Top Ten Books Involving Food That Aren’t Cookbooks

For today’s Top Ten Tuesday, I’m sharing a Top Ten list from four years ago, Top Ten Books That Make Me Hungry. I originally wrote this post in September 2020, when the pandemic was still in its first year. With all other activities and gatherings canceled, it was comforting to cook and eat, and to read about cooking and eating.

I hope this post will whet your appetite for reading or listening to some of my favorite books about food and cooking – not counting fiction or cookbooks. Every book on the list ended up being my favorite form of nonfiction – memoirs – and many of them I listened to on audio. A couple of them are stunt memoirs, another favorite of mine.

The first two are probably the first nonfiction books about food and cooking I ever bought and read (other than cookbooks), and that was only because I had already bought and read all of Laurie Colwin’s novels and short stories.

Top Ten Books That Make Me Hungry

Home Cooking and More Home Cooking set the standard for food writing for me, and they are still among my favorite books of all time.

1. Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

2. More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

Going in the order I read them, I think next would come Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential from way back in my early days of audiobook listening.
I had never heard of Anthony Bourdain; I probably chose this both because my husband had cooked in a restaurant kitchen for a while before we were married and because I happened to see it in the library. Kitchen Confidential was an eyeopener in two ways – first, the behind-the-scenes glimpse into the frenetic life of a celebrity restaurant chef in those days and second, that some authors could read their own work on audio and sound good.

3. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (Audio)

Ruth Reichl is another food writer who is bound to appear on many of these Top Ten lists today. I listened to most of her earlier books on audio, but not all. The first is still my favorite.

4. Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl (Audio)

The rest of my list are all more recently published books, so they’re in order by how much they stuck in my mind after reading (or listening to) them. Because of this, more recent ones may come before ones I actually liked better at the time.

If I’ve reviewed these books (usually in a Weekend Cooking post), I’ve linked to my review. If not, the links should go to the publisher’s page where you can get details about the book.

5. Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites by Kate Christensen (Audio)

6. Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (Audio)

7. Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (Audio)

8. Eat Joy: Stories & Comfort Food from 31 Celebrated Writers

9. Memoir of the Sunday Brunch by Julia Pandl

10. Life from Scratch: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness by Sasha Martin

I had to leave these print favorites off the list because I ran out of space. I should have made two lists with a separate one for audiobooks!

• Taking the Kids to Italy: A Memoir by Roland Merullo
• My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl
• Eating Rome: Living the Good Life in the Eternal City by Elizabeth Minchilli
• Hungry: What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me about Life, Love and the Power of Good Food by Darlene Barnes

Click on the Top Ten Tuesday badge or link below to check out other book bloggers’ foodie favorites.