How About You Cook With This Book?

Are you interested in cooking?  Do you like non-fiction stories?  Well, if you like either one of those things (or both!), then take a look at a book written by Boris Fishman.  Within his new memoir, Savage Feast: Three Generations, Two Continents, and Dinner Table, Fishman uses cooking as a way to frame not only his story, but his family’s story.  It’s a family story, an immigrant story, a love story, and an amazing meal.  Fishman tries to explore two cultures in his book.  Savage Feast contains a revealing personal story and family memoir told through meals and recipes.

image via amazon

The book begins with Fishman’s childhood in Soviet Belarus (formerly part of the USSR), where good food was often worth more than money!  He describes how one dish brought his parents together and how years of Holocaust hunger left his grandmother with an obsession for bread bad enough that she always stockpiled five loaves.  Fishman’s grandmother was the cook, and his grandfather was the black marketer – he would supply Fishman’s grandmother with food.  The fact that this was going on allowed Fishman’s family to be not only provided-for, but protected during the horrible times of the Holocaust.

Despite the fact that Fishman’s family has a good amount of food, once they emigrate to the United States, they find out that food is more important than ever.  They have to figure out how to preserve their roots while shedding the trauma of the past.  Oksana, Fishman’s grandfather, shows him how they could preserve the family’s roots through ambrosial cooking.  He then tells the story of how his grandfather travelled around the United States in a quest for cooking. Along the way, Oksana’s many relationships with women, troubled to say the least, lead him to a soulmate.

image via stephanie kaltsas on harper colins

Fishman pays tribute to his family, his culture, and food in his memoir.  It initiates a conversation about identity, belonging, family, displacement, and love.  If you are interested in the book, you can get it at the link above.

featured image via the petite stag