Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life [Hardcover]

Michael Lee West (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 1999

Written with the same flair and color as West's highly praised novels, Consuming Passions chronicles the author's love affair with food. West lends her warm, distinctive humor and often hilarious insights to the stories of her trials and tribulations as a Southern woman who becomes an "accidental gourmet".

This wonderfully entertaining volume seamlessly weaves West's evocative voice and humor to the uniquely American form of kitchen tales. Consuming Passions is rich with gracious Southern hospitality and the delicacies that accompany it, including the recipes that have passed through generations of the author's family. This tantalizing read will satisfy the cravings of West's ever-increasing fan base as well as everyone who loved Laurie Colwin, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Born in Louisiana and at home in Tennessee, author Michael Lee West makes any old body feel downright welcome at her kitchen table. The coffee's hot, the iced tea is sweet, the cake's a little dry, and the conversation shows no sign of abating, even as the last page is turned and the cover is closed on Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life. The subject is variously food, family, and Mama, wherein Mama is as much a state of mind as an embodied soul. This is about the South, honey, some of which is of the New South stripe, and some of the Old.

In an easy, talkative style, author West spins tales, shares recipes, and hands out advice. In a chapter titled "Funeral Food," she includes recipes for Lemon Chess Pie and Lemon Squares. Among her rules for funeral food, she notes that dishes must be easy to transport as well as appealing to the bereaved. Some foods are simply inappropriate. "I myself have never seen appetizers at a funeral," West writes. "This is not the time to bring Better Than Sex Cake or Death by Chocolate. And it's never a good idea to use uncooked eggs in funeral food."

Consuming Passions is about home cooking, about church-basement food, about growing up in the shadow of Mama's kitchen and learning to cook away from home. West is ever willing to try something new, to fail, to try again, and to defend to her last breath the virtues of her favorite mayonnaise. West has the spirit of a close friend who'll share all her secrets, including her best recipes, some of which her various family members (we meet them all) failed to take to their graves. Sit down, pull up a chair, and get ready to listen. --Schuyler Ingle

Review

"A must-read...Everything about Consuming Passions--from the title to the recipes--just drips with Southern charm." -- --Denver Post

"A scrumptiously witty memoir about family, food, and the American South." -- People

"Every Sunday, the whole family gathered at Mama Hughes's house in Amite County, Mississippi. They were ferocious eaters and talkers, devouring rumors and innuendo with gusto. Food was their common language, and everyone undertstood the dialects." -- Aunt Tempe, reminiscing about family dinners --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (May 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060183713
• ISBN-13: 978-0060183714
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,465,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Lee West grew up on the Gulf Coast with a wild tribe of Southern cooks. She is the author of Crazy Ladies, Mad Girls in Love, She Flew the Coop, American Pie, Mad Girls in Love, Mermaids in the Basement, Consuming Passions, and Gone With a Handsomer Man. Look for A Teeny Bit of Trouble in April 2012.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one's a keeper, March 10, 2000

By 

Wendy A. Kidd "Fred's Mom" (Rock Hill, SC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life (Hardcover)

I READ a lot of cookbooks, but BUY very few. This is one of the few that I can't live without. The recipes are wonderful (I can smell a Lemon Cake from this book cooling downstairs as I write this) and the stories are just as juicy and delicious.

It's rare to read a cookbook and wish you knew the author and her family, but that's how I felt after savoring this book. As a Yankee transplanted to South Carolina, I am just now learning the pleasures of sweet tea, church bake sales and fried chicken. This book has definitely earned a place of honor in my kitchen next to James Villas' "My Mother's Southern Kitchen". It's a keeper.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I, too, was consumed, October 2, 2000

By 

Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life (Hardcover)

I will admit: I thought this was going to be another outrageously funny southern novel by Michael Lee West. I had read two of her books previously and totally devoured them. So naturally I had to read everything she had in print. Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered a cookbook in my hands. I LOVED this book...and I HATE to cook! As a matter of fact, my menus consist of nothing more than boxed macaroni and cheese and different varieties of Hamburger Helper. And you know what else? I didn't know you were supposed to "season" a cast-iron skillet. I learned a lot of things reading this book, and it has even inspired me to cook something REAL. Not only that, but Michael Lee West has real-life eccentric characters--her relatives--that keep this book moving along. I would just love to have an Aunt Dell in my family! I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a good southern novel. Even to those who don't cook....like me!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you love to cook and to read? This one's for you!, October 3, 2000

By 

Sallie Stephens "waterbugirl" (OHIO, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life (Paperback)

As an avid reader (especially of cookbooks!, a "Consuming Passion" for cooking (especially all things southern) and a fan of Michael Lee West, I picked up this book with great anticipation. And I was not disappointed. Having lived in the South for several years, I have come to love to read about Southern culture: it's idiosynchrosies, dialect, etc. And gosh darn it, ya just gotta love that food! This book combines the best of what I love: food and reading! Ms. West has a great way of making one's mouth water, while at the same time filling the reader full of southern charm and wit. And best of all, she includes recipes! From barbeque to gumbo, Lemon Chess Pie to Coconut cake, this book is full of true 'southern' recipes, and Ms. West's family stories behind them. This is the kind of book I like to read over and over again, and I've made several of the recipes to boot (and have not been disappointed with the results). If you love the South, food, humor and Michael Lee West's other books, you'll love this one as well.