Take it from me: You don’t have to be a capable cook to appreciate stories about food. Nor do you need to hang around a hot stove or hold a physical book in your hands. I’ve recently discovered the pleasure — and the comfort — of strolling to the sound of cooking memoirs. Here are my favorites, read with honesty and gusto.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens
By Ina Garten
Garten’s BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS (Random House Audio, 8 hours and 47 minutes) leans into the details of her long marriage to Jeffrey Garten, who first fell in love with her when she visited Dartmouth College as a teenager. It also delivers on the sumptuous meals the pair have shared during their travels and the many nests they’ve feathered together.
But what really amps up the energy in Garten’s plain-spoken delivery are her musings on the first few summers at the Barefoot Contessa, her dearly departed food shop in the Hamptons. We already knew she was the master of coconut macaroons and curried chicken salad. Now we find out why she had a bread oven in the window and what it felt like to jump from the frying pan (home cooking) into the fire (doing it for a living). Would it be nice to have a bit more information on Garten’s midlife reconciliation with her abusive father? Maybe. But this audiobook delivers a feast, along with a PDF of recipes and pictures.
Blood, Bones & Butter
By Gabrielle Hamilton
In the course of Gabrielle Hamilton’s evolution from punk rebel to owner and chef at the small but mighty (and now, sadly, closed) Prune in the East Village, she earned an M.F.A. in fiction at the University of Michigan. Her musings on those graduate school days are as brutally funny as her take on 1990s corporate catering fare (heavy on the gold leaf and shot glasses). Hamilton describes the “self-important singsong way” her classmates used to read their work at potluck dinners — which, for the record, she loathed. Thankfully, she avoids this cadence in her narration of BLOOD, BONES & BUTTER (Random House Audio, 10 hours and 4 minutes).
This the five-star filet mignon of foodie memoirs, blending the frenetic energy of a restaurant kitchen, the camaraderie of an after-service nightcap and the frustration of trying to have your own life while cooking hundreds of meals for strangers. You can hear the strain in Hamilton’s voice as she opens up about the exhausting treadmill of it all. There’s something about the way she describes a dish well served that makes you want preheat the oven and set the table with simple white plates.
Eat a Peach
By David Chang with Gabe Ulla
Chang delivers an equally hearty meal in EAT A PEACH (Random House Audio, 9 hours and 6 minutes), although his monologue comes with a side of self-loathing. “I choose not to hear compliments or bask in positive feedback,” he informs the listener. “Instead, I spend every day imagining the many ways in which the wheels might fall off. This audiobook itself is a source of near-constant uneasiness.”
This vulnerability makes for a relatable, even educational listen, especially if you’re someone who associates ramen with noodle bricks and flavor packets. At Momofuku, Chang elevated the dish to an art form, then expanded his empire to include other restaurants. Here, he goes off menu, opening up about mental health struggles, his famously explosive temper and his beefs with anonymous reviewers.
Yes, Chef
By Marcus Samuelsson with Veronica Chambers
Before “Yes, Chef” became the unofficial catchphrase of “The Bear,” it was the title of Samuelsson’s book. Describing YES, CHEF (Random House Audio, 11 hours and 47 minutes) as a food memoir is a little bit like describing “Spare” as Prince Harry’s immigration story: The meals themselves are almost beside the point. Samuelsson got his start at the Manhattan restaurant Aquavit, cooked the first state dinner for President Barack Obama (who, come to think of it, owes us the second volume of his memoir) and is now the owner of several restaurants, including Red Rooster Harlem.
But before all that, Samuelsson was a 2-year-old who came down with tuberculosis in Meki, Ethiopia, in 1972. His mother, who was also ill, put him on her back and walked more than 75 miles to a hospital in Addis Ababa. She died there, leaving Samuelsson an orphan, and he was soon adopted by a Swedish family. He learned to love food from his grandmother, who made pickles, jam and bread, but he keeps Ethiopian spice mix in his kitchen to this day; in fact, his memoir is dedicated “To my two mothers, Ahnu and Anne Marie.” Samuelsson reads the book evenly and unwaveringly, with the confidence of someone who doesn’t need a recipe.
What I Ate in One Year
By Stanley Tucci
From Jan. 2, 2023, to Jan. 2, 2024, Tucci jotted down what he ate, alongside musings about his life as an actor, a cook, a traveler and a family man (not necessarily in that order). The title of the resulting book, “WHAT I ATE IN ONE YEAR” (Simon & Schuster Audio, 7 hours and 48 minutes), is as straightforward as Tucci himself. In this prosaic yet oddly moving account, he reveals himself to be a person unafraid to declare a dud meal.
For instance: “The catering is dreadful. Really. Dreadful. Gross, even,” Tucci says of the meals he eats on the set of “Conclave,” which was filmed in Rome. “Heavy-handed sauces, overcooked pastas, stringy meats. I won’t go on.”
You almost wish he would. Of course Tucci dishes about delicious meals too — many of them whipped up in his own kitchen and devoured by family members, about whom he writes lovingly — but this memoir’s cantankerous passages are the most fun, especially on audio. Whether he’s describing an inedible hot dog, an overcomplicated salad or a disgusting convenience store sandwich, Tucci opines with conviction, humor and snark, calling to mind precisely the seatmate you hope to encounter at a holiday meal. There’s no dramatic arc to this memoir, no big “reveal.” It’s a look back on days well lived, humans adored and meals devoured, and it makes for a satisfying listen.
My Life in France
By Julia Child with Alex Prud’Homme
An omnivorous consumer of pop culture could be forgiven for making the leap from Stanley Tucci’s table to Julia Child’s; after all, Tucci played her husband, Paul, in the movie “Julie & Julia” (2009). In writing that screenplay, Nora Ephron drew from Julie Powell’s book by the same name and from Child’s own memoir, MY LIFE IN FRANCE (Random House Audio, 11 hours and 17 minutes), which came out in 2006. The book focuses on 1948 through 1954, when Child was living in Paris and Marseille and coming into her own in the kitchen.
“Those early years in France were among the best of my life,” she writes in the introduction. “They marked a crucial period of transformation in which I found my true calling, experienced an awakening of the senses, and had such fun that I hardly stopped moving long enough to catch my breath.”
On the pages of her cookbooks and in her television show, Child comes across as outspoken and unsinkable — a woman before her time, who addressed home cooks with respect and candor. But Kimberly Farr’s low-key audio narration contains notes of vulnerability, reminding listeners that Child was breaking new ground in a world where chefs tended to be male. In recounting expatriate life, Child remembers the garnishes that make a meal, including gossip from the vegetable lady at Rue de Bourgogne marketplace and the adorable antics of her cat, Minette. Bon appétit!
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