Food for Thought: Essays & Ruminations

Food Network host Brown (Good Eats: The Final Years) details his culinary career in this appealing memoir in essays, which takes readers from the author’s early life in North Hollywood, Calif., through his stints at Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen. As a child with a penchant for “unorthodox flavors,” Brown developed an early fascination with food science, and attended culinary school in New England before finding work at a bakery. While in school, he dreamed up the concept for his first show, Good Eats, which put a cheeky spin on food science, and recounts the bumpy road to getting it produced on the Food Network. Elsewhere, Brown reveals what he hates to cook (hard shell blue crab); examines famous scenes of cooking and eating in Hollywood blockbusters including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now; and shares some of his favorite regional dishes, like Nebraska’s unlikely combination of chili and cinnamon rolls. The author’s dry wit (“I’ll never go back because I don’t want to see the inevitable change that forty years have wrought,” he writes of a magical trip to an Italian village. “Looking in the mirror is bad enough”) makes this irresistible for home cooks and foodies alike. It’s another delicious treat from Brown. Illus. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME. (Feb.)