About this item
The stunning and long-awaited memoir from the beloved founder of the James Beard Award-winning website Leite's Culinaria - a candid, courageous, and at times laugh-out-loud funny story of family, food, mental illness, and sexual identity.Born into a family of Azorean immigrants, David Leite grew up in the 1960s in a devoutly Catholic, blue-collar, food-crazed Portuguese home in Fall River, Massachusetts. A clever and determined dreamer with a vivid imagination and a flair for the dramatic, "Banana" as his mother endearingly called him, yearned to live in a middle-class house with a swinging kitchen door just like the ones on television, and fell in love with everything French, thanks to his Portuguese and French-Canadian godmother. But David also struggled with the emotional devastation of manic depression. Until he was diagnosed in his mid-thirties, David found relief from his wild mood swings in learning about food, watching Julia Child, and cooking for others.Notes on a Banana is his heartfelt, unflinchingly honest, yet tender memoir of growing up, accepting himself, and turning his love of food into an award-winning career. Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life: from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to "turn straight" through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his twenty-four-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David's readers as "The One," which began with (what else?) food. Throughout the journey, David returns to his stoves and tables, and those of his family, as a way of grounding himself.A blend of Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind, the food memoirs by Ruth Reichl, Anthony Bourdain, and Gabrielle Hamilton, and the character-rich storytelling of Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, and Jenny Lawson, Notes on a Banana is a feast that dazzles, delights, and, ultimately, heals.
About the Author
David Leite is a memoirist, cookbook author, food writer, and blog publisher. His newest book, NOTES ON A BANANA: A MEMOIR OF FOOD, LOVE, AND MANIC DEPRESSION, was published by Dey Street Books, a division of HarperCollins. His first book, THE NEW PORTUGUESE TABLE, won the 2010 IACP Julia Child Award, as well as garnering other distinctions.
In addition, he writes about everything from champagne to Welsh food to high tea to being a super taster for publications including the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Pastry Art & Design, Food Arts, Men's Health, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, The Washington Post, and Charlotte Observer. David is a frequent guest on WTHN's TV program "Connecticut Style" as well as "The Today Show." He has been a guest on NPR, Lucinda Scala Quinn's radio program "Mad Hungry," and has been a guest host on the Martha Stewart Living Radio program "Cooking Today," David's a correspondent and guest host for public radio's food program "The Splendid Table" hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. He's also a judge on Food Network's program, "Beat Bobby Flay" and has appeared on History Channel 2.
David won the 2008 James Beard Award for his article, "In a '64 T-Bird, Chasing a Date with a Clam" and was nominated in 2009 for his article "Perfection? Hint: It's Warm and Has a Secret," both from the New York Times. He was nominated for the 2012 IACP Digital Awards for his blog, The David Blahg, and his podcast, Talking with My Mouth Full. He's also a four-time nominee for the Bert Green Award for Food Journalism, which he won in 2006. In addition, he was a 2007 and 2006 winner of an Association of Food Journalists Award. His essays have been included twelve times in the Best Food Writing series from 2001 to 2015. Leite's Culinaria (http://leitesculinaria.com) , which David created in 1999, won the 2007 and 2006 James Beard Award for Best Food Web Site, a 2006 Food Blog Award, the 2005 World Food Media Award for Best Food and/or Drink Web Site, and was named Best Writer's Web Site for 2002 by Writer's Digest.
