I am a longtime lover of food writing of all kinds: food fiction and memoir appeared on the site in its first year—way back in 2011—and I’ve featured such books regularly ever since.
And yet six years have passed since I last shared some of my favorite food memoirs in a dedicated post. I’ve read so many more food memoirs and nonfiction books since then, and thought we were overdue for a round-up.
My reasons for turning to food nonfiction and memoir are many: I appreciate a book with rich texture and sensory detail, I relish literary scenes of food bring people together, I’m curious about food cultures and traditions around the world, I love a behind-the-scenes look at just about anything. I love to eat and I love to cook, and of course much food writing is right up my alley for those reasons. But even for those who have never once considered a kitchen might be their happy place, there’s so much vicarious enjoyment to be found in the pages of a good book that’s heavy on the food content.
I hope you enjoy perusing the food memoir and nonfiction I’ve gathered today. Like I said, we haven’t run such a post in six years, and today’s list only includes fifteen books: I’m pretty sure that means I’ve left plenty of room for you to add your own favorites to the list in comments!
15 more food memoir and nonfiction books for your TBR
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Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew
In this personal, recipe-laden 2022 release, two-time James Beard award-winning author Twitty explores the intersection of Jewish and African diaspora cuisine in the way only he can, laying out the history and culture of these two food traditions and what they can tell us about memory, meaning-making, and identity. I was especially captured by Twitty’s theory that it’s not just that the people make the food, but the food that shapes the people, and how that has played out among his people and in his individual life. This makes a lovely companion to Twitty’s 2017 debut culinary history The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South (though you can read his books in any order). More info →
Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir
Not long after it came out in fall 2024, I downloaded the audiobook of Ina Garten’s much-anticipated memoir on a whim for a quick road trip and was immediately charmed. I found Ina to be the perfect traveling companion: chatty, engaging, and soothing all at once. Maybe you should take my words with a grain of salt because I’m by no means a superfan: I have a few Ina Garten cookbooks, I’ve had good luck with her recipes, I’ve seen a few snippets of her TV show while vacationing someplace with all the channels. I’m not a student of Everything Ina—but golly, I loved this memoir in which she covers her early life, her relationship with Jeffrey, the Barefoot Contessa shop’s origin story and subsequent growth, musings on what makes a recipe sing, her Paris apartment, and more. More info →
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
Ruth Reichl is one of my favorite (and perhaps one of our greatest?) food writers and it all started with this 1998 coming-of-age memoir, in which she chronicles her chaotic upbringing in the home of a workaholic father and a mother living with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. Her mother’s penchant for serving rotten food led to Reichl learning how to cook. She went on to become a part of the 1970s organic food revolution in Berkeley and document her continuing cooking adventures in memoirs, essays, and novels. There’s no wrong order in which to read Ruth Reichl’s food writing, but if you’re new to her work, this isn’t a bad place to begin. More info →
National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home
Not a conventional food history by any means but there’s enough food and history for my taste here. (Pun intended!). Where do our ideas come from about what constitutes certain cuisines? Von Bremzen sets out to answer that question about the past and future of specific beloved dishes from France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey by visiting a myriad of restaurants, bars, and family kitchens. Whether talking to Michelin-starred chefs or street vendors, National Dish tells the story of how food traditions are made. The beautiful illustrations really elevate this tasty read, lending the book a browsable, coffee table kind of feel. More info →
Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food
In this thoughtful essay collection, Berry thoughtfully explores some of his favorite topics: the politics of food, mindful eating, and sustainable farming. He embodied—and wrote about—these practices for decades, laying out his philosophy in nonfiction works like this one and weaving it through his characters’ lives in his fiction. While a small percentage of Berry’s readers are likely to be farmers, we can still care about what and how we eat and make choices accordingly, and enjoy this peek into one of the great minds on these topics. If you’re new to Berry’s writings, this is a hospitable place to begin. More info →
Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees
Poets writing prose just might be one of my favorite things, and this collection is a powerful example as to why. As she did in her debut prose collection World of Wonders, Nezhukumatathil combines poetry, science, and memoir in micro essays about food and its ability to delight, surprise, and connect. The collection, organized around foods and ingredients particularly meaningful to the author, is packed with both intimate stories and interesting facts, and written in prose so evocative you can practically taste and see the foods and dishes she describes. A love letter to food and family and a delight for the senses. The lavish illustrations by Fumi Nakamura also make this a gorgeous gift book. More info →
Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family
In this follow-up to The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, Flinn dives deep on her family of origin, with special emphasis on her parent’s long courtship and marriage, but discussing her own childhood and teenage years as well. We learn about her parents’ San Francisco pizza parlor and the special family recipes for Swedish pancakes and birthday cinnamon rolls. Overall, I didn’t enjoy this as much as The Sharper Your Knife, but the thing that made the story for me was a coincidence of place: I was delighted to read in these pages how her family discovered Anna Maria Island, Florida and made it a cherished family vacation destination. My own family vacationed there for years when I was a kid, and the descriptions of the landscape and local destinations (does anyone else here know Duffy’s?) infused my reading experience with unanticipated nostalgic joy. I don’t have deep personal ties to Michigan, but I also enjoyed reading about that place on the page, as the state plays a key role in her family’s heritage. More info →
Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand
I'm fascinated by the career Jeff has built for himself: he teaches, he preaches, he travels the world writing for Travel + Leisure. This book unfolds as a series of extended vignettes, and that composite structure well serves the story and his story. When Jeff was in his late 30s, he left his full-time job as a magazine writer in NYC and became a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he quickly made his way to the "Farminary," a 21-acre working farm where students work the land and ponder life’s toughest questions. In this midlife memoir, Jeff takes his cue from the life cycle of the farm and reflects on what it takes to create and recognize good soil, both literally and metaphorically. He covers his experiences on the farm, the triumphs and failures of growing things (some poignant, some laugh-out-loud funny), formative moments from his Chinese-American childhood, and life today with friends, family, and his husband Tristan. More info →
Salt: A World History
How does one take a look at their dining room table, find the most common item on it, and think “I’d like to write a book about that?” I marvel at the inquisitive minds and research capabilities of authors like Mark Kurlanksy, who’s written about oysters, paper, milk, and salt—common items that have shaped history. Salt seems basic and downright cheap today, but it once served as a valuable item in trades, inadvertently launched entire cities, funded wars, and shaped society as we know it. From world history to culinary techniques to cultural traditions, salt's influence is surprising and vast—and Kurlansky shapes it into an enjoyable read with incredible storytelling and journalism. More info →
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Alton Brown once called this 1984 kitchen reference classic “the Rosetta Stone of the culinary world.” In it, McGee explains the science behind food, detailing where ingredients come from, what they’re made of, and how they can be transformed via cooking. His science-y descriptions will help you understand why some recipes work and why some are doomed to failure, and also more prosaic things like if blowing on hot soup truly cools it faster. (Yes—and he’ll tell you why.) When you understand the science behind a recipe, you’ll be able to tell at a glance which ones are likely to succeed and which will fail. This book will make you a smarter cook, and if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy the education. More info →
L’Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home
I've thoroughly enjoyed David Lebovitz's writings about Parisian expat life since falling in love with The Sweet Life in Paris many years ago. This 2018 memoir with recipes details his arduous journey to find, purchase, and renovate his very own Parisian apartment. In between renovation stories, he shares recipes from his kitchen. The curious traveler in me couldn’t help but map each and every real location in the book so I could accompany Lebovitz as he moved through Paris. As someone who used to work in the field of property law, I was fascinated by his descriptions of everything Parisian real estate: I ate up the details on how one searches for and acquires real estate in Paris. But I struggled to read about the massively time-consuming and expensive renovations: Lebovitz is a wonderful writer, but some of his renovation mishaps were so painful they verged on heartbreaking. Nevertheless I'm glad I picked it up, and thankful this book prompted me to revisit his blog and peruse the wonderful archives. More info →
A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
This travel and culinary memoir was inspired by the question, "What would be the perfect meal?” If you enjoyed Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations, you’ll love following him on his quest for the culinary holy grail. If you’ve read Bourdain before, you won’t be surprised to hear that his definition of “perfect” doesn’t have anything to do with fine dining or Michelin stars; instead, it’s about not only delicious food and fine ingredients but also context and memory. Here he takes the reader around the world—California, Cambodia, Portugal, Spain, Vietnam, Japan. No one writes about food or adventure quite like Bourdain. More info →
The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection
For foodies, faith-seekers, and fans of humor alike, Capon’s 1969 work includes both recipes and an extended meditation on temporal and eternal life, the sacred (but unstuffy) role of food in our lives, and how to bring a spirit of feasting to everyday meals. To give you a taste of Capon’s wry voice, he opens Chapter One with the words, “Let me begin without ceremony,” launches immediately into his first recipe for Leg of Lamb—whose ingredient list includes items such as “spinach (a lot),” and concludes the recipe with “If prepared correctly, it is all delicious.” This deep backlist selection will be deliciously satisfying for the right reader. More info →
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir
Indie rockstar Michelle Zauner delivers a heartfelt, poetic memoir about losing her mother and searching for her identity. I was hooked from the first line: “Ever since my mother died, I cry in H Mart.” After her mother received a grim cancer diagnosis, Zauner realized her mother’s death would also mean losing her only tie to her Korean heritage, so she sought to shore up stories while she still had time. Whether she writes about the intricacies of preparing traditional Korean dishes or a hurtful misunderstanding, she explores moments from her tumultuous mother-daughter relationship with tenderness and love, often returning to the idea that our experiences of home, family and culture are viscerally rooted in what we taste, see and hear. I found this to be an honest, lyrical, and life-affirming memoir about grief, growing up, and making amends. Five years since I first read it, I still find myself thinking about Zauner’s story all the time. More info →
Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide (Atlas Obscura)
This is still on my TBR: so many readers have raved about it I expect it to be well worth my time. (Just one example: Andrea Jasmine from Main Street Books recommended it in WSIRN episode 355: Highly giftable picks for your favorite readers. Plus, I love a good coffee table book! I’m told Gastro Obscura offers a world tour of global cuisine perfect for anyone interested in explorations of food, history, travel, and culture. (Me!) It goes beyond traditional cookbook photography with eye-opening shots and unusual vantage points, highlighting hidden gems, unique ingredients, and the many ways that what we eat affects and informs our lives. More info →
What are your favorite food memoir and nonfiction books? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 20 tasty and tantalizing food memoirs, 20 fantastic and flavorful food fiction reads, and 10 delightful cookbooks for reading, cooking, and gifting.
2 comments
Anne, you introduced me to Ruth Reichl and I have consumed everything she has ever written on audio this year with her narrating. It’s been one of the best reading experiences of my year! I just bought Endless Feats that is edited by her and features the writings of Gourmet Magazine!
I really loved Stanley Tucci’s memoir Taste. I loved listening to it, and bought the boom for the recipes inside.
Crying in H Mart remains one of my favorite food memoirs though! I loved it so much.