It just recently came to my attention that there is a bookstore on the Upper East Side that specializes in books on food and drink. I’d ask WHERE’VE THEY BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE, but since 1983 (ie: my whole life) Kitchen Arts and Letters has been on 93rd and Lex. The shop is a destination for food lovers, chefs, and the culinary curious. It just took me nearly 40 years to get there.
Kitchen Arts & Letters (KAL) isn’t just a bookstore filled with cookbooks, though, despite The New York Time’s misleading 2018 article headline: This Bookstore Is Stuffed With Just One Thing: Cookbooks.
Yes, you can pick up a copy of the beloved Silver Palate Cookbook, or a vintage edition of The Joy of Cooking, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“It isn’t just a cookbook store,” KAL’s founder, Noah Waxman, told the New York Times. “You can find books on the microbiology of cheese manufacturing, the role of gastronomy in Moliere’s plays. You can find books on kitchen antiques, contemporary agriculture, biotechnology.”
Waxman himself was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America, in 1984. The man knew what he was talking about! Sadly, he passed in August of this year, but his legacy and the beloved bookstore live on under the direction of his business partner, Matt Sartwell.
On my recent visit to Kitchen Arts and Letters, I was on the hunt for food memoirs. I’ve always enjoyed nonfiction, and was hungry (pun intended) for a few new titles.
KAL did not disappoint. I found dozens of interesting options worth devouring. These are a few of the books I picked up, several that I’ve already read, and a couple that are currently on my nightstand, queued up for future reading.
Yes Chef, a Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson
I purchased a copy of Marcus Samuelsson’s Yes, Chef in 2012, before I’d even begun my own culinary journey. I had read about the Harlem based chef in VOGUE, and was impressed with his unique sartorial style. I didn’t know chefs could dress like that! Samuelsson’s memoir gave me the story behind this stylish figure, chronicling his journey from Ethiopia to Sweden, and eventual ascension to the top of the United States culinary scene.
Reading this book has lead to frequent brunches and dinners at Samuelsson’s soul food inspired Red Rooster flagship in Harlem. The restaurant is typically filled with Harlem locals as stylish as Samuelsson himself. Birds of a feather flock to the Red Rooster! I’ve loved following Marcus’ career, and Yes, Chef is the book that made me a dedicated fan.
Taste, My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
My good friend (and Layman Chef Podcast guest #1) Bingo, recommended Stanley Tucci’s latest book to me, saying it reminded him very much of his own Italian immigrant family. Of course I know Tucci from his roles in classic films like The Big Night and The Devil Wears Prada, but I wasn’t familiar with his recent foray into the food world. If Bingo recommends something, though, you’re in for a treat, and Taste did not disappoint.
This book is compulsively readable, like visiting with an old friend. I loved entering Tucci’s world, following his upbringing as an Italian American in upstate New York and Italy. I was even inspired to make a couple of the simple Italian recipes that are sprinkled throughout the book. (The meatball wedges and fagilio were greatly appreciated in my house!).
Tucci talks about this book, and how he refocused his life and career toward food, following a cancer diagnoses, in this fantastic interview in the New Yorker: Stanley Tucci Is Savoring It All | The New Yorker
My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
While writing this newsletter, I have a dutch oven of Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon simmering in the oven (for the next three to four hours!). According to the excellent documentary Julia, currently in theaters, Beef Bourguignon was the first recipe Julia made for the pilot episode of her legendary cooking show. Watching Julia inspired me to make the recipe, and to purchase a copy of My Life in France.
Before Julia passed in 2004 (days before her 92 birthday!) she sat for interviews with her grand nephew, Alex Prud'homme. Their conversations became the contents of this book, published in 2006. Prud’homme appears frequently throughout the Julia documentary, alongside Julia’s peers and admirers, including her cohost Jacques Pépin, Ina Garten, and Marcus Samuelsson (who calls her the Madonna of the food world! 🤩).
Garlic and Sapphires, the Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
I learned about this humorous memoir from my favorite literary substack newsletter, SoNoveliscious. Garlic and Sapphires is New York Times Food Critic Ruth Reichl’s entertaining account on the life of a food critic. This includes the characters and disguises she creates to avoid being recognized while dining, and how this costuming effects her experiences with food. A really fun read!
This week Reichl launched her own substack newsletter that she describes as a newsletter about cooking, eating, and making life more delicious. Looking forward to reading it!
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton
Pre pandemic, Mike and I frequently dined at Gabrielle Hamilton’s East Village 30 seat establishment, Prune. It was a welcoming local spot with excellent food, kind service, and the bonus of being one of those places where you always ran into a friend or two. Once the pandemic took hold, Hamilton closed Prune for good, a decision she discussed in a beautiful editorial for the New York Times. This editorial struck a chord with the struggling restaurant industry, and lead me to buy a copy of Hamilton’s memoir: Blood, Bones, and Butter. I was slayed by the clever descriptions and Hamilton’s bravado-meets-self-deprecation that kept me reading with a glass of wine well into the evening.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
When I first moved to New York in 2013, I bought a used copy of Kitchen Confidential at The Strand. I read it on the subway during my daily commute, appreciating that the book’s short chapters made for great train reading. NEVER before or since have SO many strangers approached me, wanting to talk about the book I was reading. Anthony Bourdain felt like a friend to all of us. This book is a treasure, and it holds up.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
There's an H Mart on my block, and I appreciate it, if only for the exceptional Korean fried chicken and impressive seafood department (where fresh eel is always in stock). For a lot of NYU kids in my neighborhood, though, H Mart provides a taste of home.
Michelle Zauner (singer for the indie band Japanese Breakfast) wrote Crying at H MART about and visiting the Korean supermarket to cope with the death of her mother. The book is based off of Zauner’s fantastic essay for the New Yorker from 2018.
Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys by Joe Coulombe
Trader Joe wrote a memoir! I’ll be honest, I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s, but I was fascinated by this memoir, which came out posthumously after Joe’s death in 2020.
The founder of Trader Joe’s targeted the overeducated and underpaid—people who wanted real maple syrup at a discount.
I love this description of Trader Joe’s from the Wall Street Journal. I think it really sums up The chain’s immense popularity, particularly in New York City.
Joe’s memoir contains a lot of shop talk that went over my head, but there’s also a lot of heart. It’s a fascinating read, learning what it took to create America’s favorite cult grocery store. I’m still not going to wait in that line, though!
Black, White, and The Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant by John O. Morisano and Mashama Bailey
If you’ve been following The Layman Chef, you probably know that I’m a big fan of The Grey in Savannah, Georgia. I discussed my latest visit there in length on the The Layman Chef’s Savannah podcast and newsletter.
The Grey exists in a beautifully repurposed (formerly segregated) deco Greyhound station, and serves a menu of neuvo southern cuisine. This book chronicles the relationship between the Grey’s black chef, Mashama Bailey, and her white buisness partner, John O. Morisano. They discuss their unlikely friendship and the evolving relationship between food and race in the south.
Burn the Place: A Memoir by Iliana Regan
Burn the Place isn’t a typical chef’s memoir. Regan’s book deals with identity, sexuality, and addiction, as told by a Michelin-starred chef. The New York Times called it perhaps the definitive Midwest drunken-lesbian food memoir. But there’s a lot more going on here, as the book’s overwhelming critical acclaim suggests. Burn the Place is a story of turmoil, self discovery, and overcoming. With food.
I would love to hear if you’ve read any of these books, or have any other food memoir suggestions for me. Comments are below!