In the wake of several food-as-life memoirs, Melucci, a former v-p of publicity at Harper’s
Magazine
, attempts to carve out her own niche as she narrates her love life through recipes. Shortly after college, Melucci sets out for New York City and soon starts to learn her way in the kitchen—and in the bedroom—while working for Spy
magazine. Mining her Italian-American heritage, Melucci starts with the basics like pasta dishes and sauces and soon starts to cook for her first real boyfriend, Kit. While her relationship with Kit ends, her love for cooking continues as she winds her way through the dating world—and several jobs in publishing. She describes several long- and short-lived relationships, ending with “Lachlan Martyn Was Passionate... About Food,” her most entertaining chapter, about her fling with a Scotsman who left her once she secured a literary agent for him. Melucci, however, rarely makes compelling connections between her love for cooking and her love life (the recipes are uneven, although in their favor not intimidating and amusingly named: “Morning After Pumpkin Bread” anyone?), and her men are too prosaic to keep the reader entertained for long. But Melucci is an amiable narrator whose book should find an audience among the Sex and the City
set. (Apr.)
