The Melting Pot – Celebrating cultures, history, and diversity through food.
Children
Maizy Chen’s Last Chance – Lisa Yee
This middle-grade novel introduces readers to Maizy, a young girl whose family just moved to Last Chance, Minnesota to take care of her grandfather and to help run The Golden Palace, the Chinese restaurant that has been in her family for generations. Maizy soon discovers that there is more to unravel about this town and her family’s restaurant than meets the eye!
Measuring Up – Lily LaMotte
Measuring Up is a middle-grade graphic novel about Cici, a 12 year old who just moved from her home in Taiwan and is starting anew in Seattle. Desperately missing her grandmother, Cici enters a cooking competition, focusing on traditional Taiwanese cooking, to win the grand prize and bring her A-má to Seattle!
A Place at the Table – Saadia Faruqi
Sara and Elizabeth are classmates in both their school and a new cooking class taught by Sara’s mom. When they are paired up to make a new dish, they learn about one another’s families and experiences which brings essential and unusual understanding.
Pie in the Sky – Remy Lai
This graphic novel illustrates the difficult experience of moving to a new country and feeling like an outsider, but with the humor and wit of any other 11 year old boy! Jingwen and his little brother find a familiar comfort in baking cakes and imagine a future opening the bakery their grandfather dreamed of, a Pie in the Sky!
Every Night is Pizza Night – J. Kenji Lopez
Every night is pizza night for Pipo and her family since pizza is objectively the best food ever… until she tries her friend’s favorite meals (for science) and discovers a literal world of best foods ever!
Hot Pot Night – Vincent Chen
Hot pot encourages everyone in the neighborhood to share what they have and come together for a delicious meal! This book contains a recipe at the end for a gathering of your own!
Delicious – Julie Hofstrand Larios
Each spread in this book features a different street food from places all over the world, with illustrations and poems that honor the cultures that created them!
Fry Bread – Kevin Noble Maillard
This story beautifully celebrates fry bread, which has fed a culture for centuries, brought families together, and is meaningful as a tradition to link generations of indigenous peoples.
¡Vamos! Let’s Go eat! – Raúl the Third
This is the latest book in Raúl the Third’s award-winning Little Lobo series- this one exploring the delicious offerings of food trucks from tacos, tortas, dulces, churros, and much more! ¡Vamos! Let’s Go eat! continues the warm, bright illustrations, sense of humor, and fun details on every page expressed in each of the Little Lobo books.
What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street? – Felicita Sala
This beautifully illustrated picture book contains recipes for the delicious meals each family at 10 Garden Street is cooking, and concludes with a delightful image of a huge table outside where everyone gathers to share food and spend time with their neighbors!
Teen
Bloom – Kevin Panetta
Despite his parents’ best efforts (and guilt trips), high school graduate Ari has no interest in putting his world-touring band adventures on hold and running their seaside restaurant. That is, until they hire a handsome new baker who shows him a new appreciation for his hometown.
With the Fire on High – Elizabeth Acevedo
Aspiring chef Emoni is in an elite culinary track at her high school that promises new adventures and opportunities, if she can manage them and being a teen parent, relationships with her family, and her new love interest!
Notes From a Young Black Chef (Adapted for YA) – Kwame Onuwachi
Chef Kwame Onuwachi shares his story of growing up in the Bronx, Nigeria, and Louisiana and how each experience shaped his professional career as an award-winning chef based in LA!
A Pho Love Story – Loan Le
This Romeo and Juliet-style romance is told through Linh and Bao, teens from families of competing Vietnamese restaurants who connect and unravel their family histories.
Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet – Laekwan Ze Kemp
Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet is a contemporary romance told in two perspectives- through Penelope (Pen), a determined aspiring baker and Xander, a new employee at Pen’s parent’s restaurant who is sensitive and inquisitive- as they navigate love, identity, and community through food.
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors – Sonjali Dev
This Pride and Prejudice retelling is set in an over-achieving Indian-American family in San Francisco. The familiar story is enhanced by creative interpretations and delicious-sounding Indian food and deserts!
Hungry Hearts – Caroline Yung Richmond
This anthology brings together diverse short stories about food from celebrated YA authors that range from contemporary, romantic, fantasy, and horror for fans of all genres.
Food-Related Stories – Gaby Melian
This memoir in food is part of the Pocket Change Collective of small books with big ideas. In this book, chef Gaby Melian shares life lessons and stories about how food has shaped her perspective and experiences over the years.
A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow – Laura Taylor Namey
This fun romance is balanced with considerable helpings of heart when its protagonist Lila faces a series of catastrophic events that result with having to leave a Summer of food and friends in Miami for a “restful vacation” in Winchester, England. Lila discovers a change in scenery with the help of a new friend with a tea shop could be just what she needed to start over.
The Music of What Happens – Bill Koningsberg
The Music of What Happens is a love story featuring polar opposites Max and Jordan and how they come together over a vintage food truck and Arizona desert temperatures.
Adult
Taste Makers – Mayukh Sen
Mayukh Sen is a James Beard Award-winning food journalist who sought to tell the story of 7 women who changed the way America eats. Each of these women have a thoughtfully-written and well-researched brief biography detailing how they pioneered aspects of food and cooking and brought what was regarded as “women’s work” to the professional and male-dominated world of professional cheffing.
Black, White and the Grey – Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano
This is the complicated history of an ambitious restaurant start up in Savannah called The Grey. Business partners Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano collaborate to share their stories which differ in their perspectives and foster essential conversations about racism, violence, and the American South- all over delicious food.
Relish – Lucy Knisley
Relish is one of celebrated graphic novelist Lucy Knisley’s first memoirs, this one focusing on her love of food- lessons throughout her life are highlighted by her favorite foods, many of which are illustrated recipes for readers to enjoy!
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver
This book documents a year Kingsolver and her family spent eating only food they grew or could trace origins to the farms of their friends and family. What came of this experience was an understanding of the country’s complicated relationship with food, the Earth, and the heart of family life.
Mango and Peppercorns – Tung Nguyen
This unique food memoir explores the life of Tung Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam who came to live in the home of grad student Kathy Manning and eventually opening a restaurant whose signature is their mango and peppercorn sauce- a metaphor for Tung and Kathy’s contrasting personalities.
Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner
This memoir of the artist better known as Japanese Breakfast encompasses the grief of losing her mother, feeling disconnected from her heritage, and finding her own identity through traditional Korean food and family.
Buttermilk Graffiti – Edward Lee
In this cookbook, Edward Lee travels the country with the culinary pursuit of defining the fabled “melting pot” of America through food. This book seeks to illustrate modern American cuisine, understanding its many influences and the cultures that enrich ours.
Jubilee – Toni Tipton-Martin
Jubilee is a cookbook that celebrates the culinary traditions of African Americans with more than 100 recipes from over 200 years of history. James Beard Award winning culinary journalist Toni Tipton-Martin shares recipes, stories, techniques and ingredients from the rich history of African American cuisine.
The Immigrant Cookbook – Leyla Moushabeck
This unique cookbook is best defined by its publisher: “In these times of troubling anti-immigrant rhetoric, The Immigrant Cookbook: Recipes that Make America Great offers a culinary celebration of the many ethnic groups that have contributed to America’s vibrant food culture. This beautifully photographed cookbook features appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, and desserts—some familiar favorites, some likely to be new encounters—by renowned immigrant chefs from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Europe.”
Khabaar – Madhushree Ghosh
Khabaar entwines the complicated history of immigration in Ghosh’s life with food from the places she has called home. She shares her personal stories with recipes and memories of food in South Asia in this unique culinary memoir.