Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton

Blood, Bones and Butter

by Gabrielle Hamilton

‘Magnificent’ Anthony Bourdain

A sharply crafted and unflinchingly honest memoir. This is a rollicking, passionate story of food, purpose and family.

Blood, Bones & Butter follows the chef Gabrielle Hamilton's extraordinary journey through the places she has inhabited over the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; and the kitchen of her beloved Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton's idyllic past and her own future family.

‘Evocative…dazzling…beautifully written’ New York Times

Perfect for fans of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.

Reviewed by wyvernfriend on

3 of 5 stars

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Gabrielle Hamilton tell the story of her drift into being a chef. I don't think that she ever planned to end up as a chef, but she did. This tells part of her story, there are pieces left unsaid and nothing is examined in any great detail in the text, the bare bones are illustrated and it left me with questions.

Bisexual, she cheated on a long-term lesbian partner to marry a man so he could get a green card and then fell in love with his family and their food traditions in Italy, and had two kids with him. Still you can see the disintegration of her marriage was going to happen (confirmed here: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2011/05/gabrielle-hamilton-family-meal?curren... and I'm glad she was still accepted by his family). She saw her parent's marriage break up when she was young, she dropped out and made choices that weren't always the best (it seems that along with parting, her parents forgot to make plans for the children or watch them in a meaningful way after the divorce)

I wanted more, I wanted to know what her mum did to earn the hatred, what happened to all her siblings, what happened to her dad, more, dammit.

It was an interesting read but it just felt like there was more there not discussed or examined.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 19 December, 2012: Finished reading
  • 19 December, 2012: Reviewed