Food memoirs are a ubiquitous genre in food writing. Many eminent food personalities, including M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Anthony Bourdain, have made the food memoir their own. The most challenging aspect of a food memoir is to find something new yet relatable to the reader, to make the autobiographical experience universal and available to everyone.
Having written extensively about food history for most of her writing career, culinary historian Chitrita Banerji ventures into the food memoir genre with A Taste of My Life: A Memoir in Essays and Recipes. Banerji pours her heart and experiences into this book. It is as if we are made privy to a written version of her life as it was lived. From her resentment toward her mother asking her about the lessons in school, to her first cup of tea as an adult, to the lingering taste of a chicken sandwich that...