Kim Severson's Spoon Fed
Last week, I snagged my local bookstore's last copy of New York Times food writer Kim Severson'sSpoon Fed. Once home, I scrunched myself into my favorite chair and flipped open the cover, pen in hand, ready to underline Severson's seemingly effortless turns of phrase.
Looking back at all the blue lines (and sometimes exclamation points), I realized that it was Severson's yearning for acceptance that resonated with me most. ("As much as I want to get out of the rat race, I still want to be the best rat. I want to be the best little recipe writer ever. Because I think, on some level, that I am a fraud.") The book centers around eight female cooks and the life lessons they helped Severson learn (or re-learn). Throughout, Severson is candid about her struggles with alcoholism, her sexuality, her preoccupation with trying to please others. Yes, the winner of four James Beard Foundation awards is a work in progress, just like the rest of us.
Some have complained that Severson spends too much text fawning over a few of the book's leading women. But they don't acknowledge that the author is also clear about their flaws. Even so, this book is a memoir, not an unbiased account of The Way Things Are. If the dorky kid inside Severson fawned over the cool-girls-in-school cooks she came across early in her career, then so be it. She's writing to us in the way you ogle over your idols to your closest friends: without reservation. Don't we all fawn? (And is fawning such a bad thing?)
There are other books that tackle life's hardships, and that might make you cry (as I embarrassingly did at a coffee shop upon turning the last page), but they don't all read as well as Severson's. Am I fawning a bit? Sure. Just pick up a copy of Spoon Fed before your local bookstore runs out.
--Julia Bainbridge
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