“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.” Or so said filmmaker Federico Fellini. Many writers seem to hold similar opinions if the number of cooking memoirs on our shelves is any indication. Cooking (of pasta and more) can be a metaphor for coming-of-age, renewal, communion or love. Chefs’ stories can also just be really good feasts for the imagination or an opportunity to dish celebrity gossip. Place a hold on the best-selling “Blood, Bones and Butter,” and then check out these other tasty titles while you wait.
- “Encore Provence” by Peter Mayle
- “Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to A Dante-quoting Butcher in Tuscany” by Bill Buford
- “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain
- “Life, on the Line” by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas
- “My Life in France” by Julia Child
- “Tender at the Bone” and “Comfort Me with Apples” by Ruth Reichl
See also: “A Homemade Life” by Molly Wizenberg
A favorite of mine. – HP
Another cooking/travel memoir that I really enjoyed is Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchsia Dunlop, a young English woman who ends up accidentally learning to cook in China. It was really engaging reading, satiating not just my yen for travel and foreign cultures but also my interest in food and cooking.
Excellent additions to this list! Wizenberg’s chocolate cake is the best. Copies of “A Homemade Life” are currently available from the library!