I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti

January 26, 2009
In the wake of several food-as-life memoirs, Melucci, a former v-p of publicity at Harper’s
Magazine
, attempts to carve out her own niche as she narrates her love life through recipes. Shortly after college, Melucci sets out for New York City and soon starts to learn her way in the kitchen—and in the bedroom—while working for Spy
magazine. Mining her Italian-American heritage, Melucci starts with the basics like pasta dishes and sauces and soon starts to cook for her first real boyfriend, Kit. While her relationship with Kit ends, her love for cooking continues as she winds her way through the dating world—and several jobs in publishing. She describes several long- and short-lived relationships, ending with “Lachlan Martyn Was Passionate... About Food,” her most entertaining chapter, about her fling with a Scotsman who left her once she secured a literary agent for him. Melucci, however, rarely makes compelling connections between her love for cooking and her love life (the recipes are uneven, although in their favor not intimidating and amusingly named: “Morning After Pumpkin Bread” anyone?), and her men are too prosaic to keep the reader entertained for long. But Melucci is an amiable narrator whose book should find an audience among the Sex and the City
set.

April 1, 2009
Giada De Laurentiis meets Candace Bushnell in this debut memoir from romantically challenged yet resilient Melucci.

The author grew up Catholic, Italian and squeaky-clean in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Melucci's mother played a consequential role in shaping her personality and taste buds, but the most touching early sections revolve around her father, an Italian immigrant. He was a serious man more concerned with facilitating his children's education than fostering a sense of intimacy, but they grew closer when Melucci studied Italian and art history in college. He was pleased to share his native culture and food with her, and took her to Salerno to meet her Italian relatives. He died three days before she graduated from college; she still cherishes the envelope on which he wrote an impromptu note expressing his love when she was studying in Florence. Melucci warily moved to Manhattan, where she quickly—much to her surprise—landed both a man and a job. Her career as a book publicist, then VP for public relations at Harper's magazine, proved to be a lot steadier than her love life. First there was Kit, who preferred alcohol to angel hair; Ethan, who loved halibut but hated cohabitation; and Mitch, the friend-with-benefits for whom Melucci made bowls of peppery farfalle. Her memoir is strewn with numerous other relatable scenarios and stereotypical lovers, none as satisfying as the homemade and borrowed recipes that accompany each escapade. Using cooking as catharsis after crumbled relationships, Melucci sprinkles sweet and savory homespun meals, ranging from traditional to eclectic, among anecdotes describing the angst of dating in your 30s. The urban backdrop includes Brooklyn's budding neighborhoods, Greenwich Village's underground music scene and SoHo's sleek eateries. In the absence of a reliable male companion, strolling the aisles of Dean& DeLuca gets Melucci's heart pumping.

Frustrations whisked into a tasty treat of a story.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from March 1, 2009
This delectable memoir follows New Yorker Melucci through failed relationships from college to midlife, detailing the recipes she used to reel the men in, sustain the romances, then comfort herself when they fizzled out. The book's heart lies in Melucci's gradual accretion of culinary wisdom, which leads her to acknowledge her identity as a writer. Anyone who has wondered, "Will I ever find Mr. Right?" will appreciate this sprightly debut. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 12/08.]E.B.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2009
This little Italian girl from Brooklyns Bay Ridge surely did go through a lot of men in her search for Mr. Right. She also went through a lot of pasta. By day, Melucci worked as a publicist in a glamorous but poorly paid Manhattan job. One by one, she found boyfriends, fed them well, and established relationships. Thus, she recapitulates the hoary truth about the path to a mans heart lying through his stomach. Hard as she tried, her relationships didnt last, foundering over serious issues such as alcoholism or fear of commitment. Its not for lack of her trying. She even took off work to create an Italian-influenced seder for a Jewish suitor. One reason for her constant disappointment lies in her affection for her late father, who gave her more love and support than she realized in her youth. Recipes included.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)