Email this review to a friend.

Joseph DeLissio, the wine director at the famed River Café in Brooklyn, New York for over 20 years, has compiled everything he knows about wine in this intelligent and easy to understand book. DeLissio explains everything from how to taste and evaluate wine, to ordering wine in a restaurant without being intimidated, to starting the simplest of wine collections - in your closet. The book also includes a glossary of wine terms and illustrations of various types of wineglasses, bottles and labels. Joseph DeLissio intended that his book be "straightforward, honest, unintimidating, informative, liberating, and - above all - enjoyable." He has certainly succeeded.

Reviewed by Diane H., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

This part-recipe, part-food book of essays explores cooking along with the seasons and how what we eat and what we yearn to eat often depend upon what season we're in. It is also a book about cooking for pleasure and getting a good meal in the bargain. O'Neill includes many different delicious-sounding and fairly straight-forward recipes which are meant to tantalize the taste buds, she explains how the foods and methods we use to eat have helped shape our history and played a part in the emotional attachments we form with food. Each chapter eloquently and tastefully explores the impact of each season on the palate. Eat before you read this book otherwise you will surely over-indulge during your next meal, but then again, what's wrong with that?

Reviewed by Julia S., University City Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

In Consuming Passions, Michael Lee West mixes humorous stories of her Southern relatives with some of her family's favorite recipes. In her attempt to keep family dishes from dying out with the elderly family members, West records recipes for everything from cornbread to tearoom chicken salad. Her mother and aunts play leading roles in the family's cast of characters, and the tales are told with love and humor. While the recipes are not always gourmet, they are all fun to read along with the stories. Food and family are impossible to separate from one another in this Southern memoir.

Reviewed by Jan R., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

As she began having her own children, former Business Week writer Elizabeth Ehrlich longed to build a bridge from her grandparents to her children. As her desire to reclaim family and Jewish traditions grew, Ehrlich began cooking lessons with her mother-in-law, a Holocaust survivor whose home and kitchen were regulated by the Jewish calendar. Her regular visits for these cooking lessons form the basis of the book, and from there the author moves out to share the stories of family members, to provide recipes for many dishes, and to explain how these observances are centering her own life. This wonderful combination of food, family, and tradition will appeal to many.

Reviewed by Jan R., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The barely contained passions infusing Like Water for Chocolate create romantic, emotional, and family tensions that find relief and expression in the culinary efforts of Tita as her preparation of each chapter's recipe flows seamlessly into the telling of this wonder-filled story. Forced by tradition to forsake marriage in order to care for her mother, Tita pours her feelings into her cooking. From the longing and misery caused by the tears in her sister's wedding cake to the aphrodisiac-like quality of her quail or chiles in walnut sauce, Tita's dishes communicate her true self and enable her to find love. This fine example of Magical Realism will enchant readers with its understanding of the heart.

Reviewed by Charles D., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in ¡Cinco de Mayo, Viva Mexico!

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Latin American Literature

See more titles featured in Banned in the U.S.A.

Reader's comments about this book

When I first read this book I was in a decidedly unromantic phase and was not at all interested in cooking. By the time I had finished, I felt ecstatic and I was itching to cook. A delicious book!
-Heather, Charlotte

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The title of this book refers to the writhing, swirling action of loose tea leaves immersed in boiling water. This "agony" must happen for the flavor of the leaf to be released. Helen Gustafson, tea buyer for Chez Panisse restaurant and lecturer in tea history, explains such tea facts and combines them with tea history and with stories and memories from her own life. Scattered throughout the book are teatime recipes for everything from lemon tarts to checkerboard sandwiches. Whether you want to learn the proper way to prepare tea or to learn what goes on behind the scenes of an English tea auction, this is a book to savor.

Reviewed by Rimmel J., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

This is a high fat cookbook from the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York, which was named after a local type of maple tree and was once an old school. I bought the book when it first came out in the 1970's and like the way it was written and illustrated by hand. Favorite recipes to try include: Tabouli, Grilled Eggplant Sandwiches, Stuffed Eggplant, Cossack Pie, and Felafel. Well, I'd better start cookin'.

Reviewed by Janice B., Scaleybark Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Reader's comments about this book

I bought mine in 1977. Have used it until it was falling apart. I love this book. If you have never thought about cutting down on meat meals, this is the book that might start you down the path to a healthier and more environmentally friendly life. Examples, Pesto, Borcht, Gado Gado, Pilafs, Egglplant Parmesan. Uses eggs, milk, cheese, no meat.
-Lisa, Charlotte, NC

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Most people need to improve their eating habits, but how can vegetables be anything but boring? Get creative and check out a vegetarian cookbook for an exciting sidedish, or even an entree. Barnard and Kramer build on classic recipes and healthy food combinations to create a basic vegan diet -- not only meatless, but completely free of animal products. They also give suggestions to make the transition to veganism easier for those who are ready to go whole-hog (tofu substitute of course). If you're not interested in "going vegan" then you can use real cheese, eggs, or milk instead of the suggested substitutes. Whether you are vegetarian, vegan, or trying to cultivate better eating habits, this book is a great resource.

Reviewed by Kjersti K., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Food – the preparing and consumption of, as well as the denial of – plays a major role in this first novel by a very talented writer. Anna Rossi moves from preparing elaborate meals for a husband who pays no attention to what he’s eating to working in a restaurant with people who understand and appreciate simple, well-prepared food. Along the way we learn about the tasteless food prepared by her mother, and see how relationships and the food we eat blend together. The story of a marriage falling apart, and how the parents handle their unhappiness and subsequent growth while trying to maintain a positive atmosphere for their 6-year-old daughter gives rise to a compelling story.

Reviewed by Susan H., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Victor's legs kick the chair out and he bolts upright. His hands fly to his neck where the spidery veins have begun to stand out. Victor’s frightened eyes bulge wide and white. His reddened face, twists, his lips turn a pale blue from lack of oxygen. The tiniest river of spit is winding down his chin and Victor knows that, just like always, a hero will soon be standing behind him trying to make him breathe again. Victor's faking it. He pretends to choke in restaurants a couple of times a week for food, for money, for attention. Palahniuk's themes of addiction, codependency, the illusions of heroism, and the power one wields as a victim dart and cross throughout the novel until they smack together in a beautiful mess at the end. ______________________________

Reviewed by James K., Freedom Regional

See more titles featured in Humor - Don’t Leave Home Without It!

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

“ I learned early that the most important thing in life is a good story.” Reichl, former New York Times food critic and current editor of Gourmet Magazine, relates lots of humorous vignettes filled with characters in her coming of age memoir. She writes about growing up in New York, attending boarding school in Montreal and most of all, surviving her mother’s creative cooking including a dish called “‘everything stew’.” She learned as a child that “food could be a way of making sense of the world. If you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were.” Each chapter ends with recipes. It is fascinating to go along on Reichl’s journey which is continued in Comfort Me with Apples.

Reviewed by Megan M., Main Library

See more titles featured in Rites of Passage

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Reader's comments about this book

I absolutely fell in love with this book! It's supposed to be a 'kinda' cookbook, but the author's writing is pure gourmet dining. Each page is a feast. Her newest one is Comfort Me With Apples. I am starting that one today.
-Barbara, Cornelius, NC

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The name, Typhoid Mary, has lost its power to inspire fear. Instead, it has become a watered-down cultural reference used to describe any unclean or sickly person. Few people know the story of Mary Mallon, the woman who first bore that unfortunate moniker. In a fast-paced biography, chef Anthony Bourdain paints a human portrait of Mary. He examines the changing roles of women in Irish/Irish-American society, and, perhaps most-telling, explains how Mary’s work as a chef colored and complicated the charges against her. Readers will be intrigued by her story which, sadly, ended in her eventual quarantine on a tiny island off of Manhattan.

Reviewed by James K., Freedom Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Fast food has not, as some predicted, turned the Japanese into a tall, blond people. It has, however, made them fatter than they have ever been in their history -- like the Americans who started this tragic and most likely fatal trend. Schlosser traces the development of the industry built by shirt-sleeve entrepreneurs such as the McDonald Brothers, who saw the future in the new interstate highways of the Eisenhower Era. An all-American success story at first, by the time the truth entered American awareness, enormous and irreversible damage had been done – not only in America. Along with its suppliers and stunningly cynical supporters, fast food is all the proof in the world that corporate greed and corporate crime did not start with Enron.

Reviewed by Jim B., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

For Bourdain, the “Vichyssoise Incident” as a child started it all – one taste and he fell in love. Food became a life-long joie de coeur for this native New Yorker. It was also an adventure – morphing into an ambition to not only eat exquisitely prepared food, but also to create artistry on the plate. In this very revelatory book, Bourdain sneeringly lets it all out, including his distaste for vegetarians and all those who “ask for sauce on the side.” The book is also a shocking account of the restaurant industry, with its sleazy kitchen druggies, and an illuminating but comical look at the political maneuverings of restaurant owners. As he sarcastically says to one of them when asked what he knows about meat, “…next to nothing!” Pulling no punches, it is a comical, irreverent, and no-holds-barred look into the world behind the kitchen door.

Reviewed by Rosanne L., Matthews Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Workin' Hard

Reader's comments about this book

This behind the scenes tell-all of the fast paced and often gritty world of a top notch chef is a must read for foodies and non-foodies alike. Bourdain rotates between autobiographical tales of his (often illegal) escapades in many fine kitchens across the country and tips for every cook. Written with a tempo that makes it impossible to put down and a heavy dose of laugh out loud humor, this book is sure to inspire plenty of cocktail party fodder for time to come. Due to adult language and situations, this book is not for the faint of heart.
-Flo, Charlotte, NC

After finding this book on this excellent blog: www.readerswithoutborders.com I devoured it. I'm a former European chef and reading this novel made me feel in the middle of my kitchen, everything is smartly written, true and hilarious. Great work from a "not so great chef" (His own words)...
-Jonathan, Switzerland

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Patricia Volk says in a restaurant family; you’re never just hungry, you’re starving and you’re never just full, you’re stuffed. The more someone loves you, the more they want you to eat. The book is much more than memories of food, it’s a loving testimonial to a large, boisterous family that lives life to the fullest. Grandparents, uncles, aunts and parents are all described anecdotally with great humor and of course many food references. Describing Mattie’s chocolate cake, grandmother’s chicken fricassee, Aunt Lil’s spaetzle are all ways of remembering good times with her family. Set against the backdrop of New York City you’ll find yourself wishing you could have dinner with the Volk family.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Deciding there is nothing more American than pie, Pascale LeDraoulec vows to find the best slice of pie as she travels from her home in California to a new job in New York. Taking a friend along and driving the back roads of America she finds lots of pies, both good and bad and meets many interesting people. No one worries about talking to a stranger when the subject is pies so the author was welcomed into people’s homes and fed pie of every imaginable taste. Nicely written, the book is a glimpse into small hometowns across America and the people who live in them.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

When New York Chef Anthony Bourdain reluctantly signs on with the Food Network in search for the perfect meal adventures abound. Like no other culinary travel series this one really heads way off the beaten path of fancy cuisine. Russia serves up vodka & dried sausages from a backwoods cabin followed by a hot sauna and massage, then a quick dip in the frigid waters of an ice covered lake. In Tokyo, the poisonous puffer fish is very carefully prepared by licensed cooks. Bourdain also dines on "chanko" the sumo-wrestler's meal consisting mainly of chicken, fish, vegetables and tofu soup. From the farm in Portugal where the New York chef is witness to the slaughter of the "fattened pig", and then feast on an array of pork delights to his trip to Saigon for a dish of cobra heart claiming to make you strong. For what would send most running in the opposite direction-this chef/writer is quite brave, funny & adventurous. Beware vegetarians!

Reviewed by Alice A., Independence Regional

See more titles featured in Armchair Travel

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Part cookbook, part memoir, this enchanting book takes us behind the scenes and introduces us to life at a New York teashop as seen through the eyes of a former waitress who worked there. Interspersed throughout each chapter are recipes for scrumptious British dishes, such as shepherd's pie, sugar-glazed lemon cake and cornish pasties. Black and white photographs accompany the text and often feature British celebrities who frequent the restaurant. Chapters include visits by "drama queens," profiles of some of the cooks and waitresses, Christmas celebrations and a Sunday morning in Greenwich Village. Naughton's light and breezy style keeps you highly interested in the day-to-day activities of this extraordinary teashop.

Reviewed by Mady K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Critser has produced a highly-readable, well researched explication of America’s love affair with fat. Read it and pass up forever up-sizing that next fast food meal deal or even starting that next economy-size soft drink. The physical discomfort and looming death he so vividly describes as the result of such indulgence is, to say the very least, sobering. The trend began with the invention of cheap corn-derived sugars at about the same time fast food began to soar in popularity. The primary victims have been children and the poor. This book is a timely call for awakening.

Reviewed by Jim B., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

1998 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize winner, My Year of Meats, unites the disparate worlds of two women – one in the US, one in Japan – under the unlikely aegis of American beef production and the “miracle” of television. Jane Takagi-Little, a Japanese-American documentary maker and Akiko Ueno, the wife of Jane’s boss, Joichi Ueno (“John Wayno”) alternate as narrators. Beef-Ex, a conglomerate devoted to peddling American beef in Japan, sponsors the program “My American Wife!” – Jane’s project. From black folks’ pork and chicken to lesbian vegetarianism, however, Jane produces a program that goes far beyond its original aim. Each chapter of this excellent book is charmingly prefaced by quotes from Sei Shonagon’s ancient Pillow Book. It is as sad and shocking an account of the meat industry as it is a hilarious account of divergent cultures and family relationships.

Reviewed by Jim B., Main Library

See more titles featured in Books for Book Clubs

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Reader's comments about this book

I loved this book more than I thought I would. It's more than just political commentary - Ozeki's writing is artistic, descriptive, and downright hilarious. This is a good book to make you laugh out loud, as well as make you frightened of chicken consumption. Highly recommended!
-Meghan, Charlotte, NC

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Harry has done all the cooking for his family for the past 20 years. His wife Francie and their four chldren have enjoyed the benefits of his increasingly gourmet meals. When his wife finally forces him to see a doctor they discover elevated levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and weight. Changes need to be made immediately. Francie starts doing all the cooking. Vegetables, fruits, baked chicken, no sauces, no taste. Then Harry discovers a low-carb, high protein diet. he can have steak, he can have cheese, and he can have BUTTER. But as his waistline shrinks Harry changes and Francie is left behind to worry about Harry and their marriage. This book is a funny and heart warming look at marriage and changing and staying together.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Even the most accomplished chef had to start somewhere, and it is usually nowhere near the spotlight. In Don't Try This at Home over forty famous chefs recount their most disasterous or catestrophic cooking experiences. The stories range from eels escaping in the kitchen, missing or spoiled ingrediants to the Chef-from-hell experiences. Today these chefs can look back and laugh at these crazy stories and even see how that particular set-back helped them get where they are today. This is a hilarious look at some not-so-great moments in the culinary lives of some of the most accomplished chefs in recent history.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Workin' Hard

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Peter Reinhart's book American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza is part memoir and part cookbook. The first section chronicles Peter's search for the "perfect pizza". This journey begins when Peter eats a pizza from the pizzaria of his childhood and realizes it was not as good as he remembered - so was it the pizza that changed or his tastes? In search of what makes a perfect pizza Peter travels all over the US and abroad. The second half of the book is full of mouth-watering pizza receipes. Peter discusses dough, sauce, cheese and toppings, then includes entire pizza receipes. You are guaranteed to be hungry after reading this book, so whether you want to try one of the receipes or order out, you will be inspired to start your own search for the "perfect pizza"!

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

Read the Author Interview with Peter Reinhart

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Giada De Laurentiis, the star of Food Networks Everyday Italian, has a way of making Italian cooking easy to prepare. The recipes included in this book revolve around a simple concept – family meals. Scrumptious and simple recipes of every type are available. Soup and sandwiches, pasta, entrees, and dessert recipes are easy to follow and beautiful pictures are included. This book will have you creating meals any family would love. Perhaps more important then the meal are the memories you will be creating.

Reviewed by Angela A., Cornelius Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

After breaking up with her boyfriend, Casey Costello swears off men forever. She doesn't have time for dating anyway with her career and family obligations. Casey is the executive chef of a popular morning show and is getting ready to take the show on a road trip to Italy for a week long segment on Italian food. And Casey's Italian-American family keeps her busy as well with their weekly dinners and family drama. But, when she meets the hot new chef in town Casey's resolve about men starts to falter. Soon one thing leads to another and when he ends up in Italy at the same time as Casey -sparks fly. With a little romance and mystery thrown in, Last Bite is a tasty read that will leave you hungry for more.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Workin' Hard

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Tressa always looked up to her grandparents and loved spending the summers with them in Ireland while she was growing up. Her grandmother taught her to cook which inspired Tressa to become a successful chef and food writer. So, when Tressa gets married she is sure she has made a huge mistake because her marriage to Dan looks nothing like her grandparents' marriage. But, Tressa doesn't realize looks can be deceiving and marriage is hard work. As we see Tressa struggle with her marriage, the reader also sees how her grandparents' marriage unfolded. Recipes for a Perfect Marriage is a heart-felt look at marriage and all the complex layers of family.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Say I Do

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Although it may seem like it, It Ain’t All About the Cookin’. In Paula Deen’s new memoir she shares what has made her who she is today, not just as a successful cook but as a wife, mother and friend. Through raising her boys, her fight with agoraphobia and the trials of love, she shares her joys and sorrows in true no holds barred southern fashion. Included are some of her favorite recipes and snapshots from her life. For those who enjoy her vivacious attitude and southern charm, this book is yet another dose of true wit and humor from the Lady.

Reviewed by Courtney A., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Biographies and Memoirs

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Barbara Kingsolver and her family lived in Arizona during the school year and out on their Virginia farm during the summer. As their family became more aware of the vast distances most of their food traveled to reach them, they decided maybe it was time to move to the farm full time and attempt to grow all their own food for a year. They start their project in March and succeed in eating mostly home grown food for an entire year. Interspersed throughout their story are interesting facts about our food, farming and local eating. This is a fascinating look at a first-hand account of eating locally – full of recipes and great tips to start your own local eating adventure.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in 2008 Holiday Gift Guide

See more titles featured in Go Green!

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Set during the year leading up to 9/11, this follow-up to Glass’ award winning Three Junes alternates between the urban buzz of New York City and the scenic splendor of New Mexico. Well-developed, complicated characters and colorful metaphors dominate this complex family drama, in which Manhattan pastry chef Greenie Duquette and her psychotherapist husband, Alan, deal with the turbulent disappointments and challenges of middle age while caring for their four year old son George. Fans of literary fiction and family drama will appreciate this rich, compelling story about how random events can send any one of us down a path we never intended to take, and the impact recklessness, chance and choice have on our relationships.

Reviewed by Staci F., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Fathers and Sons

See more titles featured in What is Literary Fiction?

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Gillian Clark always enjoyed cooking, so she decided to go to culinary school, but figured it would never be a career. But, when her husband left her and their two girls Gillian decided that this would be her turning point and she began her career as a chef. After 4 years and 4 different restaurant jobs Gillian finally began working on opening her own restaurant. In 2001, after much hard work, scrimping and saving and with help from friends and her daughters, Colorado Kitchen opened. Out of the Frying Pan is Gillian’s story – from being a single mother barely scraping by to a successful restaurant owner. One part memoir and one part cookbook – every chapter is followed by mouth-watering recipes from Gillian’s kitchen.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Fired from her executive job, journalist Kathleen Flinn takes the journey of a lifetime when she enrolls in Le Cordon Bleu Paris, the most famous cooking school in the world. Unsure where her life is headed she takes the chance to pursue a long forgotten dream. With limited cooking skills and elementary experience in the French language, her choice turns into a witty, comical, and somewhat sentimental memoir that is hard to put down. As Flinn details her adventures, the reader cannot help but feel her angst, nerves, and happiness as she struggles through day to day. Whether being berated by a monstrously famous French chef or falling in love, she keeps you entertained and involved in the choice that changed her life.

Reviewed by Courtney A., South County Regional

See more titles featured in Biographies and Memoirs

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Back to School

See more titles featured in 2008 Holiday Gift Guide

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Tom Parker Bowles is on a mission: to eat the most dangerous food in the world. Whether the danger comes from the food itself (such as blowfish in Japan), the cultural taboo (dog in korea), or the unusual surroundings (eating dinner with the mafia in Sicily), he is up to the challenge. Or is he? This is the story of a gourmet on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Parker-Bowles is a likeable narrator and the book is enjoyable as much for his misadventures as for his knowledge of cuisine. He is a capable writer, whether describing the flavor of a perfect meal in Laos or the pain as he overindulges at a fiery food convention. A fun read that will make anyone hungry.

Reviewed by Ian R., North County Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

On March 30, 2005, an unusually high number of second place winners occurred in a multi-state Powerball lottery. Those winners had ironically picked the same six numbers which also appeared inside Chinese fortune cookies prior to the lottery drawing. Coincidence? Probably not, thought New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee. This thought led Lee on a journey across 48 states and several countries to uncover the origins of the fortune cookie and to understand the American love affair with Chinese food. In her book, Lee cleverly mingles historical facts about Chinese food and the people who make it as well as personal stories from her own life growing up as the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Yet in the end, Lee discovers that most Chinese food in America, like the fortune cookie, is as American as apple pie.

Reviewed by Kim W., University City Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in 2008 Holiday Gift Guide

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

We prefer to eat "natural," but avoid reality by choosing not to know the animals we eat - or the animals we are. The four meals of which Pollan gives us a natural history begin with a cheeseburger and fries from McDonalds, a meal which, of course, has no natural history. From there he moves to roast chicken and vegetables from industrial farming, from which we learn that if we are what we eat; then we are corn - and use far too much oil to maintain that identity. Our third meal takes us into organic farming, and a final feast of wild pig and mushrooms returns us to our earliest roots as hunters and gatherers. The menu and tour are fascinating, sobering and enlightening.

Reviewed by Jim B., Main Library

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Go Green!

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Gus Simpson is a well known cooking celebrity with her own show on the Cooking Channel. But as she approaches her 50th birthday she starts to wonder where the rest of her life is heading. The executives at the Cooking Channel want to see ratings improve, so they start shaking up Gus’s show. As Gus tries to deal with all the changes in her TV show, she is also dealing with her daughters, her new co-host and possibly a love interest as well. Things are really starting to heat up in Gus’s kitchen. Comfort Food is a wonderful novel that you will want to savor like a great meal.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Chick Lit

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Twinkie, Deconstructed is not for the faint of heart or anyone with a love of junk food. When it comes to the highly-processed snack foods that you love, ignorance is bliss. Once you follow Steve Ettlinger down the path of common snack food ingredients and learn how each is altered, chemically processed and manipulated into stuff that you can barely call “food”, you may never be able to look at that snack cake the same way. In fact, you may never be able to look at a food label again without seeing something sinister lurking. It reveals a great deal about the history of food in America and how large scale production has affected the nutritional content of what we eat and our health as a nation.

Reviewed by Laura B., Sugar Creek

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

When she was growing up Laura Schenone always heard her father talk about his grandmother’s famous Christmas ravioli. One year she decides that she wants to make the famous ravioli and sets out to find the original recipe. This journey takes Laura from her hometown of Hoboken, New Jersey all the way to Genoa, Italy the homeland of her great-grandparents. Along the way Laura meets extended family both in Italy and in the U.S. and begins to unravel her family’s story. This is a wonderful story of one woman’s quest to find a piece of her family’s history and her hope to continue the tradition of the Christmas ravioli.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

We have all seen Dr. Ian Smith on shows such as Celebrity Fit Club, a show were household names come together to shed pounds and gain self-esteem. Now, Dr. Ian has opened up his dieting secrets to the world with his self-help book appropriately titled The Fat Smash Diet. This four phase work, is a quick read that outlines the process it takes to lose anywhere from 10 to 200 pounds in a matter of weeks. The program is meant to be a challenge but with the tasty recipes included, the fat can be “smashed” with ease. If you want a diet that strengthens the mind as well as the body, in a few steps, pick up The Fat Smash Diet.

Reviewed by Michelle M., Beatties Ford Road Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Lillian's restaurant is as unique as it's owner; a quaint, homey place where people want to linger. On Monday nights when the restaurant is closed Lillian teaches cooking classes. These classes are not about strict recipe following; each class has it's own flavor and personality. As Claire, Tom, Ian, Antonia, Isabella, Chloe, Helen and Carl all learn new techniques in the kitchen they are also learning about themselves and each other. Even Lillian might learn something new in the kitchen this time. This book is uniquely written by giving each character their own chapter that not only gives a little of their background, but also continues the main thread of the cooking class. A very well written and beautiful novel.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

The world is fat. This is hardly news to the general public. The author reports on this frightening obesity epidemic that is threatening everyone. He follows the lives of four families in Mexico, India, and the United States to show how their eating habits have changed and how that has resulted in changes in their waistlines and health. In major parts of the world, the population has sugar enriched large portions of food and drink with little nutritive value. Combining this with our lack of exercise has resulted in an obese population with frighteningly poor health. This was a very interesting, eye-opening, and easy read.

Reviewed by Gloria J., North County Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Katherine Darling has always loved to cook. Some of her fondest memories are of helping her mother in the kitchen. While working at a job she does not enjoy in the publishing industry, Katherine decides to quit her job and begin a six-month culinary program at The French Culinary Institute in New York City. She knew culinary school would not be easy, but it is much harder physically, emotionally and mentally than Katherine realized. As she deals with crazy chef professors and back-stabbing classmates, Katherine works her way through the levels toward becoming a real chef. As readers follow Katherine’s journey in culinary school they can also begin their own culinary education by trying some of the recipes she includes throughout the book.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

More than just a cookbook, Chocolate: A Healthy Passion offers a comprehensive look at everything chocolate. This tasty journey starts with an exploration of the rich history of chocolate, follows the migration of chocolate around the globe, and then delves into chocolate’s explosion and commercialization within the United States. Moving beyond the cacao bean, this book also covers the many health benefits of chocolate, various recipes for eating and using chocolate, and how to buy, store and work with chocolate. One chapter is devoted to how best experience and savor chocolate. Readers will be rewarded with a more sensual chocolate experience as well as a deeper understanding of chocolate.

Reviewed by Kim W., University City Regional

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Is the term "compassionate carnivore" an oxymoron? Catherine Friend doesn’t think so and in her book The Compassionate Carnivore she explores the issues surrounding eating meat in a humane way. Friend covers where most of our meat comes from, how it’s raised and processed, how much meat we are eating, and the environmental impact of factory farming. She also explores ways to be a more "compassionate carnivore", from eating more meatless meals, to finding a local farm to buy meat directly. Friend is open about her own meat "mistakes" and recognizes that making this kind of change will take time and will be hard. She explores every aspect of this complicated issue with compassion and makes a difficult topic easier to read about.

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

See more titles featured in Go Green!

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.

Email this review to a friend.

Gesine (pronounced Geh-see-neh) moved to LA after college to be closer to her sister and start law school. But when her sister, Sandra Bullock, became a famous and sought-after actress Gesine started working for her production company sifting through possible movie scripts. Gesine loved working with her sister, but hated Hollywood. To relax after work she would bake and eventually she decided to leave Hollywood and open her own bakery. Confections of a Closet Master Baker follows Gesine’s journey from Hollywood to rural Vermont. Her story is about following your passion no matter how crazy the journey can be. She also includes mouth-watering recipes at the end of each chapter, so you’ll be inspired to either bake your own treats or head out to the nearest bakery!

Reviewed by Jessica B., Mint Hill Branch

See more titles featured in Food Consumes Us

Add your comments about this book

Connect to the PLCMC Online Catalog
Support the Library with your purchase.