Healthy Appetites

What is American cuisine? What national menu do we share? What dishes have we chosen, how did they become "American," and how are they likely to evolve from here? In Food Americana, David Page answers all these questions and more.

America is more than just a fast food nation. Food Americana is the inside story of how generations of Americans... Read more »

Phyllis Grant's Everything Is Under Control is a memoir about appetite as it comes, goes, and refocuses its object of desire. Grant's story follows the sometimes smooth, sometimes jagged, always revealing contours of her life: from her days as a dancer struggling to find her place at Julliard, to her experiences in and out of four-star kitchens... Read more »

When Chef Anthony Bourdain wrote "Don't Eat Before You Read This" in The New Yorker, he spared no one's appetite, revealing what goes on behind the kitchen door. In Kitchen Confidential, he expanded the appetizer into a deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet that lays out his twenty-five years of sex, drugs, and haute cuisine.

From his... Read more »

“Kwame Onwuachi’s story shines a light on food and culture not just in American restaurants or African American communities but around the world.” —Questlove
 
By the time he was twenty-seven years old, Kwame Onwuachi had opened—and closed—one of the most talked about restaurants in America. He had launched his own catering company with twenty... Read more »

In her own words, here is the captivating story of Julia Child’s years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found her “true calling.”

From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre, en route to Paris, in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who... Read more »

Eat a Peach

“Unapologetically honest and raw, "Eat a Peach" is David Chang's no holds barred account of his rise to fame in the culinary world. David writes candidly about his complicated upbringing, mental illness, crippling anxiety and self doubt, and major anger management issues as he dishes up subversive, accessible food to the masses.  I appreciated how Chang's praise of his peers, mentors and aspiring chefs was peppered throughout the book. "Eat A Peach" doesn't shy away from anything, including Chang's fight against racism and his answer to the #meetoo movement.  If you are a foodie or enjoy a look behind the scenes of a business, you'll devour this memoir!The audio narrated by David Chang is excellent!”

Jessica, Main Street Books Davidson

A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi’s unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera—a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron’s HeartburnLong before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television... Read more »

Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touchpoints in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes listeners to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged... Read more »

Taste

“If I did not already love Stanley Tucci before this, I would most certainly love him now. In true Stanley Tucci fashion, this memoir/cookbook/food writing tome is witty, acerbic, candid, and very, delicious. This book is a gift for foodies and non-foodies alike, but I dare you not to become a foodie after reading. I especially enjoyed the audiobook as it was read by the author himself. I felt like he was right next to me reading and it was a joyous experience! ”

Rebecca, Rediscovered Books

Save Me the Plums

“I really enjoyed this giant love letter from Ruth Reichl to Gourmet Magazine, her co-workers and her family. I’ve always enjoyed Reichl’s voice in her cookbooks and memoirs and this is no different. I listened to this and Reichl read it herself. Just as enjoyable was listening to her read aloud the recipes in the book.the story about how she first joined the magazine and how she changed it was fascinating to listen to. I’ve flipped through Gourmet over the years and made some fantastic dishes from it. It’s a shame and shameful how the powers that be closed the magazine so suddenly and without notice to the staff or readers. It’s time for me to revisit her last cookbook (which she wrote after the magazine shut down).”

Audrey, Belmont Books

The author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance—salt, the only rock humans eat—and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends economic, scientific, political, religious, and... Read more »