Rooted in the Kitchen

Are you hungry yet? Check out these books about food, hunger, and all things culinary. Includes novels, as well as nonfiction titles, like chef memoirs. Plant a seed, read!

Updated May 3, 2026
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The particular sadness of lemon cake : a novel
Bender, Aimee.
Paper Book
The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse. On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her...
The joy of snacking : a graphic memoir about food, love & family
Campbell, Hilary Fitzgerald
New Yorker cartoonist and author of Murder Book Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell returns with a riotous and radically candid comic memoir about snacks, connection, and developing a taste for freedom. From standup comedian, ...
Our lady of perpetual hunger : a memoir
Donovan, Lisa
Ebook
Named a Favorite Book for Southerners in 2020 by Garden & Gun  "Donovan is such a vivid writer--smart, raunchy, vulnerable and funny-- that if her vaunted caramel cakes and sugar pies are half as good as her prose, well, I'd be open to even...
Death comes in through the kitchen
Dovalpage, Teresa
Ebook
Don't let the authentic Cuban recipes fool you: This is no cozy mystery. Set in Havana during the Black Spring of 2003, a charming but poison-laced culinary mystery reveals the darker side of the modern Revolution. Matt, a San Diego journalist, arrives in Havana to marry his...
Setting a place for us : recipes and stories of displacement, resilience, and community from eight countries impacted by war
Hassan, Hawa
Paper Book
An enthralling, intimate collection of essays and over 75 recipes exploring the history of eight countries to understand the impact of geopolitical conflict and its outcomes on cuisine and food system, from Somali refugee and James Beard Award-winning author of In Bibi's Kitchen. ...
Strong roots : a memoir of food, family, and Ukraine
Hercules, Olia
Paper Book
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, award-winning Ukrainian chef and food writer Olia Hercules decided it was finally time to tell her story. Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one...
The Kamogawa food detectives
Kashiwai, Hisashi
Audiobook
The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese series, for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. What's the one dish you'd do anything to taste just one more time? Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto...
Eat, drink and drop dead
LoTempio, T. C.
Paper Book
A former chef gets mixed up in murder when she moves back to her Southern home town in the first Tiffany Austin food blogger mystery - a culinary cozy that will make your brain work and your stomach rumble!"I was hooked from start to finish!" Laura Childs, New York Times bestselling author of the...
My life in recipes : food, family, and memories
Nathan, Joan
Paper Book
A NYT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE BEST BOOK ABOUT FOOD OF THE YEAR * A SAVEUR BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR A new cookbook from the best-selling and award-winning author that uses recipes to look back at her life and family history--and at her personal journey...
The coincidence of coconut cake
Reichert, Amy E.
Ebook
A charming romantic comedy about a talented chef and the anonymous food critic who nearly destroys her restaurant--only to fall for her in real life--in this delightful enemies-to-lovers love story set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In downtown Milwaukee, Lou works tirelessly to build...
How to share an egg : a true story of hunger, love, and plenty
Reichert, Bonny
Ebook
An "absolutely transformative" (People) culinary memoir about the relationship between food and family--sustenance and survival--from a chef, award-winning journalist, and daughter of a Holocaust survivor. "Beautifully written, heartbreaking and hopeful."--Ruth Reichl, New...
Save me the plums : my Gourmet memoir
Reichl, Ruth
Paper Book
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...
Cellar rat : my life in the restaurant underbelly
Selinger, Hannah
Ebook
What happens when a career you love doesn't love you back? As Hannah Selinger will tell you, to be a good restaurant employee is to be invisible. At the height of her career as a server and then sommelier at some of New York's most famed dining institutions,...
Radha & Jai's recipe for romance
Sharma, Nisha,
Paper Book
To All the Boys I Loved Before meets World of Dance in this delectable love story that combines food, dance, and a hint of drama to cook up the perfect romance. Radha is on the verge of becoming one of the greatest kathak dancers in the world . . . until a family...
More, please : on food, fat, bingeing, longing, and the lust for "enough"
Specter, Emma
Ebook
ONE OF TIME 100'S MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024 * A DEBUTIFUL BEST BOOK OF 2024 * FEATURED IN NYLON * W MAGAZINE * GLAMOUR * BOOK RIOT * HEYALMA * BUSTLE * ELECTRIC LITERATURE * ROMPER * AND MORE! "Tender, funny, angry, and sharp as hell. This is an essential book for anyone with a body, anyone...
Taste : my life through food
Tucci, Stanley
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Named a Notable Book of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen.
Praisesong for the kitchen ghosts : stories and recipes from five generations of Black country cooks
Wilkinson, Crystal
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, throughpowerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former poetlaureate of Kentucky."With Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts,...
Care and feeding : a memoir
Woolever, Laurie
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! A candid, funny, and occasionally devastating culinary memoir of a woman making her way through the food world, navigating addiction, a cultural reckoning, and an unexpected tragedy In this moving, hilarious, and insightful...
Land of milk and honey
Zhang, C Pam
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK  Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Award Longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary...

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