Let’s dig into some nonfiction focused all around the topic of food.

Week 3: (Nov. 12 to 16) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Julie @ JulzReads): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share three or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).

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I spent a long time toying with what I wanted to be the expert on for this week’s prompt. I had an idea for writing about YA nonfiction about women athletes because there are some great titles out there (hello to books like Proud by Ibtihaj Muhammad, Forward by Abby Wambach, and Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince), and I also toyed with rounding up some of the productivity/happy living books that have left an impact on me in some way (though unfortunately, this tends to be really white in terms of authorship).

Finally, as I scrolled through my list of nonfiction reads, I realized there were a ton of great books — many of which are older, deep backlist titles — about food. These books are about the eating and consumption of food, the history of food, as well as the culinary world. They include memoirs and histories and books that blend a little bit of both.

I’ve read each of these titles, though some are more recent in memory than others. I’ve consumed them in both print and in audio, which has only made the experiences more delicious.

Sumptuous Food Nonfiction

 

 

The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty

Part memoir, part history, about American southern food and cooking. Twitty is a black, gay, and Jewish man whose passion for food and its origins is palpable.

 

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

If you’ve ever considered going meat-free in your diet, this book will speak to you. Even for carnivores, Foer’s book is appealing. It’s about how and why one chooses to eat the way they do, and more, it’s about becoming aware of where your food comes from, regardless of your dietary choices.

 

Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8 Lee

Did you know there are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendys establishments combined? This history of the growth of the Chinese restaurant in America is absorbing, well-written, and really makes clear that what we eat in a Chinese restaurant here in the west isn’t really Chinese food (and that the Chinese fortune cookie was really invested in Japan!).

 

Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio

A photographic study of families around the world and what it is they eat. Super fascinating, and my only complaint is that there hasn’t been an update since this was published in 2005. I’d be fascinated to see how things have changed in the nearly 15 years since the original project, as we’ve become a more global food world.

 

Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi

Lakshmi is, of course, known for her role in food television, but this memoir goes much deeper than that experience. It’s about growing up in more than one continent and how that shaped her palate and interest in the culinary world. Raw, honest, and tender.

 

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

I only wish that Anthony were around still and could give us yet another update to this book because I have a feeling he’d change his views on some aspects of the industry. It’s an unfiltered, often crude, look at the culinary underbelly and his own experiences in the restaurant business in New York City. There’s clear passion and dedication for food. On audio, Bourdain’s voice and tone are stand out.

 

Relish: My Life In The Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

A lovely, immersive graphic memoir about Knisley’s love for all things food. Lucy shares stories of growing up in a family that relishes in cooking and eating good food. But it’s not an upturned-nose sort of foodie memoir. It’s about the joy of and celebration of the role food plays in a social way and in a very personal way. It doesn’t matter if that food is direct from the chicken coop in your yard or from the fast food joint miles away.

 

Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss

This book pairs really nicely with Foer’s, in that it’s a dive into the greater industry of food. An in-depth and compelling look at the three ingredients that have allowed the processed food industry to flourish and take hold of the American diet. Moss is not objective here, and he has no reason to be. He comes at this with the question of why and explores how the choices made for the bottom line utterly harm the humans who are sucked into such addicting foods. He doesn’t shame people for enjoying them, but rather, explores why they become what they are to the American diet: three ingredients that promote more eating of the same three ingredients.