Grace Dent, acerbic Guardian restaurant critic and regular Masterchef guest, puts food centre stage in Hungry – A Memoir of Wanting More (Mudlark, £16.99; Tablet price £15.30), a tale of ambition and an ode to family life. There’s an entertaining juxtaposition between her modest Carlisle upbringing, eating her dad’s “sketty” and misshapen mint viscounts, and her attempts to secure reservations at the highly coveted eateries of London’s media elite. Dent’s descriptions of putting on her game face to establish her career in “one of the most delicious cities on earth”, against a backdrop of family illness, are poignant and heart-rending.
29 October 2020, The Tablet
Speed reading: Carina Murphy on culinary memoirs
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