by Annie Smithers
In this generous account of life on the land and in the kitchen, trailblazing cook Annie Smithers chronicles her quest for a more sustainable existence, in harmony with the environment and the self. Part meditation, part memoir, the book offers practical advice and wisdom gleaned from a life dedicated to seasonal food and living lightly on the ground beneath her feet.
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Crying in H Mart
by Michelle Zauner
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. But it was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
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World Travel: An Irreverent Guide
by Anthony Bourdain, with Laurie Woolever
Anthony Bourdain saw more of the world than nearly anyone. His travels took him from his hometown of New York to a tribal longhouse in Borneo, from cosmopolitan Buenos Aires, Paris, and Shanghai to the stunning desert solitude of Oman’s Empty Quarter – and many places beyond. In World Travel, a life of experience is collected into an entertaining, practical, fun and frank travel guide that gives readers an introduction to some of his favourite places – in his own words.
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Black, White, and The Grey
by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano
Media start-up defector John O. Morisano and chef/partner Mashama Bailey tell the story, in stereo, of how they went from guarded business partners to best friends as they turned a dilapidated Jim Crow-era Greyhound bus station into one of the hottest restaurants in the country, as they faced their own and their community’s inherent biases through their honest unflinching conversations with each other.
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Eating With My Mouth Open
by Sam van Zweden
Eating with My Mouth Open is food writing like you’ve never seen before: honest, bold, and exceptionally tasty. Sam van Zweden’s personal and cultural exploration of food, memory, and hunger revels in body positivity, dissects wellness culture and all its flaws, and shares the joys of being part of a family of chefs.
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Eat a Peach
by David Chang
In 2004, Momofuku Noodle Bar opened in a tiny, stark space in Manhattan’s East Village. Its young chef-owner, David Chang, worked the line, serving ramen and pork buns to a mix of fellow restaurant cooks and confused diners whose idea of ramen was instant noodles in Styrofoam cups. It would have been impossible to know it at the time—and certainly Chang would have bet against himself—but he, who had failed at almost every endeavour in his life, was about to become one of the most influential chefs of his generation. Eat a Peach is an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure.
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Always Home: A Daughter’s Culinary Memoir
by Fanny Singer
In this extraordinarily intimate portrait of her mother – and herself – Fanny Singer, daughter of food icon and activist Alice Waters, chronicles a unique world of food, wine, and travel; a world filled with colourful characters, mouth-watering traditions, and sumptuous feasts. Across dozens of vignettes with accompanying recipes, she shares the story of her own culinary coming of age, and reveals a side of her legendary mother that has never been seen before.
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In the Weeds
by Tom Vitale
In the nearly two years since Anthony Bourdain’s death, no one else has come close to filling the void he left. His passion for and genuine curiosity about the people and cultures he visited made the world feel smaller and more connected. Despite his affable, confident, and trademark snarky TV persona, the real Tony was intensely private, deeply conflicted about his fame, and an enigma even to those close to him. Tony’s devoted crew knew him best, and no one else had a front-row seat for as long as his director and producer, Tom Vitale.
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Finding Freedom in the Lost Kitchen
by Erin French
In Finding Freedom in the Lost Kitchen, Erin tells her story of multiple rock-bottoms, from medical student to pregnant teen, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but ripped away her very sense of self. And of her son who became her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food-as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of creating community and making something of herself, despite seemingly impossible odds.
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Taste: My Life Through Food
by Stanley Tucci
Before Stanley Tucci became a household name with The Devil Wears Prada, The Hunger Games, and the perfect Negroni, he grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the table. Taste is an intimate reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about growing up in Westchester, NY, preparing for and filming the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia, falling in love over dinner, and teaming up with his wife to create conversation-starting meals for their children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burnt dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.
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Hot, Hot Chicken
by Rachel Louise Martin
These days, hot chicken is a “must-try” Southern food. But for almost seventy years, hot chicken was made and sold primarily in Nashville’s Black neighbourhoods–and the story of hot chicken says something powerful about race relations in Nashville, especially as the city tries to figure out what it will be in the future. Hot, Hot Chicken recounts the history of Nashville’s Black communities through the story of its hot chicken scene from the Civil War, when Nashville became a segregated city, through the tornado that ripped through North Nashville in March 2020.
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The Best American Food Writing 2021
edited by Silvia Killingsworth and Gabrielle Hamilton
The stories in this edition of Best American Food Writing create a stunning portrait of a year that shook the food industry, reminding us of how important restaurants, grocery stores, shelters, and those who work in them are in our lives. From the Sikhs who fed thousands during the pandemic, to the writer who was quarantined with her Michelin-starred chef boyfriend, to the restaurants that served $200-per-person tasting menus to the wealthy as the death toll soared, this superb collection captures the underexposed ills of the industry and the unending power of food to unite us, especially when we need it most.
Buy it here
If you DO love cooking, however, make sure you check out our Comfort Cooking collection – perfect for the colder months!
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