With the recent announcement by Condé Nast that Gourmet magazine will cease publication at the end of this year, and with Thanksgiving mere weeks away, food is on many of our minds. While most of us associate food with good cooking and good eating, not many make the connection between food and good writing. It is true, however, that over the years some amazing books have been inspired by an appreciation for food. While you are probably aware that the Chatham Area Public Library offers an array of cookbooks for every palate, you may not know that we also offer a variety of narrative nonfiction books that will stimulate your inner epicurean.
Many memoirs concentrate on the writer’s love of food, cooking, and eating. Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet magazine and former restaurant critic for the New York Times, has written several memoirs along these lines. In Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, Reichl describes growing up with a mother who not only couldn’t cook, but would routinely throw together appalling concoctions that would quite literally make anyone who ate them violently ill. Reichl describes how, from such inauspicious beginnings, she learned to love food and how cooking figured into her personal and professional life. Reichl continues her story in Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table, in which she recounts her transition from cook and chef to restaurant critic.
Many people who work in the food industry have written wildly entertaining accounts of their years spent in the kitchen. Anthony Bourdain, known for hosting the TV series No Reservations, is the author of a number of books as well. In Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Bourdain traces his culinary career and reveals some of the dark secrets of the restaurant industry along the way. Steve Dublanica wrote Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip–Confessions of a Cynical Waiter (based on his popular blog, Waiter Rant), recalling anecdotes about his customers’ odd, rude, or clueless behavior.
Other foodies take the approach of writing about particular ingredients or meditations on where our food comes from. One wouldn’t think it, but it is possible to write a fascinating book about the humblest of foodstuffs, and Mark Kurlansky demonstrates this powerfully in Salt: A World History, which traces the socio-cultural importance of salt from ancient to modern times. Kurlansky also wrote an interesting account of a more exotic food, combining the history of the oyster and of New York City into one compelling narrative in his book The Big Oyster: History on the Half-Shell.
One well-known exposé of the fast food industry is Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, which was the basis of the 2006 film Fast Food Nation. In the book, Schlosser reveals not only the practices of the fast food industry, but also the impact it has had on our health and other aspects of the culture and economy.
On the other end of the spectrum from Schlosser’s fast food focus is Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. In this book, Kingsolver describes how she and her family started to actively investigate where the food in their refrigerator came from, and then embarked on an experiment to buy food produced as locally as possible–preferably by themselves or their neighbors. Kingsolver concludes by arguing for the reinstatement of diversified farms as the suppliers of the majority of foods.
Before the stupor following Thanksgiving dinner sets in, head out to the Chatham Area Public Library and pick up a book or two about food. They’re sure to make your mouth water!
The Chatham Area Public Library is offering a Computer Basics class on Saturday, November 7 at 10:00 a.m. Please call the Library (483-2713) to sign up.
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