Food—as sustenance, as cultural artifact, as vocational calling—is intimately explored in these memoirs, all written by women. In one way or another, each of these writers has been deeply affected by food, displaying how food can deepen familial connections as well as provide self-empowerment.

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In the Catalog

Dinner for One

Dinner for One

How Cooking in Paris Saved Me

Sutanya Dacres

Dacres, who also hosts a podcast of the same title, shares how solo cooking in her Paris kitchen helped her grapple with the dissolution of the marriage that brought her to the city in the first place.

From the Catalog
From Hoopla
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom

A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family

Rabia Chaudry

A Pakistani immigrant, Rabia Chaudry outlines the many ways her relationship to food has affected her family and personal relationships, as well as her own body image.

From the Catalog
From Libby
Fieldwork

Fieldwork

A Forager’s Memoir

Iliana Regan

Iliana Regan expands on her first memoir, “Burn the Place,” as she expounds on her relationship to foraging, which began in her childhood. Foraging has certainly represented food for Regan, but has also deepened her connection with nature and her own body and gender.

From the Catalog
From Hoopla
Finding Freedom

Finding Freedom

A Cook’s Story : Remaking A Life From Scratch

Erin French

Erin French’s farm-to-table restaurant The Lost Kitchen, located in the tiny town of Freedom, Maine, has quickly become one of the hardest reservations to get in the country. In “Finding Freedom,” French writes unsparingly how her current culinary successes were shaped by the many trials in her life, including becoming a mother at a young age, a toxic marriage, and a history of addiction.

From the Catalog
From Libby
From Hoopla
Savor

Savor

A Chef’s Hunger for More

Fatima Ali

At the age of 29, rising star chef Fatima Ali was tragically cut short by cancer. With “Savor,” which was published posthumously, Ali shares how cooking helped to shape every aspect of her life, from the relationship to her mother to her connection to her Pakistani heritage.

From the Catalog
From Libby