The Food & Wine category has 865 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 3,228 ratings. The most-rated is Kitchen Confidential.
Love, Loss, and What We Ate
Summary
A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi's unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera - a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron's Heartburn. Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home - and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother's kitchen in South India. Poignant and surprising, Love, Loss, and What We Ate is Lakshmi's extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges' table of Top Chef and beyond. It chronicles the fierce devotion of the remarkable people who shaped her along the way, from her headstrong mother, who flouted conservative Indian convention to make a life in New York, to her Brahmin grandfather - a brilliant engineer with an irrepressible sweet tooth - to the man seemingly wrong for her in every way who proved to be her truest ally. A memoir rich with sensual prose and punctuated with evocative recipes, it is alive with the scents, tastes, and textures of a life that spans complex geographies both internal and external. Love, Loss, and What We Ate is an intimate and unexpected story of food and family - both the ones we are born to and the ones we create - and their enduring legacies. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2016 Padma Lakshmi (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
Hungry
Summary
A food critic chronicles four years spent traveling with René Redzepi, the renowned chef of Noma, in search of the most tantalizing flavors the world has to offer. "If you want to understand modern restaurant culture, you need to read this book." (Ruth Reichl, author of Save Me the Plums) Hungry is a book about not only the hunger for food, but for risk, for reinvention, for creative breakthroughs, and for connection. Feeling stuck in his work and home life, writer Jeff Gordinier happened into a fateful meeting with Danish chef René Redzepi, whose restaurant, Noma, has been called the best in the world. A restless perfectionist, Redzepi was at the top of his game but was looking to tear it all down, to shutter his restaurant and set out for new places, flavors, and recipes. This is the story of the subsequent four years of globe-trotting culinary adventure, with Gordinier joining Redzepi as his Sancho Panza. In the jungle of the Yucatán peninsula, Redzepi and his comrades go off-road in search of the perfect taco. In Sydney, they forage for sea rocket and sandpaper figs in suburban parks and on surf-lashed beaches. On a boat in the Arctic Circle, a lone fisherman guides them to what may or may not be his secret cache of the world’s finest sea urchins. And back in Copenhagen, the quiet canal-lined city where Redzepi started it all, he plans the resurrection of his restaurant on the unlikely site of a garbage-filled lot. Along the way, listeners meet Redzepi’s merry band of friends and collaborators, including acclaimed chefs such as Danny Bowien, Kylie Kwong, Rosio Sánchez, David Chang, and Enrique Olvera. Hungry is a memoir, a travelogue, a portrait of a chef, and a chronicle of the moment when daredevil cooking became the most exciting and groundbreaking form of artistry. Praise for Hungry “In Hungry, Gordinier invokes such playful and lush prose that the scents of mole, chiles, and even lingonberry juice waft off the page.” (Time) “This wonderful book is really about the adventures of two men: a great chef and a great journalist. Hungry is a feast for the senses, filled with complex passion and joy, bursting with life. Not only did Jeff Gordinier make me want to jump on the next flight (to Mexico, Copenhagen, Sydney) in search of the perfect meal, but he also reminded me to stop and savor the ride.” (Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance)
©2019 Jeff Gordinier (P)2019 Random House Audio
Red, White, and Drunk All Over
Summary
After three years of sipping, spitting, and slogging her way through bushy vine leaves and cellar cobwebs, award-winning writer Natalie MacLean takes listeners behind the scenes of the international wine world, exploring its history, visiting its most evocative places, and meeting some of its most charismatic personalities. In Red, White, and Drunk All Over, Natalie travels to the ancient vineyards of Burgundy to uncover the secrets of the pinot noir, the "heartbreak grape" from which some of the most coveted and expensive wines in the world are made. She visits the labyrinthine cellars of Champagne to examine the myths and the mystique of luxury bubbly and the grandes dames who made it the drink of celebration the world over. She pulls on sturdy boots to help with the harvest at the vineyards of iconoclastic Californian winemaker Randall Grahm and goes undercover as sommelier for a night in a five-star restaurant with a wine list the thickness of a phone book. She looks at the influence of powerful critics, notably Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson, invites listeners into her dining room for an informal wine tasting, and compares collecting notes at a bacchanalian dinner with novelist Jay McInerney. As funny and engaging as she is knowledgeable, Natalie has an unconventional wit, curiosity, and obsession with all things related to wine that make for a tour both amusing and informative, from grape to bottle to glass.
©2006, 2018 Natalie MacLean (P)2018 Natalie MacLean
Garlic and Sapphires
Summary
Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: first she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic. What is even more remarkable about Reichl's spy games is that as she takes on these various disguises, she finds herself changed not just superficially, but in character as well. She gives a remarkable account of how one's outer appearance can very much influence one's inner character, expectations, and appetites. As she writes, "Every restaurant is a theater...even the modest restaurants offer the opportunity to become someone else, at least for a little while." Garlic and Sapphires is a reflection on personal identity and role playing in the decadent, epicurean theaters of the restaurant world.
©2005 Ruth Reichl (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.
The Search for God and Guinness
Summary
The history of Guinness, one of the world's most famous brands, reveals the noble heights and generosity of a great family and an innovative business. It began in Ireland in the mid-1700s. The water in Ireland, indeed throughout Europe, was famously undrinkable, and the gin and whiskey that took its place devastated civil society. It was a disease-ridden, starvation-plagued, alcoholic age, and Christians like Arthur Guinness - as well as monks and even evangelical churches - brewed beer that provided a healthier alternative to the poisonous waters and liquors of the times. This is where the Guinness tale began. Now, 250 years and over 150 countries later, Guinness is a global brand, one of the most consumed beverages in the world. The tale that unfolds during those two and a half centuries has power to thrill audiences today: the generational drama, business adventure, industrial and social reforms, deep-felt faith, and the noble beer itself.
©2014 Stephen Mansfield (P)2017 Tantor
Lesser Beasts
Summary
Unlike other barnyard animals, which pull plows, give eggs or milk, or grow wool, a pig produces only one thing: meat. Incredibly efficient at converting almost any organic matter into nourishing, delectable protein, swine are nothing short of a gastronomic godsend - yet their flesh is banned in many cultures, and the animals themselves are maligned as filthy, lazy brutes. As historian Mark Essig reveals in Lesser Beasts, swine have such a bad reputation for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous. What's more, he argues, we ignore our historic partnership with these astonishing animals at our peril. Tracing the interplay of pig biology and human culture from Neolithic villages 10,000 years ago to modern industrial farms, Essig blends culinary and natural history to demonstrate the vast importance of the pig and the tragedy of its modern treatment at the hands of humans. Pork, Essig explains, has long been a staple of the human diet, prized in societies from Ancient Rome to dynastic China to the contemporary American South. Yet pigs' ability to track down and eat a wide range of substances (some of them distinctly unpalatable to humans) and convert them into edible meat has also led people throughout history to demonize the entire species as craven and unclean. Today's unconscionable system of factory farming, Essig explains, is only the latest instance of humans taking pigs for granted, and the most recent evidence of how both pigs and people suffer when our symbiotic relationship falls out of balance. An expansive, illuminating history of one of our most vital yet unsung food animals, Lesser Beasts turns a spotlight on the humble creature that, perhaps more than any other, has been a mainstay of civilization since its very beginnings - whether we like it or not.
©2015 Mark Essig (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
A Short History of Drunkenness
Summary
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of A Short History of Drunkenness by Mark Forsyth, read by Sh*tfaced Shakespeare's Richard Hughes. Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there's drink there's drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors, or a way of marking the end of a day's work. It can send you to sleep, or send you into battle. A Short History of Drunkenness traces humankind's love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition, answering every possible question along the way: What did people drink? How much? Who did the drinking? Of the many possible reasons, why? On the way, learn about the Neolithic Shamans, who drank to communicate with the spirit world (no pun intended), marvel at how Greeks got giddy and Romans got rat-arsed, and find out how bars in the Wild West were never quite like in the movies. This is a history of the world at its inebriated best.
©2017 Mark Forsyth (P)2017 Penguin Audiobooks
Baby-Led Weaning, Completely Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition
Summary
Baby-led weaning is the healthy, natural way to start your baby on solid foods - no stress, no fuss, no mush! Ten years ago, Baby-Led Weaning ended the myth that babies need to be spoon-fed purees. In fact, at about six months, most babies are ready to discover solid food for themselves. Today, baby-led weaning (BLW) is a global phenomenon - and this 10th anniversary edition of the definitive guide explains all its benefits: Baby participates in family meals right from the start, and learns to love a variety of foods. Nutritious milk feedings continue while Baby transitions to solids at his or her own pace. By self-feeding, Baby develops hand-eye coordination, chewing skills - and confidence! Plus, this edition is updated with the latest research on allergy prevention and feeding Baby safely, a guide to using BLW at daycare, and much more. Here is everything you need to know about teaching your child healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.
©2008, 2010, 2019 Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett (P)2019 Tantor
The Cooking Gene
Summary
Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touchpoints in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes listeners to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. Twitty travels from the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields to tell of the struggles his family faced and how food enabled his ancestors' survival across three centuries. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and visits Civil War battlefields in Virginia, synagogues in Alabama, and black-owned organic farms in Georgia. As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twitty suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the South's past. Along the way, he reveals a truth that is more than skin deep - the power of food to bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together.
©2017 Michael W. Twitty (P)2018 Tantor
Godforsaken Grapes
Summary
There are nearly 1,400 known varieties of wine grapes in the world - from altesse to zierfandler - but 80 percent of the wine we drink is made from only 20 grapes. In Godforsaken Grapes, Jason Wilson looks at how that came to be and embarks on a journey to discover what we miss. Stemming from his own growing obsession, Wilson moves far beyond the “noble grapes”, hunting down obscure and underappreciated wines from Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, France, Italy, the United States, and beyond. In the process, he looks at why these wines fell out of favor (or never gained it in the first place), what it means to be obscure, and how geopolitics, economics, and fashion have changed what we drink. A combination of travel memoir and epicurean adventure, Godforsaken Grapes is an entertaining love letter to wine.
©2018 Jason Wilson (P)2018 Abrams Press
An Edible History of Humanity
Summary
Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes---caused, enabled, or influenced by food---has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.
©2009 Tom Standage (P)2009 Tantor
Understanding the World of Wine
Summary
Gain the wine know-how you’ve always wanted in this comprehensive course. Choosing the right wine for an occasion can be a challenge even for the experienced. To help you master that challenge and deepen your appreciation of wine and its inexpressibly rich lore, Master of Wine Brian Wheaton recorded Understanding the World of Wine. Whether you're a seasoned oenophile or a beginner, you will discover new insights in this set of 36 easy-to-use audio lectures. You'll explore the rich history of winemaking, learn how wine is created today, and understand what makes each of the world’s great grape varieties special. You will journey through winemaking regions across the globe, from classic areas like Bordeaux, Burgundy, and the Rhone Valley to New World vineyards in the US, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. You will find practical tips and advice. Can wine improve your health? How is wine best matched with food? What are the biggest pitfalls to avoid? What is the essential wine vocabulary? What are the best ways to shop for wine? You can enjoy these lively 25-minute lectures while you commute, run errands, or exercise - wherever and whenever you want. Discover the wonderful world of wine today. This course is part of the Learn25 collection.
©2009 Now You Know Media, Inc. (P)2009 Now You Know Media, Inc.
The Secrets of Master Brewers
Summary
Best-selling author Jeff Alworth takes serious beer aficionados on a behind-the-scenes tour of 26 major European and North American breweries that create some of the world's most classic beers. Learn how the Irish make stout, the secrets of traditional Czech pilsner, and what makes English cask ale unique by delving deep into the specific techniques, equipment, and geographical factors that shape these distinctive styles. Contemporary brewers carrying on their traditions share insider knowledge and 26 original recipes to guide experienced homebrewers in developing your own special versions of each style.
©2017 Jeff Alworth (P)2017 Tantor
Milk!
Summary
Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the best-selling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic and culinary story of milk and all things dairy - with recipes throughout. According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk; a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way. But while mother's milk may be the essence of nourishment, it is the milk of other mammals that humans have cultivated ever since the domestication of animals more than 10,000 years ago, originally as a source of cheese, yogurt, kefir, and all manner of edible innovations that rendered lactose digestible, and then, when genetic mutation made some of us lactose-tolerant, milk itself. Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk. But during the 19th century mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk-borne illnesses a common cause of death. Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter. And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization. Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics and economics.
©2018 Mark Kurlansky (P)2018 Audible, Ltd
The Christmas Chronicles: Notes, stories and 100 essential recipes for midwinter
Summary
From the BBC1 presenter and best-selling author of Eat, The Kitchen Diaries and Toast comes a new audiobook featuring everything you need for the winter solstice. The Christmas Chronicles is the story of Nigel Slater's love for winter, for the scent of fir and spruce, for ghost stories read with a glass of sloe gin, and beeswax candles with shadows dancing on the ceiling. With recipes, decorations, fables and quick fireside suppers, Nigel guides you through the essential preparations for Christmas and the New Year, with everything you need to enjoy the winter months. Taking you from the first of November all the way to the end of January, The Christmas Chronicles covers everything from Bonfire Night, Christmas and New Year to Epiphany. Throughout the season, Nigel offers over 100 recipes to see you through the buildup, the celebrations and the aftermath. Here are much-loved classics such as goose and turkey (and making the most of the leftovers), mincemeat and the cake; recipes to make the cold months bearable, like ribsticker bread pudding with Comté and Taleggio, salt crust potatoes with blue cheese and goat's curd, and hot-smoked salmon, potatoes and dill; as well as bright flavours to welcome the new year, including pink grapefruit marmalade, pear and pickled radish salad and rye, linseed and treacle bread. Packed with feasts, folk tales, myths and memoir and all told in Nigel's warm and intimate signature style, The Christmas Chronicles is the only audiobook you'll ever need for winter. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.
©2017 Nigel Slater (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
L'Appart
Summary
Best-selling author and world-renowned chef David Lebovitz continues to mine the rich subject of his evolving expat life in Paris, using his perplexing experiences in apartment renovation as a launching point for stories about French culture, food, and what it means to revamp one's life. Includes dozens of new recipes. When David Lebovitz began the project of updating his apartment in his adopted home city, he never imagined he would encounter so much inexplicable red tape while contending with perplexing work ethic and hours. Lebovitz maintains his distinctive sense of humor with the help of his partner, Romain, peppering this renovation story with recipes from his Paris kitchen. In the midst of it all, he reveals the adventure that accompanies carving out a place for yourself in a foreign country - under baffling conditions - while never losing sight of the magic that inspired him to move to the City of Light many years ago and to truly make his home there.
©2017 David Lebovitz (P)2017 Random House Audio
French Women Don't Get Fat
Summary
French women don't get fat, but they do eat bread and pastry, drink wine, and regularly enjoy three-course meals. In her delightful tale, Mireille Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of this "French paradox"; how to enjoy food and stay slim and healthy. Hers is a charming, sensible, and powerfully life-affirming view of health and eating for our times. As a typically slender French girl, Mireille (Meer-ray) went to America as an exchange student and came back fat. That shock sent her into an adolescent tailspin, until her kindly family physician, "Dr. Miracle", came to the rescue. Reintroducing her to classic principles of French gastronomy plus time-honored secrets of the local women, he helped her restore her shape and gave her a whole new understanding of food, drink, and life. The key? Not guilt or deprivation but learning to get the most from the things you most enjoy. Following her own version of this traditional wisdom, she has ever since relished a life of indulgence without bulge, satisfying yen without yo-yo on three meals a day. Now in simple but potent strategies and dozens of recipes you'd swear were fattening, Mireille reveals the ingredients for a lifetime of weight control, from the emergency weekend remedy of Magical Leek Soup to everyday tricks like fooling yourself into contentment and painless new physical exertions to save you from the StairMaster. Emphasizing the virtues of freshness, variety, balance, and always pleasure, Mireille shows how virtually anyone can learn to eat, drink, and move like a French woman. Here are a culture's most cherished and time-honored secrets recast for the 21st century. For anyone who has slipped out of her zone, missed the flight to South Beach, or accidentally let a carb pass her lips, here is a buoyant, positive way to stay trim. A life of wine, bread, even chocolate, without girth or guilt? Pourquoi pas? PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2004 Mireille Guiliano (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
The Way We Eat Now
Summary
An award-winning food writer takes us on a global tour of what the world eats - and shows us how we can change it for the better Food is one of life's great joys. So why has eating become such a source of anxiety and confusion? Bee Wilson shows that in two generations the world has undergone a massive shift from traditional, limited diets to more globalized ways of eating, from bubble tea to quinoa, from Soylent to meal kits. Paradoxically, our diets are getting healthier and less healthy at the same time. For some, there has never been a happier food era than today: a time of unusual herbs, farmers' markets, and internet recipe swaps. Yet modern food also kills - diabetes and heart disease are on the rise everywhere on earth. This is a book about the good, the terrible, and the avocado toast. A riveting exploration of the hidden forces behind what we eat, The Way We Eat Now explains how this food revolution has transformed our bodies, our social lives, and the world we live in.
©2019 Bee Wilson (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Dr. Kellyann's Bone Broth Diet
Summary
Centered on the newest health craze, Dr. Kellyann's Bone Broth Diet is a 21-day plan to lose up to 20 pounds and see fewer wrinkles. The New York Times says it "ranks with green juice and coconut water as the next magic potion in the eternal quest for perfect health". ABC News calls it "the new juice craze". Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Kobe Bryant are hooked on it. It's bone broth - and it's the core of Dr. Kellyann's Bone Broth Diet. Naturopathic physician and weight-loss specialist Kellyann Petrucci knows the healing power of bone broth. The cornerstone of her booming health practice (as well as so many family recipes), bone broth is packed with fat-burning, skin-tightening collagen; has anti-inflammatory properties; helps heal the gut; and warms and satisfies the entire body. In Dr. Kellyann's Bone Broth Diet, Dr. Petrucci couples delicious bone broth recipes with a groundbreaking intermittent fasting plan, helping you achieve spectacular weight loss and more youthful looking skin in just 21 days. Dr. Petrucci walks you through the science of why bone broth works then arms you with a plan to lose weight safely and easily - with no cravings, weakness, or hunger pains. She'll introduce you to simple but gourmet recipes for beef, turkey, chicken, and fish bone broths and soups that are loaded with flavor and nutrients, and she'll show you easy ways to cut down on time spent in the kitchen. Also incorporating easy resistance training routines and mindfulness meditation exercises, Dr. Petrucci gives you everything you need to succeed.
©2015 Kellyann Petrucci, MS, ND (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Always Too Much and Never Enough
Summary
From the extra pounds and bullies that left her eating lunch alone at school to the low self-esteem that left her both physically and emotionally vulnerable to abuse, Jasmin Singer's weight defined her life. Even after she embraced a vegan lifestyle and a passion for animal rights advocacy, she defied any skinny vegan stereotypes by getting heavier. It was only after she committed to juice fasts and a diet of whole foods that she lost almost a hundred pounds and realized what it means to be truly full. Told with humble humor and heartbreaking honesty, this is Jasmin's story of how she went from finding solace in a box of cheese crackers to finding peace within herself.
©2016 Jasmin Singer (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC