The Joy of Reading About Reading About Cooking

Tejal Rao’s comfort books

Image: Polka Dots and Pastries

Maybe I would have learned this reading anything, but I learned it reading cookbooks: Words can be used to make an idea more precise, or more vague, to make something clear or to blur its edges. Some writers are good at imagining people who don’t live a life exactly like their own, and others seem incapable.

The Joy of Reading About Cooking

Not for nothing, but “Skin the chicken. Tell me everything. Crush the garlic.” would be a perfect title for an essay collection about food.