10 Tantalizing Memoirs About Food and Culture You’ll Love
Posted on September 25, 2025
by Sam P
It has been said that when people eat together in fiction, it often represents an act of communion as we only share when we feel safe — be it bread or emotions. When dinner parties get tense or go wrong, the subversion creates a palpable discomfort for the folks inside the story and out. In real life, we don’t necessarily have that blueprint as to how sharing a meal will go. First dates can be awkward, holiday gatherings more so. But there’s also the idea of tradition and helping your grandparents make the recipe their grandparents made to celebrate a birthday or just have a sit down meal. The following memoirs are culinary histories both on the micro and macro level and written so well that it makes me want to care more about my own cooking.
raw dog by Jamie Loftus
Writing as snappy as the many hot dogs in this book-- comedian Jamie Loftus goes on a cross-country quest for some of the most entertaining and, surprisingly enlightening reporting on the USA's favorite mystery meat tubes.
everything i learned, i learned in a chinese restaurant by Curtis Chin
Detroit is only an hour from Toledo. Getting to the 1980s, however, is a bit trickier. In his memoir, Curtis Chin chronicles his experience growing up then and structures the narrative around the very menu served up at the tables of his family's restaurant; Chung's Cantonese Cuisine.
blood, bones, & butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
In her first memoir, Chef Gabrielle Hamilton writes of finding purpose among the many kitchens she has crossed through from childhood to her own Prune which saw the likes of socialites to tourists alike.
california soul by Keith Corbin
Keith Corbin's cooking education is considered less-than-traditional, but his idea of California soul food is no less astounding. After seeing the resourcefulness of inmates from his time in prison and his own experimentation, Corbin's release also led to an unexpected battle between his private and public life.
slow noodles by Chantha Nguon
On the flip side of quite a few humorous memoirs is a haunting and fierce recollection of surviving genocide after which the only thing Chantha Nguon had left were memories. Slow Noodles has been praised for it's vivid imagery and call-and-response narrative.
give a girl a knife by Amy Thielen
New York City is a common location in culinary quests. Amy Thielen's own journey begins and ends in the Midwest with an NYC stint in between. It's a lot of dry humor, nostalgia, and the audiobook is narrated by the author which makes every memoir better.
ginseng roots by Craig Thompson
Experienced, extrapolated upon, and illustrated by Craig Thompson, Ginseng Roots is a memoir, travelogue, essay, and bimonthly comic book series collected into a graphic novel that explores agriculture and the class divide from Wisconsin to China.
taco usa by Gustavo Arellano
Columnist Gustavo Arellano charts the history of Mexican food permeating The United States in this combination of history, criticism, and wit.
salt, sugar, fat by Michael Moss
We're supposed to avoid too much salt, sugar, and fat, to stay healthy, but within the pages of the titular investigation is an expose on a number of food companies and the gnarly steps they take to make things taste.
cassoulet confessions by Sylvie Bigar
When handed an assignment to report on cassoulet-- French meat and bean stew-- most reporters probably don't expect their entire mindset to be changed. The story Sylvie Bigar was chasing quickly became a far more introspective journey than when she initially sought out the stew's origins.
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