Alone in the Kitchen

A couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with a friend and discussing my upcoming post on dining alone. This friend, being one of the many talented and attractive librarians I know, said: "There are tons of books on that topic. The one I want to read is called Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant."

We both agreed that was a great name for a book. When I did a Google image search for a picture of a woman eating alone to use in my post, what popped up? The cover of this same book. The cover doesn't actually have a woman on it, but rather (as you would guess) an eggplant, but clearly this book was meant to be read, by me.


The book is actually a collection of essays, edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler, who was an MFA student in Michigan, living on her own and cooking on a grad student budget for the first time.

It begins with the titular essay "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant" written by Laurie Colwin in the 80's and has contributors like novelist Anne Patchett, foodie Steve Almond, novelist Haruki Murakami and Colwin's own daughter Rosa Jurjevics.

The essays are touching and funny, each person finding themselves alone in the kitchen for different reasons, some empowering and some sad. The recipes run the gamut from overindulgence to basic sustenance and many of them involve eggs. I did not copy out a lot of the recipes as they don't necessarily fit into a healthy lifestyle, but Single Girl Salmon and almost anything with anchovies got copied down.

The book made me realize I am not alone in my solitude, many people are alone in their kitchens and what we do there can be good or bad for our bodies and our souls.

I was so inspired by this book (which I completed in the span of 1 weekend) that I have written my own Alone in the Kitchen essay and will post it here next week.