Relish by Lucy Knisley [book review]

I just finished reading Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley. It's the first graphic book I have read and it was so fun! It was a Kitchen Reader book--it's a memoir by a girl who was raised by a mother who was a catering chef and a father who was a gourmand. I found that it started off a bit self-aggrandizing (there's some name dropping of her mother's friends/clients), but after a couple of chapters I was charmed by Knisley's childhood.

First Knisley lived in New York City and she experienced life as a child among hoards of food-loving adults. Later her parents divorced and she moved to rural New York and helped her mother raise chickens and work at farmers' markets. Time spent with both her parents revolved around food.

The book contains eleven recipes--and doesn't include an index, so I made one myself. The pickle recipe will be first I make. (I'm trying to make and eat more fermented foods.) Also there is a recipe for spaghetti carbonara and it's high time I attempted a grain-free version of that.

Knisley's memoir turned out to be quite a sweet read which I really enjoyed. The illustrations made the story more relatable and down-to-earth in the end since she draws herself as an ordinary, occasionally awkward youngster. I hope the other Kitchen Readers picked up Relish also.

Have you read a graphic book before and what did you think?

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