Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table
No one can deny the power of a steaming, full plate to transport one to some other time or place. And yet food, or a meal, can also play a minor character in an intense drama.
Everyone has an expert opinion about food these days but it takes a good writer to decipher the emotions that surround the daily act of eating. Eat, Memory is a collection of 26 essays by noted authors who do just that.
The essays first appeared in The New York Times Magazine under its 鈥淓at, Memory鈥� column after being skillfully edited by Amanda Hesser, a former food editor there and a delightful writer herself.
Ann Patchett (鈥淏el Canto鈥�) describes how nearly breaking up with her boyfriend in Paris鈥檚 celebrated Taillevent eclipsed any recollection of what they actually ate that evening.
Kiran Desai (鈥淭he Inheritance of Loss鈥�) shares her childhood kitchen standoffs over prized ingredients with her family鈥檚 territorial cook.
Not all memories are delicious 鈥� bittersweet and ridiculous also have their place.
Allen Shaw (鈥淲ish I Could Be There鈥�) writes of his annual birthday meal with his institutionalized twin sister.
Gary Shteyngart (鈥淭he Russian Debutante鈥檚 Handbook鈥�) contributed a hilarious essay titled 鈥淭he Sixth Sense鈥� about his upbringing on post-Soviet fare: 鈥淭he nightly dose of farmer cheese was supposed to make you grow tall and strong. (I am five-foot-six on a good day.)鈥�
And George Saunders (鈥淭he Braindead Megaphone鈥�), jabs at consumption culture by including his recipe for 鈥淟ight-As-Air Brunch,鈥� which lists 鈥淎ir, approximately 6 cubic feet鈥� as an ingredient and instructs one to return the rest of the ingredients as soon as possible.
The essays also succeed in grounding famous personalities down on earth: Julia Child fumes after failing a basic exam at Cordon Bleu in 鈥淭he Sauce and The Fury鈥� and Tucker Carlson describes his encounter with a can of bad beans the summer he worked in a canning factory in 鈥淏ean There.鈥�
These enjoyable, insightful, short essays may end too soon, but their memories will linger as if they were your own.
Kendra Nordin is a staff editor.
