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Food for Thought
Return to the Book List Menu.
"One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends."
LAURIE COLWIN, Home Cooking
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Bard, Elizabeth. Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes. 2010. 070.92 BAR.
- A journalist spends a weekend in Paris and, during lunch with a Frenchman, she begins to fall in love with French cuisine and one particular Parisian. Savor the recollections - and the recipes.
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Boorstin, Sharon. Let Us Eat Cake. 2002. 641.5 BOO.
- This delightful and charming memoir, an exploration of the bonds of women over food and cooking, includes dozens of recipes.
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Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential. 2000. 641.5 BOU.
- A famous bad-boy New York chef tells about his "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine." Shockingly funny!
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Buford, Bill. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-quoting Butcher in Tuscany. 2006. 641.59455 BUF.
- An author tries his hand at working his way up from the bottom at the famous Manhattan restaurant, Babbo, owned by celebrity chef, Mario Batali. Buford writes about Batali's rise to fame and chronicles his own humiliations and triumphs at Babbo.
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Chen, Patricia. Rosemary and Bitter Oranges: Growing Up in a Tuscan Kitchen. 2003. 641.5945 CHE.
- This cookbook/memoir tells the story of a childhood in post-World War II Tuscany and of the beloved family cook who taught the author rich culinary traditions.
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Child, Julia. My Life in France. 2006. 641.5092 CHI.
- Alex Prud'homme, Julia's nephew, had many interviews with his aunt near the end of her extraordinary life. If you enjoyed the movie, Julie & Julia, you must read Julia's own account, transcribed by Prud'homme, of how she came to France and developed a passion for the country and its cooking.
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Ehrlich, Elizabeth. Miriam's Kitchen: A Memoir. 1997. 641.5676 EHR.
- Helping with preparation for kosher Jewish meals in the home of her mother-in-law, a Holocaust survivor, the author learns of tragedies and traditions, along with heirloom family recipes.
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Ellerbee, Linda. Take Big Bites: Adventures around the World and across the Table. 2005. 641.092 ELL.
- Although she is neither a food writer nor a chef, award-winning journalist Linda Ellerbee always fantasized about writing for a food or travel magazine, a feat she thought was unattainable. This book is her answer to that dream, along with some random musings from her travels.
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Fisher, M.F.K. Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon. 1991. B FISHER.
- One of the premier food memoirists recalls her glorious early married days spent learning to love the food and folk of France.
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Greene, Gael. Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess.
2006. 641.092 GRE.
- The New York Magazine restaurant critic tells all about her adventures with celebrities, whether from haute cuisine or Hollywood.
- Hazan, Marcella. Amarcord, Marcella Remembers: The Remarkable Life Story of the Woman Who Started Out Teaching Science in a Small Town in Italy, but Ended Up Teaching America How to Cook.
2008. 641.5092 HAZ.
- Raised on the Adriatic coast of Italy, Hazan came to America with her husband in the 60s. Her story reflects the time after WWII when American cooks began to investigate European cooking. Hazan tells how she began giving Italian cooking lessons in her Manhattan kitchen, then went on to write The Classic Italian Cookbook. The Italian Julia Child!
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Jaffrey, Madhur. Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India.
2006. B JAFFREY.
- One of the foremost writers on the food of India tells of her childhood in Delhi, replete with stories of memorable extended family meals, the exotic foods of India, and the tragic effects of the partition of India and Pakistan on her world.
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Jones, Judith. The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. 2007. 641.59 JON.
- A legendary editor tells how she helped seminal figures in the 20th century revolution in American cooking - starting by publishing Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
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Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.
2007. 630.975 KIN.
- After the acclaimed novelist and her family move from Arizona to rural Appalachia to learn how to live on only locally-grown foods, she recounts their year of experiments with intensive gardening, cooking, baking, and searching for other nearby food sources.
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Loomis, Susan Herrmann. On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town.
2001. 641.5944 LOO.
- A bestselling cookbook author and journalist tells the delicious story of her expatriate life: raising a family, renovating a convent, and savoring the culinary bounty of one of Normandy's most picturesque towns.
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Mayes, Frances. Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy.
1996. 945.5 MAY.
- Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world, rife with unexpected pleasures, pastimes and regional recipes, when she undertook the renovation of a farmhouse in the Tuscan countryside.
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Mayle, Peter.   French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork and Corkscrew.  
2001.   641.103 MAY.
- A joyous exploration and celebration of the infinite gastronomic pleasures of France, as Mayle traverses the French countryside with fork and knife in hand.
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Mayle, Peter.  A Year in Provence.  
1991.   944 MAY.
- A delightful and hilarious month-by-month account of the charms and frustrations Mayle experienced when he moved into an old French farmhouse in Provence and adapted to a very different way of living, eating and cooking.
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Pepin, Jacques. The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen. 2003. 641.5092 PEP.
- In this frank and witty memoir, world-renowned chef Jacques Pepin tells how he rose from a frightened 13-year-old apprentice in an Old World kitchen to an Emmy Award-winning TV superstar.
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Powell, Julie. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen .
2005. 641.5092 POW.
- Now made into a movie, this account of a young New York blogger's attempt to cook every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is comical and captivating.
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Reichl, Ruth.   Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table.  
1998.   641.5092 REI.
- Tender at the Bone is the story of Reichl's life: determined, enhanced, and defined in equal measure by unforgettable people, the love of tales well told, and a passion for food.
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Reichl, Ruth.   Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise.  
2005.   641.5092 REI.
- This delicious new volume of Reichl's acclaimed memoirs recounts her "adventures in deception," as she goes undercover in the world's finest restaurants.
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Rossant, Colette.   Memories of a Lost Egypt: A Memoir with Recipes.  
1999.   962 ROS.
- Spiced with heady recipes, an award-winning journalist of French and Egyptian heritage writes a poignant memoir of growing up in an exotic mix of cultures surrounded by gossip and the thread of food.
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Scheib, Walter and Friedman, Andrew. White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen. 2007. 642.4 SCH.
- Memoirs of the pressure-cooker life in the White House kitchen under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
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Smith, Liz.  Dishing.  
2005.   641.013 SMI.
- Nothing goes better with a good meal than a little juicy gossip--and no one puts them together better than this beloved gossip columnist. In this delicious memoir, Smith shares celebrity dish--and dishes, from peanut butter and jelly to pig's feet to haute cuisine.
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Todhunter, Andrew.   A Meal Observed.  
2004.   641.5944 TOD.
- Todhunter takes a magazine-length idea and turns it into an amusing little book, combining history and experience with a sheaf of helpful culinary notes.
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- Wizenberg, Molly. A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table.
2009. 641.5092 WIZ.
- A young American goes to Paris to search for new meaning in life, falls in love with French cuisine, begins a blog about it, and ends up marrying one of her many blog fans!
Compiled by Jon Kadus, June 2005; updated by Susan McGowan, 2010.
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