If you had told me a year ago I would be hooked on the genre of the culinary memoir, I would have given you the old doubty face. For one thing, I have never been able to read a page of M. F. K. Fisher's food nonfiction without nodding off, and she is generally considered the gold standard in this area.
But maybe I should give Fisher another try; maybe I've changed. Food bloggers, personable and nonchalant, have made it clear to me that I'm more interested in a recipe if I know its backstory, if I know who this person is who's essentially saying, "Try it -- you'll like it." These three recent food memoirs all have recipes mixed in, but they're more weighted to the memoir than to the cookbook.
I first came across The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken (W.W. Norton) when author Good Food, which I listen to as a podcast. Reading the book was -- well, it's hard to avoid one of those bad food puns like "I devoured it over the course of a weekend" but that's pretty much what happened. Schenone wants to find her Italian grandmother's ravioli recipe, the real one she would have brought over from Genoa as an immigrant and made for family Christmas festivities.
Fortunately, Schenone has a large network of relatives to ask about the recipe. Ultimately she ends up with not only a recipe but her grandmother's large pasta rolling pin and ravioli cutter. She reconnects with distant relatives who teach her how to roll out the ravioli dough by hand -- something that can only be learned by doing, writes Schenone.
The fact that the recipe included the inauthentic-seeming ingredient of Philadelphia Cream Cheese prompted Schenone to start researching authentic Ligurian ravioli recipes, which ultimately took her to Italy several times to learn ravioli from people who have been making it all their lives. Along the way, a lot of really delectable food gets eaten with new friends and mentors.
The Lost Ravioli Recipes works because of its familiar structure -- it's a mystery story, with the detective looking for both a recipe and the truth about her past. The food is a definite bonus.
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by This book is a romp through a few Chinese cuisines that may leave you exhilarated or it might leave you disgusted, but it was an eye-opening read if you're interested in Chinese culture and real Chinese cooking. The recipe for Bear's Paw is included. It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, subtitled, "My Adventures in Life and Food," by recipe for it (not that I'll be making it any time soon... or ever). This one might make good summer reading if you're heading to Block Island, or the Hamptons, or the Vineyard. But not if you're looking to cook the book.
