Book Review & Reading List

[alisome]

Hi everybody! Lorilei had a great post about a book she read, so I thought it would be great to recommend some books you've read that involve food or cooking.

I just read, Consuming Passions (A food-obsessed life) by Michael Lee West. Good book, enjoyed the recipes througout the story and it was humorous.

Look forward to your posts, especially since books are another passion of mine http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[Susann]

What a great topic! I would like to add Like Water for Chocolate-a beautifully written novel with recipes throughout. I think it was made into a movie, but I have not seen it because I don't want to ruin my image of the novel!

One author who I have heard amazing things about (I have never read any of her books, though)is MFK Fisher. Sarah Moulton did a show using her recipes a while back. Her quotes were interspersed throughtout the show and I really enjoyed what I saw. Actually, maybe I should take a trip to the library today!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Susann (edited 07-01-2000).]

[Natasha]

Hi,
To name just a couple (there are so many food-related books out there!), how about Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, and Tender to the Bone by Ruth Reichl?

[LSB]

Definitely Like Water for Chocolate and Tender to the Bone. Both great reading.

My book club just read "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris. It's about a woman who moves into a small French village and opens a chocolate shop across from the church during Lent. The priest gets very upset and it becomes a sort of metaphor for the struggle between good and evil. Good reading, but be sure you have a bag of Hershey kisses nearby! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

Louise

[KateH]

I recently read a book -- I think it was called "Becoming a Chef" -- by Michael Ruhlman. It's about the Culinary Institute of America. He went through a somewhat abbreviated version of it's full program and wrote both about what he learned and about the people, students and faculty. It was fascinating.

Another good non-fiction book is Dining Out, about restaurant reviewers. It's part of a series, and I've never read the other two parts. It's designed to be the kind of book that you can pick up, read a little bit, and put down. Short articles, with lots of pull-out quotes. Sort of like an extended magazine. However, it is kind of expensive for what it is. I kind of wish I had checked it out from the library instead of buying it. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/redface.gif

I've read MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf, which is about cooking during WWII when everything, even electricity, was rationed. And I'll tell you, that woman can make cooking with essentially nothing on hand seem appealing -- I can't wait to see what she what she writes when times are flush!

One last thing, and then I'll pipe down. It's not a book (as far as I know), but the Japanese movie Tampopo is probably the best food-related movie I've ever seen (and there are a lot of good food related movies!). I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend it!!