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In The Club

Delicious Food Memoirs

Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.

Do y’all have that one friend who is your food bestie? I know that many social gatherings are centered around food, but I’m talking about a friend who really gets you food-wise. I have one such friend who I met in undergrad (she was my first roommate!). I’ll call her Kay. To exemplify just what I mean when I say we do food damage when we link up, I have a story from when Kay was in grad school in Nashville:

I went to visit her and my family and we went to this place called Knockout Wings. Let me tell you something. Once we had gone back to her house and eaten, we literally woke up like 5 hours later disoriented. We had had plans to go out later that night, but instead woke up confused with lemon pepper crumbs on our faces. Knockout Wings actually knocked us out. A mess doesn’t begin to describe it (actual footage of me eating the wings). In honor of my food bestie, I’ll be discussing a few food memoirs.

Now, on to the club!

Nibbles and Sips

Effie's Shrimp creole in a cast iron skillet next to a garnish and a red bell pepper

Here’s a recipe from Bress ‘n’ Nyam, a Geechee word meaning “bless and eat.” It’s named for Raiford’s grandmother and goes back three generations. It’s similar to jambalaya, but not quite the same. I’ve gone back to eating fish again and have been on a shrimp kick, and this really hits the spot.

Now for the books!

Finger-Lickin’ Histories

cover of Bress 'n' Nyam by Matthew Raiford

Bress ‘n’ Nyam by Matthew Raiford

Okay, so I’m already cheating, as this isn’t quite a memoir. It’s technically listed as a cookbook and features Gullah Geechee recipes. The Gullah people are the descendants of enslaved Africans brought to America, and hail from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Their language is a West African-based creole called “Geechee.”

Raiford inherited his grandmother’s Georgia farm in 2010. The farm had been passed down the family line starting in 1874 when his formerly enslaved great-great-great grandfather bought the land. Raiford decided to return to this farm and tend to it, thereby reconnecting with his ancestral home. I’ve included this cookbook in a list about memoirs be because Raiford tells the tale of his family, and the Gullah people, connecting them all to the more than 100 recipes within. There are 100 photos of recipes as well as important Raiford family pictures that really serve to anchor the food to history and the Black American experience.

Book Club Bonus: I think it’d be cool to make a recipe from the book and bring it to a bookclub meet-up (or have it handy for virtual discussions). Discuss if you think many see Black American cuisine as quintessentially American and how food has reflected Black American history, making sure to discuss both bondage and African roots.

cover of Black, White, and The Grey- The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano

Black, White, and The Grey- The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano

This is a dual memoir by Black chef Bailey from Queens and white investor Morisano from Staten Island who opened a restaurant in Savannah, GA. The restaurant, The Grey, was converted from a formerly segregated Greyhound bus station and is highly acclaimed. This memoir shows how their partnership (they didn’t really know each other initially) and the restaurant came to be. There is humor, honesty, and insight throughout as it tackles topics like business, bias, food, and racism.

Book Club Bonus: Discuss what you think of the authors’ decision on whether to keep the “Colored Waiting Room” sign. What do you think that decision added to or took away from the overall experience?

cover of Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

Hamilton didn’t start off wanting to open a restaurant. She had gotten an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, even. But, the twenty years of self-discovery that had found her learning about hospitality from people all over the world, learning her lesson from crimes committed in her youth, and trying to escape a broken family led her to eventually opening a successful restaurant that has grossed $2 million within a year. Anthony Bourdain once called this the best chef memoir ever.

Book Club Bonus: Hamilton talks about how she finds a new family in the one she gains through marriage. She also mentioned how food and hosting parties were mostly pleasant experiences growing up, but thought of having a career in food to mean having a career without meaning. Discuss the role food and hospitality played in her upbringing, and subsequently how she viewed it as an adult.

Make sure to get your own Read Harder Book Journal from Book Riot to track your reading for the year!

Suggestion Section

Bitch Media is having their first book chat on Jan. 28th, which will be on bell hook’s All About Love. RIP, bell!

A great list of books to read in 2022

Kelly Jensen reports on how a library district welcomes censorship and a librarian was fired

A fun look at iconic author photos by Emily Martin (spoiler: there’s a cow suit)

An article by Danika Ellis on how books and reading are two different hobbies (Reddit weighed in on this one)

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!


I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me talking more mess in the new In Reading Color newsletter as well as chattin’ with my new cohost Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.

Yours in lemon pepper,

-E