If you are a budding food writer, or know one, "Will Write for Food" by Dianne Jacob (Da Capo Press, 353 pages, $16.99), now in its third edition, is a good volume to have on hand. Jacob, who for more than 30 years has written and edited for many publications, takes the novice through the steps of getting published in a variety of forms: from blogs and print to cookbooks and memoir. In her latest edition, she discusses monetization of food writing (the ever important how to earn income from your work). In addition to her advice, she includes interviews with successful food writers and offers writing exercises to bump up the literary skills of the reader in this thorough, well-organized reference.
Do we need to know what Frankie Avalon cooks? Or the actors on the "Blue Bloods" TV show? Definitely not. But do we want to know what Audrey Hepburn's kitchen was like? Of course (though we have to admit there is little about Hepburn we don't want to know). In "Audrey at Home/ Memories of My Mother's Kitchen" (Harper Design, 255 pages, $35), her son Luca Dotti tells his mother's tale, from her hungriest time during the dark days of World War II, when there was nothing to eat but grass and boiled turnips in her home in Holland. At the close of the war, she was 16 and weighed 88 pounds. One photo in the book shows a moment after liberation and is captioned by her "... stuffed for the first time after the war."
From family photos, many at the table, to recipes (madeleines, spaghetti alla puttanesca, her grandmother's curry) and insight into her life (her preference for organic food, her work in the home garden), including her time as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, this is the story of a life well lived.
