Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence

(Paperback, No Edition)

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This is my favourite book of food writing in years. Naben Ruthnum, author of Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race

Thoughtful, wide-ranging essays exploring food as a source of pleasure, practical creativity, and sustenance

Food is the primary way andrea bennett connects with the world. They worked in the restaurant industry for a decade, and though they dont eat much meat and cant eat gluten, they take as much pleasure in food as Jeffrey Steingarten, Anthony Bourdain, or Guy Fieri. When they want to show someone they care, they cook them a meal.

Hearty follows bennetts passion and curiosity into kitchens, gardens, fields, and factories, offering a compassionate and compelling perspective on food from seed to table. Combining journalism, cultural commentary, and personal reflection, Hearty dives deep into specific foods, such as chutney, carrots, and ice cream, but also explores appetite and desire in food media, the art of substitution, seed saving, and the triumphs and trials of being a home gardener, how the food system works (and doesnt), and complex societal narratives around health and pleasure. Nuanced and non-prescriptive, Hearty is a feast that invites all food lovers to the table.

Reviews

"This stellar collection provides practical wisdom and advice for all and is sure to delight both novice and experienced gardeners alike." -- AudioFile Magazine
"The essays in Hearty will appeal to non-gardeners, gardening pros, and everyone in between. They're effortless and interesting, and bennett's fascination with the subject matter--all of it--is infectious." -- The BC Review
"Good memoir writing about food gets at sensory experience and tactile memories, yes. But bennett's essays on eating and feeding others open up the reader's mind to what makes the genre truly great: the act of staying fed being as frustrating as it is calming, and as revealing about inequality as it is nourishing to body and mind." -- Chantal Braganza, deputy editor, Food, Chatelaine
"Rigorous reportage and history exist alongside memoir in these exciting and enriching essays by andrea bennett. With no interest in being didactic, bennett thoughtfully explores questions around the cooking, production, and future of food. Smart, somehow both rigorous and fun, this is my favourite book of food writing in years." -- Naben Ruthnum, author of Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race

Author Bio

andrea bennett is a National Magazine Awardwinning writer and a senior editor at The Tyee. Their writing has been published by The Walrus, Chatelaine, The Atlantic, the Globe and Mail, and many other outlets. Their first book of essays, Like a Boy but Not a Boy, was one of CBC Books 2020 picks for the top Canadian nonfiction of the year. Originally from Hamilton, bennett is now back on the west coast in Powell River, BC, after a stint in Montreal.