16 results for "Memoir"

Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American—“in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself” (NPR). • CELEBRATING OVER ONE YEAR ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids 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. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal 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. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.
Diversified Publishing 2021-05-11 416 pages

Kitchen Confidential Deluxe Edition Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Anthony Bourdain
A new, deluxe edition of Kitchen Confidential to celebrate the life of Anthony Bourdain. The book will feature a brand new introduction, a Q&A with Ecco publisher and Bourdain’s long-time editor Daniel Halpern. Interior pages are hand-annotated by Anthony Bourdain himself. The interior will also feature a brand new drawing by Ralph Steadman. Almost two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, “Don’t Eat before You Read This,” by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain spared no one’s appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. The article was a sensation, and the book it spawned, the now classic Kitchen Confidential, became an even bigger sensation, a megabestseller with over one million copies in print. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business—this time with never-before-published material.
HarperCollins 2018-10-23 416 pages

Fuck, that's delicious: an annotated guide to eating well

Action Bronson
Winner of the IACP Cookbook Design Award, this New York Times bestseller is a shout to the heavens rally cry about loving food from Action Bronson, "one of the internet's most entertaining food personalities" ( GQ ) and James Beard Award-winning food writer Rachel Wharton. This ain't no cookbook. This ain't no memoir. This is Action Bronson's devotional, a book about the overwhelming power of delicious--no, f*cking amazing--food, the food-stuff, full-color companion to his hit Vice television show of the same name. Bronson is this era's Homer, and F*ck, That's Delicious is a modern-day Odyssey , replete with orgiastic recipes, world travel, siren songs, and weed. Illustrated, packed with photos, and unlike any book in the entire galaxy, Bronson's F*ck, That's Delicious includes 40-plus recipes inspired by his childhood, family, tours, and travels. Journey from bagels with cheese that represent familial love to the sex and Big Macs of upstate New York fat camp, and ultimately to the world's most coveted five-star temples of gastronomy. And: Tacos in LA The best Dominican chimis Jamaican jerk Old-school ice cream shops Hand-rolled pasta from Mario Secrets to good eating from Massimo Meyhem Lauren's Chicken Patty Potpie D'Angelo's Sausage and Peppers And more! More! More! Bronson writes in his introduction, "I couldn't think of a better job. . . . The show, this book, my life is definitely something I've been wanting to do for a very, very, very long time, and I'm just happy that it's come to life." For fans of his show and his gonzo style of food and life, there could be no better gift book than this full-color collection of all things Action Bronson.
Abrams 2017-09-12 221 pages

Tender at the bone: growing up at the table

Reichl, Ruth
For better or worse, almost all of us grow up at the table. It is in this setting that Ruth Reichl's brilliantly written memoir takes its form. For, at a very early age, Reichl discovered 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." Tender at the Bone is the story of a life determined, enhanced, and defined in equal measure by unforgettable people, the love of tales well told, and a passion for food. In other words, the stuff of the best literature. The journey begins with Reichl's mother, the notorious food-poisoner known for-evermore as the Queen of Mold, and moves on to the fabled Mrs. Peavey, onetime Baltimore socialite millionaress, who, for a brief but poignant moment, was retained as the Reichls' maid. Then we are introduced to Monsieur du Croix, the gourmand, who so understood and yet was awed by this prodigious child at his dinner table that when he introduced Ruth to the souffle, he could only exclaim, "What a pleasure to watch a child eat her first souffle!" Then, fast-forward to the politically correct table set in Berkeley in the 1970s, and the food revolution that Ruth watched and participated in as organic became the norm. But this sampling doesn't do this character-rich book justice. After all, this is just a taste. Tender at the Bone is a remembrance of Ruth Reichl's childhood into young adulthood, redolent with the atmosphere, good humor, and angst of a sensualist coming-of-age.
Random House 1998 282 pages

Medium Raw

Anthony Bourdain
A lot has changed since Kitchen Confidential. For the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business as a whole—and for Anthony Bourdain. Medium Raw explores those changes, taking the reader back and forth—from the author’s bad old days—to the present. Tracking his own strange and unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe travelling professional eater and drinker, Bourdain compares and contrasts what he’s seen and what he’s seeing, pausing along the way for a series of confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the more controversial figures in food. Always returning to the question: “Why cook? “ Or the harder to answer: “Why cook well?” Beginning with a secret and highly illegal after-hours gathering of powerful chefs he compares to a Mafia summit, the story follows the twists and eddies through subjects ranging from: “The Friends of David Chang” an incredibly undiplomatic discussion with (and peek into the mind of) the hottest, most influential chef in America. “Don’t Ask Alice”: Alice Waters. Good . . . or Evil? The Big Shake Out: The restaurant business in post economic meltdown America. How it’s changing. How it might change even more. And, Heroes and Villains. (With a few returning favorites.)
HarperCollins 2016-06-13 322 pages

Save Me the Plums My Gourmet Memoir

Ruth Reichl
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A delicious insider account of the gritty, glamorous world of food culture.”— Vanity Fair In this “poignant and hilarious” ( The New York Times Book Review ) memoir, trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of Gourmet. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone’s boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat. Readers will meet legendary chefs like David Chang and Eric Ripert, idiosyncratic writers like David Foster Wallace, and a colorful group of editors and art directors who, under Reichl’s leadership, transformed stately Gourmet into a cutting-edge publication. This was the golden age of print media—the last spendthrift gasp before the Internet turned the magazine world upside down. Complete with recipes, Save Me the Plums is a personal journey of a woman coming to terms with being in charge and making a mark, following a passion and holding on to her dreams—even when she ends up in a place she never expected to be.
Random House Publishing Group 2020-05-05 304 pages

My Kitchen Year 136 Recipes That Saved My Life

Ruth Reichl
In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. “I did what I always do when I’m confused, lonely, or frightened,” she writes. “I disappeared into the kitchen.” My Kitchen Year follows the change of seasons—and Reichl’s emotions—as she slowly heals through the simple pleasures of cooking. While working 24/7, Reichl would “throw quick meals together” for her family and friends. Now she has the time to rediscover what cooking meant to her. Imagine kale, leaves dark and inviting, sautéed with chiles and garlic; summer peaches baked into a simple cobbler; fresh oysters chilling in a box of snow; plump chickens and earthy mushrooms, fricasseed with cream. Over the course of this challenging year, each dish Reichl prepares becomes a kind of stepping stone to finding joy again in ordinary things. The 136 recipes collected here represent a life’s passion for food: a blistering ma po tofu that shakes Reichl out of the blues; a decadent grilled cheese sandwich that accompanies a rare sighting in the woods around her home; a rhubarb sundae that signals the arrival of spring. Here, too, is Reichl’s enlivening dialogue with her Twitter followers, who become her culinary supporters and lively confidants. Part cookbook, part memoir, part paean to the household gods, My Kitchen Year may be Ruth Reichl’s most stirring book yet—one that reveals a refreshingly vulnerable side of the world's most famous food editor as she shares treasured recipes to be returned to again and again and again.
National Geographic Books 2015-09-29 352 pages

Comfort me with apples: more adventures at the table

Reichl, Ruth
In Ruth Reichl's latest book -- one that will delight her fans and convert those as yet uninitiated to her charming tales -- the author brings to life her adventures in pursuit of good meals and good company. Picking up where "Tender at the Bone leaves off, Comfort Me with Apples recounts Reichl's transformation from chef to food writer, a process that led her through restaurants from Bangkok to Paris to Los Angeles and brought lessons in life, love, and food. It is an apprenticeship by turns delightful and daunting, one told in the most winning and engaging of voices. Reichl's anecdotes from a summer lunch with M.F.K. Fisher, a mad dash through the produce market with Wolfgang Puck, and a garlic feast with Alice Waters are priceless. She is unafraid -- even eager -- to poke holes in the pretensions of food critics, making each meal a hilarious and instructive occasion for novices and experts alike. "The New York Times has said, "While all good food critics are humorous .. few are so riotously, effortlessly entertaining as Ruth Reichl." In Comfort Me with Apples, Reichl once again demonstrates her inimitable ability to combine food writing, humor, and memoir into an art form.
Random House 2001 302 pages

Eating My Words An Appetite for Life

Mimi Sheraton
As one of the country's foremost restaurant reviewers, Mimi Sheraton set the standard for food writing and criticism. In this engrossing memoir, the doyenne of food criticism explains how she developed her passion for writing about food and wine, sharing the secrets of her career, including her years at the New York Times . Witty and honest, she talks openly about the importance of anonymity, her battle with weight, and the demands of juggling work with the needs of a husband and son. From fine dining to lunch in New York City public schools, Mimi Sheraton gives readers the big dish on a life in food.
Harper Collins 2006-03-28 256 pages

Life Is Meals A Food Lover's Book of Days

James Salter,Kay Salter
From the PEN/Faulkner Award–winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay—amateur chefs and terrific hosts—here is a charming, beautifully illustrated food lover’s companion that, with an entry for each day of the year, takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year’s Eve. Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors’ own stories of their triumphs—and catastrophes—in the kitchen. For instance: The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie the Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party—and whom not to John Irving’s family recipe for meatballs; Balzac’s love of coffee The greatest dinner ever given at the White House Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m. Sophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. “The meal is the emblem of civilization,” the Salters observe. “What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?”
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2010-11-02 464 pages

Poor man's feast: a love story of comfort, desire, and the art of simple cooking

Altman, Elissa
In this engaging memoir, Elissa Altman, author of the popular Poor Man's Feast blog, chronicles her lifelong relationship with all things culinary, and the transformation she experiences -- from culinary trend-aholic to a champion of simplicity -- when she finally finds love. Short chapters sprinkled with recipes show that living and eating well are much simpler than we might think --
Chronicle 2013-03-05 287 pages

Secret Ingredients The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink

David Remnick
The New Yorker dishes up a feast of delicious writing–food and drink memoirs, short stories, tell-alls, and poems, seasoned with a generous dash of cartoons. “To read this sparely elegant, moving portrait is to remember that writing well about food is really no different from writing well about life.”— Saveur (Ten Best Books of the Year) Since its earliest days, The New Yorker has been a tastemaker—literally. In this indispensable collection, M.F.K. Fisher pays homage to “cookery witches,” those mysterious cooks who possess “an uncanny power over food,” and Adam Gopnik asks if French cuisine is done for. There is Roald Dahl’s famous story “Taste,” in which a wine snob’s palate comes in for some unwelcome scrutiny, and Julian Barnes’s ingenious tale of a lifelong gourmand who goes on a very peculiar diet. Selected from the magazine’s plentiful larder, Secret Ingredients celebrates all forms of gustatory delight. A sample of the menu: Roger Angell on the art of the martini • Don DeLillo on Jell-O • Malcolm Gladwell on building a better ketchup • Jane Kramer on the writer’s kitchen • Chang-rae Lee on eating sea urchin • Steve Martin on menu mores • Alice McDermott on sex and ice cream • Dorothy Parker on dinner conversation • S. J. Perelman on a hollandaise assassin • Calvin Trillin on New York’s best bagel Whether you’re in the mood for snacking on humor pieces and cartoons or for savoring classic profiles of great chefs and great eaters, these offerings from The New Yorker ’s fabled history are sure to satisfy every taste.
Random House Publishing Group 2009-11-03 608 pages

Sex, Lies, and Cookies An Unrated Memoir

Lisa Glasberg
One woman's misguided quest for love, sex, and as much airtime as possible Lisa G. baked cookies for men for all the wrong reasons, but she got it right in radio, eventually landing her dream job as a reporter on The Howard Stern Show. Recipe for Sex, Lies & Cookies 1 oz. dysfunctional Long Island Jewish childhood 3 tbsp. sheer determination 2 cups of double-Ds 1 spoonful of hip-hop A few pinches of sex and a dash of radio reporting Combine ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Salt-n-Pepa to taste, and season with Flavor Flav. Yields: 1 unrated memoir 25+ delicious cookie recipes Lisa G.’s guide to planning the perfect cookie party
HarperCollins 2014-07-01 288 pages

Feeding a Yen Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco

Calvin Trillin
Calvin Trillin has never been a champion of the “continental cuisine” palaces he used to refer to as La Maison de la Casa House. What he treasures is the superb local specialty. And he will go anywhere to find one. As it happens, some of his favorite dishes can be found only in their place of origin. Join Trillin on his charming, funny culinary adventures as he samples fried marlin in Barbados and the barbecue of his boyhood in Kansas City. Travel alongside as he hunts for the authentic fish taco, and participates in a “boudin blitzkrieg” in the part of Louisiana where people are accustomed to buying these spicy sausages and polishing them off in the parking lot. (“Cajun boudin not only doesn’t get outside the state, it usually doesn’t even get home.”) In New York, Trillin even tries to use a glorious local specialty, the bagel, to lure his daughters back from California. Feeding a Yen is a delightful reminder of why New York magazine called Calvin Trillin “our funniest food writer.”
Random House Publishing Group 2004-05-11 224 pages

The World in My Kitchen The Adventures of a (Mostly) French Woman in New York

Colette Rossant
"We are on our way to Le Havre. The train is going so fast that the landscape is all but a blur. From time to time, I can see a farm in the mist surrounded by a sea of green fields. I am excited but also scared. It is 1955, and we are on our way to New York." So begins the marvelous journey of Colette Rossant, just married to an American architect and about to leave France for a new life in the heart of New York City. At first, Colette finds Americans' manners to be as mystifying as their cuisine, but before long, she discovers the myriad charms of her adopted country. Between taking on an astoundingly diverse series of jobs, raising four children, and renovating a Soho town house, Colette develops her own flair for food -- and for superb food writing. In this spirited and deliciously entertaining memoir, Colette shares the unforgettable stories of her forty tumultuous years at the heart of American and international cuisine. The children's cooking school she starts for her daughter's friends turns into a starring role on a PBS television series. As New York magazine's "Underground Gourmet," she hails the city's staggering array of outstanding ethnic cuisine. Either with her husband and children, or on her own, she travels to Africa, China, Japan, and South America, exploring cuisine and culture around the globe. She rides camels through the Australian outback, barters lipstick for fresh vegetables in Tanzania, and is almost arrested as a spy by the Chinese secret police -- just because she is trying to eat like a local. Charming, indomitable, endlessly curious and adventurous, Colette Rossant inspires us to savor every meal -- and every day. With a wonderful array of mouth-watering recipes, The World in My Kitchen is an irresistible celebration of family, food, and life.
Atria Books 2008-11-12 240 pages

Return to Paris A Memoir

Colette Rossant
Paris, 1947: Colette Rossant returns to Paris after waiting out World War II in Cairo among her father's Egyptian-Jewish relatives. Initially, the City of Light seems gray and forbidding to the teenage Colette, especially after her thrill-seeking mother leaves her in the care of her bitter, malaisé grandmother. Yet Paris will prove the place where Colette awakens to her senses. Taken under the wing of Mademoiselle Georgette, the family chef, she develops a taste and talent for French cooking. The streets of Paris soon become Colette's own as she navigates the outdoor markets and café menus and emerges into her new, gastronomical self. Return to Paris is an extraordinary coming-of-age story that charts the course of Colette's culinary adventures -- replete with expertly crafted recipes and family photographs. An exploration of passion in all its flavor and texture, Colette's memoir will live in the hearts and palates of readers for years to come.
Atria Books 2004-04-20 256 pages