Six Remarkable Women & the Food That Tells Their Stories

By Laura Shapiro

One of my favorite Yule Book Flood finds this year!

Review: “A deliciously satisfying read.” The Chicago Tribune

Favorite quote: Barbara Pym —— “She did read the Good Food Guide on occasion ……. and once, inviting a friend to lunch, she offered to take him to a restaurant she had found in the Guide — namely, her own home. ‘(Finstock. Barn Cottage Restaurant. Small cramped dining room; cat too much in evidence; carafe wine warming on storage heater; service willing but inefficient.)’ In truth the whole idea of the Guide struck her as nonsensical.”

From the publisher: What She Ate is a lively and unpredictable array of women; what they have in common with one another (and us) is a powerful relationship with food. They include Dorothy Wordsworth, whose food story transforms our picture of the life she shared with her famous poet brother; Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era Cockney caterer who cooked her way up the social ladder; Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and rigorous protector of the worst cook in White House history; Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, who challenges our warm associations of food, family, and table; Barbara Pym, whose witty books upend a host of stereotypes about postwar British cuisine; and Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan, whose commitment to “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.

Dimensions: 5 x 7.75 in / 320 pages

Softcover