Laurie Colwin (1944-1992) had a prolific fiction writing career, publishing five novels and three collections of short stories, including Happy All the Time and Family Happiness, and contributing regularly to the New Yorker. But she was also a regular Gourmet magazine columnist and in 1988 published Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen. As the New York Times observed, it's "as much memoir as cookbook and as much about eating as cooking."
With humor and warmth, by turns informative and entertaining, Colwin weaves together memories, recipes and wild tales from her kitchen, from small meals cooked in tiny apartments to lavish party spreads. Many went well; some didn't. Throughout the book, she praises the joy of making and sharing food with others.
After her sudden death from a heart attack at age 48, More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen was one of several posthumous titles by her. Published in 1993, it, too, included recipes and stories from the kitchen, as well as her thoughts on sometimes overlooked foods such as beets, pears, black beans and chutney. (Colwin's husband, Juris Jurjevics, a legendary publisher, co-founder of Soho Press and the author of several novels, died last Wednesday at age 75.)
In 2012, Home Cooking and More Home Cooking were inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Cookbook Hall of Fame. Home Cooking was last published by Vintage ($15.95, 9780307474414) in 2010. More Home Cooking was served up by Harper Perennial ($15.99, 9780062308269) in 2014.