Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

Standalone. Macmillan (April 2013) Library

A vibrant, food-themed memoir from beloved indie cartoonist Lucy Knisley.
Lucy Knisley loves food. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe—many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions.
A welcome read for anyone who ever felt more passion for a sandwich than is strictly speaking proper, Relish is a book for our time: it invites the reader to celebrate food as a connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth, rather than an enemy, a compulsion, or a consumer product.

I love any book that has anything to do with food. To also read descriptions and see food being prepared in this comic made me excited and very hungry. Lucy tells her story of her love of food throughout the years. She grew up with two parents who were in the world of food and made sure whatever she ate was deliciously prepared. They frowned at her as she grew up and learned to love greasy, fast food. Lucy also loves gourmet type food and knew more about food than most children her age. She also grew up surrounded by her parents friends who were artists, chefs, and all those really cool, creative people. My family will eat the same things over and over again everyday so it's always nice to see and read about someone with a completely different view on the world even if it's only food wise.

There was so much of the author's life packed into this book. I was seriously impressed with how much information, stories, and yes, recipes were in this comic. Her stories could be very funny to laugh out loud hilarious. She wrote about her life in detail including her parents divorce which was told wonderfully and made me sort of sad. The only thing that I could say I didn't like was it felt a little like it dragged on. Like there was too much going on? Which I feel is a total contradiction to what I wrote earlier but there it is. There's still no denying that Relish had me wanting to try creating new, interesting things in the kitchen. I need that motivation to learn how to cook before I become my parents and cook the same things over and over again. *shudder*