The Comfort Food Diaries

Starred review from June 12, 2017
Gorgeous and moving, Nunn’s memoir will enlighten readers on how closely food can be intertwined with healing. Nunn, a former New Yorker arts editor, reflects early on that “the very idea of comfort food is often a scattershot longing, an elastic and suggestible concept,” and recounts how comfort food helped her heal after the death of her brother Gil. In straightforward prose, Nunn describes her alcoholism in the wake of Gil’s suicide and her subsequent stint in the Betty Ford Center. Along the way, readers meet those in Nunn’s life who share their recipes and stories with her while she rebuilds her idea of family. She includes recipes for the key comfort food meals of her life, such as a recipe for cream cheese and olive sandwiches, which she ate as a fourth grader with a “nervous stomach”; a recipe for the Bolognese ragù she made while staying with her aunt Mariah, trying “to get it together”; and a recipe for the collard soup prepared by her friend Portia as they discussed AA meetings. With powerful prose and rich details, her memoir is simultaneously uplifting and heartbreaking.

June 15, 2017
A tale of recovery from a broken heart via comfort foods found across the United States.Within a short period of time, freelance food writer Nunn, who worked for nearly a decade at the New Yorker, lost her brother to suicide and broke up with her fiance and was forced to leave the beautiful apartment they shared. She turned to alcohol to cope, dropping further and further into the gin bottle until she reached out for help. A stint in the hospital and another at the Betty Ford Center helped her realize she was not alone; family and friends were there to assist in any way that they could, which included invitations to visit. Nunn spent the next several months traveling across the country, cooking and collecting recipes for favorite foods, the ones that sprang to mind whenever there was a death, an accident, or a broken heart in need of comfort. During her journey, she learned that everyone has a different food they turn to when they need a form of sustenance beyond filling an empty stomach. It might be a mother's lime-green gelatin salad from childhood, a country ham biscuit (one of the author's "very favorite foods"--"funky, potent, leathery, salty ham that has been placed on a biscuit whose edges crumble from crisped fat and whose center is sweet in comparison"), or a silky custard made in a double boiler. Crisscrossing the country, Nunn repaired her fragmented heart as she listened to humorous and moving stories about her relatives and friends. The author includes a few dozen recipes for the comfort foods she describes, resulting in a sort of minicookbook inside a candid memoir of despair and triumph over depression. Nourishing, truthful reflections on family, friends, and love all wrapped up in the idea of food as sustenance for both the body and the soul.

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September 1, 2017

Following the suicide of her brother, the demise of her relationship with her fiancee, and a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic, freelance food writer Nunn embarked on a journey of self-healing that led to an exploration of the power of comfort foods. Returning to her roots in the American South--a place she both loves and hates--the author spent time with relatives and friends, sharing memories, anecdotes, and cherished recipes. These recipes range from her personal favorite (country ham and biscuits) to her Aunt Mariah's lemon sponge cups. Most of the dishes are straightforward, easy to re-create, and deliciously tempting. As much as readers may want to visit the kitchen to try a recipe, it may be difficult to tear themselves away from the author's beautifully written narrative, rich in details and filled with humor and poignancy. VERDICT Combining elements of food, travel, and family histories, this engrossing account will interest everyone from culinary memoir lovers to general audiences.--Phillip Oliver, formerly with Univ. of North Alabama, Florence

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