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iupress.org redlightningbooks.com

D

uring the Covid-19 pandemic, many have
been inspired not just to expand their culinary
horizons but to reevaluate their relationship
to food. Which dishes comfort us, or help us
connect with others? How do certain ingredi-
ents cross the globe to get onto our shelves, especially as so many
of us remain grounded? The authors of these new narrative
nonfiction titles—memoirs, essay collections, reportage—help
readers to achieve a richer understanding of food.

Eat, memory
Culinary memoirs remain a staple of the
expansive food nonfiction genre. One
such forthcoming title is Sobremesa
(Scribe, May) by Josephine Caminos
Oría, founder of La Dorita Cooks, a line
of dulce de leche products. The book
details her trip to Argentina to reconnect
with her family’s past and their heirloom
recipes, and the cross-cultural, cross-
national love story and career transfor-
mation the journey leads to.
Another memoir, What’s Good?
(Abrams, June), comes from Peter
Hoffman, of pioneering farm-to-table
New York City restaurant Savoy. Here,
Hoffman explores his upbringing, pro-
fessional education, and career as a chef
and entrepreneur, as well as the cultural,
historical, and botanical backstories of
the foods he uses in his restaurants.
A more collaborative reflection can be found in Mango and
Peppercorns, which Chronicle will release in March. It brings
together three authors—Tung Nguyen and Katherine Manning,
cofounders of Hy Vong, a Vietnamese restaurant in Miami, and
Lyn Nguyen, Tung’s daughter—to tell a story of a serendipitous

New nonfiction about food

explores the personal and

the political

BY POOJA MAKHIJANI