Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life

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.

"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." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Kim Severson has written a spicy, thoroughly delectable memoir about the cooks who changed her life. Her touch is light and humorous, yet by the end she has managed to get at something profound about the meanings of food in our lives." Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules

"Spoon Fed is an engaging read. Severson succeeds by combining several key qualities I believe make a good memoir: poignancy, vulnerability, revelations (without being TMI), insight (aha! moments), and humor." Epicurious

"Among the handful of American food writers with both real wit and truth in their bag, New York Times writer Kim Severson stands out as the new standard for delicious literacy. This book is an essential read in the new literary category of food writing and is a perfect hybrid of story and emotion." Mario Batali, Chef

Kim 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.

She 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.

Her memoir, Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life, will be published by Riverhead in April 2010. She has also written The New Alaska Cookbook and The Trans Fat Solution: Cooking and Shopping to Eliminate the Deadliest Fat from Your Diet.

She's a Midwesterner by birth. And although she's extremely fond of the West Coast, she is learning to love the East. She plays softball, cooks, reads, watches bad TV and tries to get into nature as much as possible. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and her young daughter.