Crazy in the Kitchen

Crazy in the Kitchen (2004) by Louise DeSalvo. Subtitled Food, Feuds and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, this book explores the dynamics of a recent Italian-American family, DeSalvo's own, and also harks back to the old country, where her grandparents lived in extreme poverty in the southern Puglia region of Italy. The place they came from, DeSalvo's grandfather told her, was like a parent who wouldn't feed its hungry children. It was a wild place, a savage place, a place her grandparents swore they would never return to, not even to visit. But DeSalvo herself did return to visit, to try to trace her roots, and her adventures in Italy are a foody's delight to read. Also engrossing is the section of the book devoted to her stepgrandmother and her mother, their wild feuding as they were forced to share a house and a kitchen. This book was a delightful discovery and I recommend it highly. Grade: A-