What She Ate
Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories
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Narrated by:
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Kimberly Farr
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Laura Shapiro
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By:
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Laura Shapiro
About this listen
A beloved culinary historian's short takes on six famous women through the lens of food and cooking - what they ate and how their attitudes toward food offer surprising new insights into their lives.
"Establishes Laura Shapiro as the founder of a delectable new literary genre: the culinary biography." (Megan Marshall, Pulitzer-prize winning biographer)
Everyone eats, and food touches on every aspect of our lives - social and cultural, personal and political. Yet most biographers pay little attention to people's attitudes toward food, as if the great and notable never bothered to think about what was on the plate in front of them. Once we ask how somebody relates to food, we find a whole world of different and provocative ways to understand her. Food stories can be as intimate and revealing as stories of love, work, or coming of age. Each of the six women in this entertaining group portrait was famous in her time, and most are still famous in ours; but until now, nobody has told their lives from the point of view of the kitchen and the table.
It's a lively and unpredictable array of women; what they have in common with one another (and us) is a powerful relationship with food. They include Dorothy Wordsworth, whose food story transforms our picture of the life she shared with her famous poet brother; Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era Cockney caterer who cooked her way up the social ladder; Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady and rigorous protector of the worst cook in White House history; Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress, who challenges our warm associations of food, family, and table; Barbara Pym, whose witty books upend a host of stereotypes about postwar British cuisine; and Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan, whose commitment to "having it all" meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersize portion of diet gelatin.
©2017 Laura Shapiro (P)2017 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Entertaining and spirited, [narrator Kimberly] Farr is convincing and intentional as she demonstrates that special talent of being able to disappear behind the words and allow the biographical food narratives to do the communicating. This is a fun, different look at people you may feel you already know." (AudioFile)
“It’s great fun to read about notoriously abysmal dishes served in the Roosevelt White House” (The New York Times Book Review)
“[F]ascinating...Shapiro, like a consummate maître d', sets down plate after plate...and an amazing thing happens: Slowly the more familiar accounts of each of [the women’s] lives recede and other, messier narratives emerge.... How lucky for us readers that Shapiro has been listening so perceptively for decades to the language of food.” (Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air)
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Story
Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll transports listeners back in time to witness the remarkable evolution of the American restaurant chef in the 1970s and 1980s. Andrew Friedman goes inside Chez Panisse and other Bay Area restaurants to show how the politically charged backdrop of Berkeley helped spark this new profession; into the historically underrated community of Los Angeles chefs, including a young Wolfgang Puck; and into the clash of cultures between established French chefs in New York City and the American game changers.
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the reader makes the audiobook - unfortunately
- By Lawrie Thicke on 04-20-19
By: Andrew Friedman
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The Devil in the Kitchen
- Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef
- By: Marco Pierre White, James Steen
- Narrated by: Timothy Bentinck
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In The Devil in the Kitchen, White tells the story behind his ascent from working-class roots to culinary greatness, leaving no dish unserved as he relays raucous and revealing tales featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond, including: Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay, Albert Roux, Raymond Blanc, Michael Caine, Damien Hirst, and even Prince Charles.
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A chef / restaurateur must.
- By Brandon on 07-18-16
By: Marco Pierre White, and others
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Servants
- A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times
- By: Lucy Lethbridge
- Narrated by: Helen Stern
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers - even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust - as popular culture would have us believe - they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order.
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Interesting but gaps in info, narration difficult
- By redsrule1 on 01-11-15
By: Lucy Lethbridge
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I Can't Complain
- (All Too) Personal Essays
- By: Elinor Lipman
- Narrated by: Elinor Lipman
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Elinor Lipman has populated her fictional universe with characters so utterly real that we feel like they're old friends. Now she shares an even more intimate world with us - her own - in essays that offer a candid, charming take on modern life. Looking back and forging ahead, she considers the subjects that matter most: childhood and condiments, long marriage and solo living, career and politics. Here you'll find the lighthearted: a celebration of four decades of All My Children, a reflection on being Jewish in heavily Irish-Catholic Lowell on St. Patrick's Day, a hilariously unflinching account of her tiptoe into online dating.
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Fabulous!
- By Louise on 09-15-19
By: Elinor Lipman
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Bonjour, Happiness!
- Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre
- By: Jamie Cat Callan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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As a young girl, Jamie Cat Callan was fascinated by her French grandmother. Though she had little money, Jamie's grand-mère ate well, dressed well, and took joy in simple, everyday pleasures. As Jamie journeyed through France as an adult, she gained more insight into the differences between French and American women. French women - whether doctors, shop owners, or housewives - don't worry about being thin enough, young enough, or accomplished enough.
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a delight
- By Jan Kovac on 02-28-16
By: Jamie Cat Callan
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Out of Line
- A Life of Playing with Fire
- By: Barbara Lynch
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Out of Line describes Lynch's remarkable process of self-invention, including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world, and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen. It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture, governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor. Through her story, Lynch explores how the past - both what we strive to escape from and what we remain true to - can strengthen and expand who we are.
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Hardheaded, arrogant, profane.
- By Minneapolis listener on 10-26-22
By: Barbara Lynch
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The Housekeeper's Tale
- The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House
- By: Tessa Boase
- Narrated by: Tessa Boase
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The Housekeeper's Tale reveals the personal sacrifices, bitter disputes and driving ambition that shaped these women's careers. Using secret diaries, unpublished letters, and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's most prominent households.
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Utterly intriguing
- By Pamela Jane on 09-14-17
By: Tessa Boase
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Chop Suey
- A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States
- By: Andrew Coe
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1784, passengers on the ship Empress of China became the first Americans to land in China and the first to eat Chinese food. Today there are over 40,000 Chinese restaurants across the United States - by far the most plentiful among all our ethnic eateries. Now, in Chop Suey, Andrew Coe provides the authoritative history of the American infatuation with Chinese food, telling its fascinating story for the first time.
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Wanted to like this
- By Irene on 02-13-21
By: Andrew Coe
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Ten Restaurants That Changed America
- By: Paul Freedman
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Ten Restaurants That Changed America reveals how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco's the Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone's, or chronicling French haute cuisine through Henri Soulé's Le Pavillon, Paul Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a story of race and class, immigration and assimilation.
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Worthwhile listen, cringe-worthy pronunciations
- By Tag Christof on 09-01-20
By: Paul Freedman
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Emily Post
- Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners
- By: Laura Claridge
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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From the excesses of the late 19th-century Gilded Age, through the horrors of World War I, to the transformations of the Roaring 20s that gave birth to her magisterial Etiquette, Emily Post unfailingly took the measure of her era. A Baltimore blue blood with a populist heart, she helped the masses live the American dream with her hugely popular book, which has been continuously in print for over 85 years.
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Typical for Emily Post
- By Stephanie on 01-07-19
By: Laura Claridge
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Servants' Hall
- A Real Life Upstairs, Downstairs Romance
- By: Margaret Powell
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Margaret Powell's Below Stairs became a sensation among listeners reveling in the luxury and subtle class warfare of Masterpiece Theatre's hit television series Downton Abbey. Now in the sequel Servants' Hall, Powell tells the true story of Rose, the under-parlourmaid to the Wardham Family at Redlands, who took a shocking step: She eloped with the family's only son, Mr. Gerald.
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Memoir of a Bygone Era
- By Michelle N. Lynch on 04-08-15
By: Margaret Powell
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French Kids Eat Everything
- How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules
- By: Karen Le Billon
- Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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When she moved her young family to her husband's hometown in northern France, Karen Le Billon expected some cultural adjustment. But she didn't expect to be lectured for slipping her fussing toddler a snack, or to be forbidden from packing her older daughter a school lunch. Karen is intrigued by the fact that French children happily eat everything-from beets to broccoli, from salad to spinach - while French obesity rates are a fraction of what they are in North America.
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Can I have a snack? mais non, bien sûr - NO!
- By Marie on 03-21-15
By: Karen Le Billon
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Cooking as Fast as I Can
- A Chef’s Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness
- By: Cat Cora
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In Cooking as Fast as I Can, Cat Cora reveals, for the first time, coming-of-age experiences from early childhood sexual abuse to the realities of life as a lesbian in the Deep South. She shares how she found her passion in the kitchen and went on to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and apprentice under Michelin-star chefs in France. After her big break as a cohost on the Food Network's Melting Pot, Cat broke barriers by becoming the first-ever female Iron Chef.
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Great listen for a chef
- By Nikki on 04-10-24
By: Cat Cora
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Knives at Dawn
- America's Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition
- By: Andrew Friedman
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The Bocuse d'Or is the real-life Top Chef, a biannual cooking competition in France featuring teams from 24 countries vying for the top honors. Named after Paul Bocuse, one of the greatest, most influential living chefs, the Bocuse d'Or has become the most sophisticated and closely watched cook-off in the world. Ironically, though American cuisine now rates among the best in the world, a U.S. team has never placed among the top three in the competition.
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Fascinating for Foodies
- By Linda Zimmerman on 02-07-12
By: Andrew Friedman
What listeners say about What She Ate
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- BuffaloGirl
- 03-31-19
not my favorite
not my favorite narrator, sadly. Interesting book but I don't know if it was exact what I expected
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- Jennifer Johnson
- 02-12-19
A joy of a book!
I just loved this book and its stories. History...food...women...what's not to love? I listened to every minute of this book during morning commutes and looked forward to every session.
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- xochitl
- 08-23-17
Too many women.
It could have stopped after Eva Braun. Too long. I liked learning about Eleanor Roosevelt.
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- C. Kleinbrook
- 07-12-18
Elucidating!
Very interesting...learned a great deal. Reader was engaging without being overly dramatic. Enjoyed, especially, the pieces on ER...and, for different reasons...Helen Gurley Brown.
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- A P BRAUN MD
- 01-08-19
Personality disorders? IS it a Manual or femanual
Disorders of personality in some women related to food- not necessarily what they eat or cook.
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- Jay Quintana
- 09-15-17
Interesting, but don't think the book's premise...
... was proven. I don't see at all how the food these women ate tells their story, except in the most basic way. Seems like Dorothy Wordsworth ate they way she did because that was the food that was available to her. Helen Gurley Brown needed to be thin, so she ate very little. Okay, but why did she need to be thin? I had similar questions of all the other subjects, and never got the answers. Having said this, you do learn about the lives of these women, so it is interesting in that regard. Hmm, perhaps Eleanor Roosevelt wasn't the saint she's often portrayed to be?
Feels like a better title for this book would be, Short Biographies of Remarkable Women, with Information About the Food they Ate. Okay, that's a bit unwieldy, but I hope you see my point.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Scott Mattson
- 08-26-17
Good short biographies
enjoyed the book , but the premise of food stories was not fully realized. I would recommended if you want a quick book.
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- Elaina
- 08-07-17
Fascinating
I enjoyed every minute of it. I'll never look at Elenor Roosevelt or Eva Braun the same way again. Nor will I look at an old cook book the same way again. It's inspired me to find my own food story.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Diana Bennett Mclaughlin
- 11-27-17
Love to cook & eat
I found this book a little trite and did not enjoy it. The only part I found remotely interesting was the authors own story at the end. I would say about the rest “Who Care”?
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1 person found this helpful
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- Chicago Reader
- 10-09-17
Terrible book.
I finally have an answer if asked what is the worst book I’ve ever read. I feel like I was duped by the title and summary. There were not six remarkable women- Hitler’s mistress? Come on. The chapter on the one remarkable woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, was the worst account I’ve read about her. Food did not play an important part in most of their lives. I never would have read beyond the first chapter had it not been chosen for our book club. The person who selected it will be regarded with deep suspicion by the rest of us. No one liked it.
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