Food Is Love (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798994058701)

"In the old days, people believed that if you knew the right words, you could turn base metal into gold, but in that kitchen, I learned the deeper truth, the even older magic: That with time and intention, you could turn flour into food, scraps into sufficiency, and ingredients into love."

So says the first essay of Food Is Love, a vulnerable collection of essays by sixth-generation Mississippian Hugh Hollowell. If you were to make a list of the things he knows for sure, that food is love would be one of them.

In this collection of essays-part cookbook, part memoir, part manifesto-he seeks to make you believe it too.

In the hills of northern Mississippi, he learned that the secret ingredient in the biscuits Aunt Monty rolled out every day of her life was pure love, that a tender pot roast after church on Sunday was as sincere a sign of his mother's affection as she could make, and that he would never feel as at home in the world as he did in the fellowship hall of a small country church while eating Miss VanHook's chicken and dumplings.

Maybe his people didn't have money for vacations or new cars or even health insurance, but that didn't mean they couldn't have green beans seasoned right and biscuits fit for gods and jelly that came from the efforts of people who sweated over a kettle in the heat of summer.

More than merely a memoir or collection of recipes, Food Is Love is an invitation to reflect on the ways food can be a physical manifestation of love for the special people in our lives, and a reminder to hold onto the practices that make it possible.