Women on Food by Charlotte Druckman is a comprehensive collection of essays and interviews and questionnaires relating to women in the world of food.

I put together the newspaper's Books section annual gift guide again this season and was delighted to include this as a selection in The Globe and Mail's massive Best Holiday Gift Books package (in print December 7, 2019).

My perspective on food has expanded to envelope a unique collective community of women telling their own stories. Brave women forging their voices, rights, representation, creativity and sense of connection with each other and those they feed. The book presents and reads like a conversation and diaglogue that is at times deeply vulnerable, funny and thought provoking. I invite you to pick this book up and join the conversation.

If you expect this book to be primarily about food, as I did, you will be disappointed. This book is about women, with food as the topic that glues all the essays together (mostly!) In that respect I was disappointed. However, that expectation aside, I enjoyed reading the varied essays, interviews, and the inclusion of a few sketches and photographs added extra interest. Some of the pieces were thought provoking, others made me chuckle but most had me searching online to find out more about an author/chef/farmer I had never heard of before.
As a European, I was sorry not to have the writing of some of the better known non-American women included in the book; only interviews with Nigella Lawson and Diana Henry, comments from Ruby Tandoh and Yasmin Khan.

Charlotte Druckman gathers a wide swath of women who have food-related careers. There are essays published previously other places, interviews with specific characters, and group answers to some of her questions.

There is most definitely a certain amount of tension in these pages - female chefs are always asked about the female part of being chefs. So even in this attempt to bring more attention to them, they are forced into this position of answering the questions they always answer. And the answers are both important/expected and unimportant/mundane.

At one point, Charlotte asks them about how being female has impacted their career and almost to a face, all chefs of color are quick to respond that they are seen as their race first. (I sense Charlotte may have learned something about her own assumptions, based on her reflective essay on complicity, including her own, that is included later in the collection.)

This took me a long time to read and it is probably best as a coffee table book, one you pick up and read bits from, rather than trying to read it cover to cover. But I've added many restaurants to visit, cookbooks to try, publications to read, from the names in these pages.

I had a review copy so I can't quote directly but one of my favorite moments was when Charlotte asked which genres of food writing that are (erroneously) consistently assigned to men, and Jordana Rothman responds that she hopes to never read another article about a "bro discovering noodles." Hahahaha.

One essay I really enjoyed was "The Months of Magical Eating" by Tienlon Ho, about the medicinal nature of Chinese cuisine, a relationship between the writer and her father, and her pregnancy.

Another one was "Trapped In, Dining Out" by Osayi Endolyn, depicting what it is like to eat alone at a restaurant as a woman of color. (Spoiler alert - it is super frustrating and full of intrusive white people.)

An excerpt from my forthcoming review: "Women on Food is a book about both women and food, yes, but it is actually, and overwhelmingly, about work. It collects the voices of more than a hundred female-identifying chefs, cookbook writers, recipe developers, food writers, on-camera food personalities, and restaurant critics. The book arrives two years after a wave of #MeToo stories unmasked the toxic sexual harassment going on in professional kitchens under the eyes of once-revered food figures like Mario Batali and John Besh, and parts of it feel like a dinner table discussion from some of the sharpest minds in the food world about the way discrimination operates in the kitchen. "

Chef not woman chef. From Priya Krishna to Nigella Lawson and Alison Roman. Wonderful essays about women from many walks of life especially working in kitchens. I loved this book.

This is a wonderful, very readable collection that would be a wonderful addition to any library's collection, and great as a gift for foodies everywhere.

Women on Food is an incredible accomplishment and publication. People should race to pick this up off the shelf. A collection of essays, interviews, quotes and other musings by radical women in the food industry. Filled with opinions and memories you will captivated from the moment you open it. This book will appeal to the master chefs, the industry workers and the foodie among you. I imagine it will even make you realize you were a secret foodie if you give it a chance. The format is exciting and keeps you engaged at every level. I learned so much reading this. It is absolutely a book that you will cherish and read for years come randomly picking it up to re-read excerpts or show to others.

I wasn't aware of what this was when I requested it and it is not the type of thing for me. I was looking for more recipes.

I've read quite a few anthologies about women and food in my time, and it might just be the way I read it but I felt kind of detached from this entire collection. The personality and emotive nature of food writing is missing in these essays. Anything that starts with a heavy-handed criticism of another writer is enough to turn me off for good. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to expectations and I think, when I requested it, I was expecting something different. Not for me.

This anthology of written works by women on the topic of food is very interesting. I've read some of the pieces before in the anthologies released by "The Best American Series" but it was nice to see an anthology that focuses on female voices specifically. For all the years of being relegated to the kitchen, women continue to be surprisingly underrepresented in the world of professional food critics, chefs, and restaurateurs, save television cooking shows focused on teaching the home cook. This anthology helps to bring forth some of those influential voices.

A huge thank you to editor Charlotte Druckman, all the 115 writers who allowed their works to be published in this volume, Abrams Press, and NetGalley for allowing me the privilege to access a digital copy of this book in advance of its release.

Please note that I plan to feature this in a post on my blog closer to the publication deadline.

Thank you to Netgalley, Editor Druckman and Abrams Press for allowing me to review this ebook as an ARC.

This book is divided into a series of essays and questionnaires, as an anthology of women chefs and food writers. The book features notable celebrity chefs: Rachael Ray, Nigela Lawson and about 115 other women chefs/celebrities. This is a very good read for those interested in any book that tackles the evolution of food through the decades, the role of women in professional kitchens and in the food industry, and other foodie momentos! I am certainly a fan of this and this would be an awesome gift and book recommendation to any foodie out there! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I DNR, It was not available in PDF form. Corrupt file.I did try several times and reloaded from NetGalley.

Unable to download this file to phone and laptop. It says 'file unsupported' on my phone, and indicates that the file is damaged when trying to download onto laptop.