Food: A Love Story
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Three Stars
I reviewed the audiobook version of Mr. Gaffigan’s Dad is Fat for Cannonball Read 5. He’s back with a new book, which I only discovered because of its prominent display at the bookstore, and the cover. The cover is clever – a cake topper version of Mr. Gaffigan next to a cake topper version of a hot dog, on top of a fancy wedding cake.
The book behind the cover is a nice, light, entertaining read. It’s a bit of a mishmash, with everything connected to Mr. Gaffigan’s love of food. But not in a ‘foodie’ way. Nope, this is about his love of all food, not just artisanal cheese from locally sourced cows. Sure, he devotes a fair amount of space to fancy steak, but a lot of it is about things like McDonalds, hot dogs, and pizza. It’s a hodgepodge that seems even more disconnected than your average collection of essays, and yet it still works. It’s something I appreciate, especially as I am someone who loves food as well.
In the beginning he talks through his view of the food that each region of the U.S. is known for, from coffee in the Pacific Northwest to crab in Maryland. As an aside, he is not a fan of the seafood the east coast loves – he refers to lobster and crab as sea bugs. I can relate. As a comedian who travels for a living, he is in the somewhat rare position of being able to share a pretty well-informed opinion about the different food available in cities across the U.S., large and small. Not many of us can say we’ve eaten in dozens of towns across the fifty states.
The book took a while to get going for me, but once it did, I found myself giggling and cackling, annoying my husband as I insisted on reading passage after passage out loud to him. The book is fun, and a nice read for when everything else has been just a little too much. October was a mostly shitty month in many ways, and an exhausting one at work, so this was what I needed. It isn’t perfect – the beginning does wander dangerously close to fat shaming – but for the most part it’s a nice palate cleanser between the heavier stuff.
