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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To kill a cook
Akers, W. M.
Nobody in Manhattan eats better than Bernice Black. It's 1972, and she is the city's busiest restaurant critic, juggling her fiance and his two young sons with demands of fine dining. Bernice talks fast, walks faster, has a razor-sharp wit and no patience for anything-or anyone-that gets in her way....
Breadcrumbs : coming of age in post-Soviet Poland
Babis, Katarzyna
Paper Book
An NPR Best Book of the Year This moving graphic memoir is a coming-of-age story set in Poland as the country transitions from communism to capitalism. Perfect for fans of Persepolis! In the late 1980s, Poland faces debilitating food shortages, worker...
Be my guest : reflections on food, community and the meaning of generosity
Basil, Priya
Paper Book
A meditation on the meaning and limits of hospitality today, from the shortlisted author of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
The particular sadness of lemon cake
Bender, Aimee
Paper Book
"On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attentions, bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the cake. But her gift is no...
The joy of snacking : a graphic memoir about food, love & family
Campbell, Hilary Fitzgerald
Paper Book
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, New Yorker ...
Hungry hearts : 13 tales of food & love
Chapman, Elsie
Paper Book
"A briliant multicultual collection that reminds readers that stories about food are rarely just about the food alone." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A stunning collection of short stories about the intersection of family, culture, and food in the lives in teens,...
Fatty fatty boom boom : a memoir of food, fat, and family
Chaudry, Rabia
Paper Book
"A delicious and mouthwatering book about food and family, the complicated love for both, and how that shapes us into who we are . . . I absolutely loved it!" --Valerie Bertinelli Rabia Chaudry--known from the podcast Serial and her be...
Coconuts & collards : recipes and stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South
Diaz, Von
Paper Book
Finalist, International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Awards in the Literary or Historical Food Writing Category    When her family moved from Puerto Rico to Atlanta, Von Diaz traded plantains, roast pork, and malta for grits, fried chicken, and sweet tea....
Our lady of perpetual hunger : a memoir
Donovan, Lisa
Paper Book
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
Paper Book
Havana, Cuba, 2003: Matt, a San Diego journalist, arrives in Havana to marry his girlfriend, Yarmila, a 24-year-old Cuban woman whom he first met through her food blog. But Yarmi isn't there to meet him at the airport, and when he hitches a ride to her apartment, he finds her lying dead in the...
Best served hot
Elliot, Amanda
Paper Book
Two restaurant critics learn their opposing tastes might make for a five-star relationship in the next foodie romantic comedy from the author of Sadie on a Plate. By day, Julie Zimmerman works as an executive assistant. After hours, she's @JulieZeeEatsNYC, a social media...
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...
Pakistan: Recipes and Stories from Home Kitchens, Restaurants, and Roadside Stands
Jillani, Maryam.
Paper Book
BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR: The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Bon Appétit, Epicurious, NPR, Serious Eats, The Strategist  The first major cookbook on Pakistani food, featuring breathtaking photography and over 100 delicious, achievable recipes.<...
The Kamogawa food detectives
Kashiwai, Hisashi
Paper Book
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...
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...
How to share an egg : a true story of hunger, love, and plenty
Reichert, Bonny
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER GLOBE & MAIL GLOBE 100: BEST BOOKS OF 2025 CBC BOOKS BEST CANADIAN NON-FICTION 2025 NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2025 "I started crying on page one; a few pages later I burst into laughter. This beautifully written ...
Save me the plums my gourmet memoir
Reichl, Ruth
Paper Book
A New York Times BestsellerAn Indie Next PickWhen Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America's oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, with no inclination to be anyone's boss. Yet Reichl had read Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her...
Hunger like a thirst : from food stamps to fine dining, a restaurant critic finds her place at the table
Rodell, Besha
Paper Book
A witty and lively memoir from food writer and New York Times contributor Besha Rodell, (formerly) one of the world's last anonymous restaurant critics When Besha Rodell moved from Australia to the United States with her mother at fourteen, she was a foreigner in a new...
Mother sauce : Italian American family recipes and the story of the women who created them
Scala Quinn, Lucinda
Paper Book
From home cook and author Lucinda Scala Quinn, a cookbook containing 100 iconic and beloved Italian-American recipes from the last century. Named a Best Cookbook of 2025 by Real Simple and The Strategist  In America today,...
Cellar rat : my life in the restaurant underbelly
Selinger, Hannah
Paper Book
Town & Country's Best Books of Spring 2025 | Kirkus Reviews's Most Anticipated Nonfiction of Spring 2025 | Amazon's Best Books of the Month | American Writers Museum's Staff Picks What happens when a career you love doesn't love you back? ...
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
Paper Book
An unflinching and deeply reported look at the realities of binge-eating disorder from a rising culture commentator and writer for Vogue. Millions of us use restrictive diets, intermittent fasting, IV therapies, and Ozempic abuse to shrink until we are sample-size acceptable....
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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