Culinary Memoirs

Updated September 19, 2022
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Kitchen confidential : adventures in the culinary underbelly
Bourdain, Anthony
Paper Book
After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all. From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the...
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
Julie Powell
Paper Book
The bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer) that inspired Julie & Julia, the major motion picture directed by Nora Ephron, starring Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia. Nearing 30 and...
My life in France
Child, Julia
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Julia's story of her transformative years in France in her own words is "captivating ... her marvelously distinctive voice is present on every page." (San Francisco Chronicle). Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to...
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
Ruth Reichl
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The debut memoir from the renowned author of Save Me the Plums, about the people who"steered her on the path to fulfill her destiny as one of the world's leading food writers" (Chicago Sun-Times). "An absolute delight to...
Heat : an amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta maker, and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany
Buford, Bill
Paper Book
From one of our most interesting literary figures – former editor of Granta, former fiction editor atThe New Yorker, acclaimed author ofAmong the Thugs– a sharp, funny, exuberant, close-up account of his headlong plunge into the life of a professional cook. Expanding on his James Beard...
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir
Michelle Zauner
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American--"in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself" (NPR). * CELEBRATING...
Toast
Nigel Slater
Paper Book
To coincide with the release of a major film adaptation, a new edition of Nigel Slater's much-loved and acclaimed memoir. TOAST is Nigel Slater's truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mother's ritual burning of the toast, his father's...
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen
Laurie Colwin
Paper Book
Weaving together memories, recipes, and wild tales of years spent in the kitchen, the acclaimed author of Happy All the Time delivers a beloved cookbook manifesto on the joys of sharing food and entertaining. * With a foreword by Ruth Reichl. "As...
The sweet life in Paris : delicious adventures in the world's most glorious - and perplexing - city
Lebovitz, David
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of My Paris Kitchen and L'Appart, a deliciously funny, offbeat, and irreverent look at the city of lights, cheese, chocolate, and other confections. Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about...
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen
Jacques Pepin
Paper Book
In this captivating memoir, the man whom Julia Child has called "the best chef in America" tells the story of his rise from a frightened apprentice in an exacting Old World kitchen to an Emmy Award-winning superstar who taught millions of Americans how to cook and shaped the nation's tastes in the...
Taste: My Life Through Food
Stanley Tucci
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.
The Gastronomical Me
M. F. K. Fisher
Paper Book
In 1929, a newly married M.F.K. Fisher said goodbye to a milquetoast American culinary upbringing and sailed with her husband to Dijon, where she tasted real French cooking for the first time. The Gastronomical Me is a chronicle of her passionate embrace of a whole new way of eating,...
Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India
Madhur Jaffrey
Paper Book
Born into a sprawling house by the Yamuna River in Delhi, Madhur Jaffrey has always been around fine Indian cuisine. In this book, she tells the story of her life, as well as including some of the recipes that have made her famous.
Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris
Ann Mah
Audiobook
The memoir of a young diplomat's wife who must reinvent her dream of living in Paris--one dish at a time When journalist Ann Mah's diplomat husband is given a three-year assignment in Paris, Ann is overjoyed. A lifelong foodie and Francophile, she immediately begins plotting...
Notes from a young Black chef : a memoir
Onwuachi, Kwame
Paper Book
"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 (winner of the 2019 James Beard Foundation Award for ...
My Berlin kitchen : a love story, with recipes
Weiss, Luisa.
Paper Book
The Wednesday Chef cooks her heart out, finds her way home, and shares her recipes with us It takes courage to turn your life upside down, especially when everyone is telling you how lucky you are. But sometimes what seems right can feel deeply wrong. My Berlin Kitchen...
Give a girl a knife : a memoir
Thielen, Amy
Paper Book
A beautifully written food memoir chronicling one woman's journey from her rural Midwestern hometown to the intoxicating world of New York City fine dining--and back again--in search of her culinary roots   Before Amy Thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in...
Burn the place : a memoir
Regan, Iliana
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD A singular, powerfully expressive debut memoir that traces one chef's struggle to find her place and what happens once she does. Burn the Place is a galvanizing memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan's journey...
Mango and peppercorns : a memoir of food, an unlikely family, and the American dream
Nguyen, Tung (Restaurateur)
Paper Book
A powerful memoir of resilience, friendship, family, and food from the acclaimed chefs behind the award-winning Hy Vong Vietnamese restaurant in Miami. IACP AWARD WINNER: Literary or Historical Food Writing Through powerful...
My Ackee Tree: A Chef's Memoir of Finding Home in the Kitchen
Suzanne Barr
Paper Book
Suzanne Barr's journey to become a chef started when she was 30. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer and she moved home to Florida to take care of her. Suzanne escorted her mother to doctor's appointments, bathed her, and kept her company, but the hardest part of the experience was that she didn't...

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