Poor Man's Feast

April 8, 2013
The authorâa New York editor, cook, and award-winning bloggerâartfully merges relationship narrative, personal history, and food memoir in this satisfying book. Altman meets Susan, an Irish Catholic book designer, after posting her food-inspired profile to a dating site. Though this stranger has food and dining tastes that seem Yankee-simple compared to the Jewish narrator's four-star Manhattan haute, their relationship quickly builds on a first date into weekend stay-overs and family gatherings. Their experiences mature into quiet homemaking and a well-lived, transformative life together. Slight in armature, the personal scenes, such as Altman's unpromising first meeting with her partner's mother, lift the book beyond the limits of "food memoir". Sections on her aspirational, emotive father, whose restaurant excursions with his daughter formed Altman's sophisticated tastes, and her glamour queen, former model mother, create pure storytelling goodness. Minor characters like the author's beloved French butcher and Susan's parsimonious aunt add cross-cultural comedy to the familial, culinary, and relationship drama. While narrative strands merge abruptly at times (being food memoir, there are the requisite recipes), luminous writing brings many stories small and large to feed the heart.