Breaking Bread: Recipes and Stories From Immigrant Kitchens

"Lynne Anderson's portraits of recent immigrant families capture a crucial truth about how real food connects us to our culture, our memories, and to one another. This is an important book." —Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Restaurant"Everyone loves talking about food. In this remarkable book, Lynne Anderson lets recent immigrants to America speak in their own words about the foods they most loved from their homelands. Her cook-storytellers use recipes for cherished foods as a way to recall childhood memories, the events that caused them to emigrate, and their efforts to assimilate—the bitter along with the sweet. For a delicious introduction to the immigrant experience in America, I can't think of a better starting point than Breaking Bread." —Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat and Food Politics"Good ol' home cooking that's not chicken and apple pie. A feast of stories and flavors." Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and the Bone Setter's Daughter"What's so lovely to me about this book is hearing the actual voices of the people and the unpredictable way their conversations about food capture life issues and truths that extend far beyond the kitchen. More than ever it seems critical to be finding and celebrating what we have in common and the connections between people."—Nikki Silva, co-author of Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters"Breaking Bread throws open a delightful window on the immigrant kitchen in America, capturing the voices, traditions and--yes!--recipes of a couple dozen different food cultures in a single volume." —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food"In 25 deeply moving first-person accounts from a wide range of immigrant families, each one sensitively introduced by the author, Lynne Anderson takes us straight to the heart of our common humanity. Sharing food and stories are what bind us all across differences in time, space culture, gender and identity. Apart from being an important cultural document, Breaking Bread is a rich, wisdom-packed experience for the scholar, for the casual reader and for all cooks who demand more than just recipes."—Niloufer Ichaporia King, author of My Bombay Kitchen