Culinary Biography

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE An “extraordinary” (The New York Times Book Review) tender and vivid memoir about the radical grace we discover when we consider ourselves bound together in community, and a moving account of one woman’s attempt to answer the essential question Who are...

Why are gravy stains on your shirt at the dinner table to be admired? Does bacon improve everything? And is gin really the devil's work? In this rollicking collection of his hilarious columns, the award-winning writer and Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner answers these vital questions and many, many more. They are glorious dispatches, seasoned in equal measure with both enthusiasm and bile, from decades at the very frontline of eating.

For more than 30 years, Patience Gray, author of the celebrated cookbook Honey from a Weed, lived in a remote area of Puglia in southernmost Italy. She lived without electricity, modern plumbing, or a telephone, grew much of her own food, and gathered and ate wild plants alongside her neighbors in this economically impoverished region. She was fond of saying that she wrote only for herself and her friends, yet her growing reputation brought a steady stream of international visitors to her door.

From Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben to the Jolly Green Giant and Ronald McDonald, corporate icons sell billions of dollars’ worth of products. But only one of them was ever a real person—Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken/KFC. From a 1930s roadside café in Corbin, Kentucky, Harland Sanders launched a fried chicken business that now circles the globe, serving “finger lickin’ good” chicken to more than 12 million people every day.

In this poignant, delicious memoir, American tax preparer and food writer Steve Hoffman tells the story of how he and his family move to the French countryside, where the locals upend everything he knows about food, wine, and learning how to belong. Steve Hoffman is a perfectly comfortable...

In the 1970s, New York City was plagued by crime, filth, and an ineffective government. The city was falling apart, and even the newly constructed World Trade Center threatened to be a fiasco. But in April 1976, a quarter-mile up on the 107th floor of the North Tower, a new restaurant called Windows on the World opened its doors - a glittering sign that New York wasn't done just yet. In The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World, journalist Tom Roston tells the complete history of this incredible restaurant, from its stunning $14-million opening to 9/11 and its tragic end.

Anthony Bourdain was an American celebrity chef, author, travel documentarian, and television personality who starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition. He was considered one of the most influential chefs in the world.

From wartime nutrition science to modern food activism, Six Women Who Shaped What Americans Eat examines the pivotal roles six women played in rewriting the rules of American cuisine. Michelle Mart offers a rich and accessible narrative that connects dietary trends, food marketing, and public health movements to the voices of the women who helped drive them.

In The Food and Wine of France, influential food writer Edward Behr investigates French cuisine and what it means, in encounters from Champagne to Provence. He tells the stories of French artisans and chefs who continue to work at the highest level. Many people in and out of France have noted for a long time the slow retreat of French cuisine, concerned that it is losing its important place in the country's culture and in the world culture of food. And yet, as Behr writes, good French food remains very, very delicious.

Madhur (meaning sweet as honey) Jaffrey grew up in a large family compound by the Yamuna River in Delhi where her grandfather often presided over dinners with forty or more members of his extended family savoring together the wonderfully flavorful dishes that were forever imprinted on Madhur's palate.

During a 30-year boom period in France between the end of World War II and the 1974 oil crisis, Paris was not only the world's most delicious, stylish, and exciting tourist destination; it was also the world capital of gastronomic genius and innovation. The Gourmands' Way explores the lives and writings of six Americans who chronicled the food and wine of this era, paying particular attention to their individual struggles as writers, to their life circumstances, and to their particular genius at sharing awareness of French food with mainstream American audiences.

Burn the Place is a galvanizing culinary memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan's journey from foraging on the family farm to opening her Michelin-starred restaurant. Her story is alive with startling imagery, raw like that first bite of wild onion, and told with uncommon emotional power. Regan grew up the youngest of four headstrong girls on a small farm in Indiana. Regan often felt that she "wasn't made for this world." She was a little girl who longed to be a boy, gay in an intolerant community, an alcoholic before she turned 20, a woman in an industry dominated by men.

My Berlin Kitchen tells the story of how one thoroughly confused, kitchen-mad romantic broke off her engagement, quit her dream job, and went across the ocean in search of happiness. Luisa Weiss was working in New York after college and living with her future fiancé when she decided to bake, roast, and stew her way through the huge collection of recipes she’d been clipping and hoarding for years. The blog she wrote to document her adventures, The Wednesday Chef, soon became a sensation. But she never stopped longing for her childhood home in Berlin.

Out of Line describes Lynch's remarkable process of self-invention, including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world, and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen. It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture, governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor. Through her story, Lynch explores how the past - both what we strive to escape from and what we remain true to - can strengthen and expand who we are.

Trying to shake off the emotions of a recently emptied nest and midlife anxiety, Peter Gregg launches into a strange new chapter—he decides to make maple syrup. A lot of it. After recruiting his best buddy, Bert, and collecting advice from a clique of salty farmers who’ve been sugaring all their lives, Gregg is soon consumed by what maple producers call “the Bug.” He sets out to chase the mythical “five pounder” goal—a lofty syrup production total that’ll put him in league with the pros in Vermont.

The explosive true story of a secret group of radicals who launched a clandestine battle to save the planet—and what their legacy illuminates about the past, present, and future of the environmental movement In the early hours of October 28, 1996, a driver in rural Oregon spotted flames rising...

Née au Bénin, Georgiana grandit entourée de femmes passionnées qui l'initient aux plats traditionnels. Malgré un drame étouffé lors de son adolescence, elle se reconstruit, nourrit des rêves d'avenir et s'envole pour Paris. Là-bas, elle affronte précarité, sexisme et racisme ordinaires. Son arrivée à Marseille marque le début de son éveil à la cuisine, des premiers concours à son ascension spectaculaire vers l'étoile Michelin.

A county government in the state of Maryland doesn't want a chitlin market in their area, declaring chitlins a "negative racial stereotype". All Shauna Anderson wants is a restaurant where she can greet and serve her loyal following. While fighting off her enemies, Shauna becomes a close friend with her young, handsome restaurant contractor. They quickly discover multiple personality disorders in one another, brought on for both by childhood traumas. Together, the two of them fight vandals, crooked inspectors, doubting friends, and shady neighbors.

"Al termine della prima settimana, seicento assaggi avevano già azzerato ogni mia volontà di capirci ancora qualcosa. In quattro, cinque giorni mi spazzolavo la storia del Barolo o dell'Amarone, pretendendo anche di giudicarla. Era come stilare la classifica dei migliori film della stagione, fermandosi ai titoli di testa. Il mio spettacolo non andava mai oltre l'unghia del bicchiere. E seduti di fronte a me, non vedevo più colleghi e collaboratori, ma polli da batteria, costretti a beccare senza sosta." Con tono schietto e pungente, Tiziano Gaia ci conduce nel mondo dei vini.

Alexander Herrmann ist mit zwei Michelin-Sternen und diversen TV-Auftritten einer der erfolgreichsten deutschen Spitzenköche. In diesem Hörbuch erzählt er erstmals aus seinem Leben - und aus seiner Küche. Anekdotenreich beschreibt Herrmann, wie er vom beschaulichen oberfränkischen Wirsberg aus seine einzig­artige Karriere als Spitzenkoch und Multi-Unternehmer startete. Neben autobiografischen Einblicken ist es ihm aber auch ein Anliegen, den Leser an den Alltag hinter den Kulissen der Sterneküche heranzuführen.