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Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life [Hardcover]

Kim Severson
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)


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Book Description

April 15, 2010
From the prominent New York Times food writer, a memoir recounting the tough life lessons she learned from a generation of female cooks-including Marion Cunningham, Alice Waters, Ruth Reichl, Rachael Ray, and Marcella Hazan.

Somewhere between the lessons her mother taught her as a child and the ones she is now trying to teach her own daughter, Kim Severson stumbled. She lost sight of what mattered, of who she was and who she wanted to be, and of how she wanted to live her life. It took a series of women cooks to reteach her the life lessons she forgot-and some she had never learned in the first place. Some as small as a spoonful, and others so big they saved her life, the best lessons she found were delivered in the kitchen.

Told in Severson's frank, often funny, always perceptive style, Spoon Fed weaves together the stories of eight important cooks with the lessons they taught her-lessons that seemed to come right when she needed them most. We follow Kim's journey from an awkward adolescent to an adult who channeled her passions into failing relationships, alcohol, and professional ambition, almost losing herself in the process. Finally as Severson finds sobriety and starts a family of her own, we see her mature into a strong, successful woman, as we learn alongside her.

An emotionally rich, multilayered memoir and an inspirational, illuminating series of profiles of the most influential women in the world of food, Spoon Fed is Severson's story and the story of the women who came before her-and ultimately, a testament to the wisdom that can be found in the kitchen.



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this frank confessional memoir, Severson, food writer for the New York Times since 2004, attributes her culinary confidence to the tutelage of eight maternal figures, from the legendary to the not-so-famous. Moving from Alaska, where she wrote for the Anchorage Daily News, to San Francisco to be a food writer for the Chronicle, Severson quits her destructive habit of excessive drinking, and when she first interviews Marion Cunningham, the beloved California food writer, the two share their similar fears and vulnerabilities. Severson's refrain that I was a fraud and an alcoholic and I was scared to death I would fail runs through this narrative like a dirge, while her successive culinary acquaintances reflect her insecurities: Chez Panisse chef Alice Waters represents an admirable, however ridiculously uncompromising model of perseverance; Ruth Reichl, her intimidating predecessor at the New York Times, reminds her of the leader of the popular girls at school into whose realm she never fit; and Southern food writer Edna Lewis's unconventional living situation with the young gay cook Scott Peacock inspires Severson to recount her own difficult early years of coming out as a lesbian in the face of her family's disapproval and discomfort. Some of the portraits verge on the fawning (e.g., Rachael Ray has a charisma that is as God-given as a star pitcher's right arm), but Severson's goal of finding a connection to her Italian mother dying of Parkinson's rings brave and sincere. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

New York food writer Severson traces her zeal for food back to her earliest days growing up in a Norwegian American home. Embarking on a career in food writing with jobs in San Francisco and New York, she found self-confidence and purpose that helped overcome alchoholism and drugs. Her profession also gave her entrée to some of cooking's most important practitioners, who became more than mere news sources. Venerable Marion Cunningham proved to have some of Severson's same weaknesses. Alice Waters taught her how to appreciate soundly prepared simple foods. Celebrity critic Ruth Reichl, whose desk Severson inherited at the New York Times, proved a model of intelligence and idiosyncratic style. Leah Chase, the great impresario of Creole cooking, served as an example of a life lived with purpose and helped reawaken Severson's religious impulses. Redoubtable southern cook Edna Lewis' compassionate spirit helped Severson come to fuller acceptance of her own homosexuality. --Mark Knoblauch

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 242 pages
  • Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (April 15, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 159448757X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594487576
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #849,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times food writer Kim Severson's newest book, "Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life," will be published by Riverhead Press on April 15, 2010. Read more about the author at http://www.kimseverson.com.

Here's her bio in a nutshell: Severson has been a staff writer for the New York Times since 2004. Previously, she spent six years writing about cooking and the culture of food for the San Francisco Chronicle. Before that, she had a seven-year stint as an editor and reporter at The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska. She has also covered crime, education, social services and government for daily newspapers on the West Coast.

Severson has won several regional and national awards for news and feature writing, including the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for her work on childhood obesity in 2002 and four James Beard awards for food writing.

A new edition of Severson's first book, "The New Alaska Cookbook," came out in May 2009. Her second book, "The Trans Fat Solution: Cooking and Shopping to Eliminate the Deadliest Fat from Your Diet," was published by Ten Speed Press in 2003.

Customer Reviews

I found Ms. Severson's story to be refreshingly honest as well as, heart warming. sandi beach  |  6 reviewers made a similar statement
What attracted me to this book was Kim Severson's choice of the eight women who saved her life. An Educated Consumer  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement
I found the tone and content boring, veering towards irritating. Island Toad  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Some interesting bits but fizzles out April 28, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Really enjoyed the first half or so. Reading about Alice Waters, Marion Cunningham and Ruth Reichl was entertaining, although the conceit that is intended to link the cameos of these women together ("How Eight Cooks Saved My Life") gets stretched a little thin. May have made for a series of interesting little canapes but when when whipped together the souffle falls a little flat. In an effort to fill some of the spaces and make the whole thing cohere the author narrates more and more of her own life and the concoction verges toward an apologia and coming of age/self acceptance story. I wish she had stayed with the narratives about the women she met along the way because, although she is a good writer, she is a lot less interesting when she writes about her own life. On page 195 she summarizes her faults and talents: "I have a state school education, a drinking problem, and I like girls, not boys. I don't tan well and I'm always about fifteen pounds too heavy. I'm not so great with money and I sometimes act before I think. But I'm also (most days) a helpful citizen of the world. I've got a good sense of humor and a decent softball arm. And I have gotten pretty good at being a daughter, a wife, a friend and, lately, a mother. In other words, I'm me."
At which point I closed the book and thought "I'm done."
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious and refreshingly honest..... April 8, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Kim Severson serves up a modern tale of learning to become her authentic-self through life-lessons of those people whom she admires, who just happen to be cooks/chefs. Ms. Severson is a food writer for the New York Times and in this food memoir, "Spoon Fed" she uses her interviews with 8 cooks to weave a very personal tale of becoming an adult, being gay, alcoholism and substance abuse, discovering her passion for writing about food, walking those tricky roads of familial relationships (especially with her mother) and so much more. And like the saying goes; "if you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs"! I found Ms. Severson's story to be refreshingly honest as well as, heart warming.

"Spoon Fed" is an enjoyable book. It's a fast read but that does not mean that it will leave you empty. On the contrary, "Spoon Fed" is a full meal and more. Ms. Severson includes wonderful recipes at the end of each chapter that are touchstones to each story as well as delicious.

I have to admit, that this book is right up my alley and I am a bit biased. Being a native of New Orleans, cooking and food are also my passion in life. I found a kinship with this author and enjoyed her voice, sense of humor and her crazy world of, "food, glorious food"! But you do not have to be a foodie or a chef to enjoy this book. It is a wonderful story of growing-up and embracing your true self, no matter where you come from or what you do for a living, we are all just human. Ms. Severson's life and story shows that we may take different roads but we all pretty much end up at the same place, back to ourselves.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Hmmm... October 20, 2011
By Susan
Format:Hardcover
Kim shared some wonderful insights, which I earmarked. But they were overshadowed by the "poor me" tone of the book. After a point, the repetition of her personal struggles became taxing. Not because they weren't real or important, but because in the scheme of things, she fails to adequately acknowledge the ways in which she's been blessed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It was great to get insight into the minds of the chefs interviewed by the author, but even more compelling was the author's... Read more
Published 12 months ago by lindyjulie
4.0 out of 5 stars Straining for catharsis
Kim Severson is engaging and heartfelt in her foodie memoir, in which she traces her history away from alcohol and deep into the heart of cooking, as one of the food writers for... Read more
Published on March 30, 2011 by Ann Sieber
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
For a non-cook like myself, reading "Spoon Fed" made me appreciate the life lessons one can learn through the art of cooking, and just how cooking can bring people together -- how... Read more
Published on January 25, 2011 by averystar907
1.0 out of 5 stars Shocked!
Having studied with Marcella Hazan, and Victor, in their Venice home, I am shocked and saddened by how Ms. Severson presents Marcella in particular. Read more
Published on November 10, 2010 by Ann C. Iverson
5.0 out of 5 stars How Kim Severson Changes Lives
Spoon Fed is Kim Severson's autobiography. In her book she paints a word portrait of herself that is a mirror of ourselves reflecting our own anxieties: am I good enough to do... Read more
Published on July 19, 2010 by Irena Chalmers
3.0 out of 5 stars I liked what she was doing, just not how she did it.
Kim Severson bares her soul in this memoir that chronicles how she found comfort and acceptance through and around food (with a little help from sobriety). Read more
Published on July 6, 2010 by Peter Shermeta
4.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously Candid
Kim Severson is not only one of the best food journalists in America today, she's one of the most honest. Read more
Published on June 22, 2010 by Amy Reiley
5.0 out of 5 stars Kim Severson is a beautiful writer
I TORE through this book and always perk right up whenever I see that she has a new piece in the times. Read more
Published on June 21, 2010 by NaughtiLiterati
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not compelling entry in the "how cooking changed my...
In this breezily written, serious but never morose memoir of her life as it intersects with food, the author connects eight separate episodes of self-realization each with a... Read more
Published on June 11, 2010 by Melanchthon
4.0 out of 5 stars This book got good reviews!
I ordered this book because of the review i heard on television! When i get time, i will read it1
Published on May 29, 2010 by Edwina J. Emenecker
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