“If the U.S.A. can be said to have a national palate, then it was Ms. Clementine Paddleford, from Manhattan, Kansas, who invented it. This colorful, lively, intricately researched biography brings this forgotten hero of the great American food revolution, vividly to life.†—Adam Platt, food and restaurant columnist, New York magazine “Finally a wonderful book about the missing great presence in American food, Clementine Paddlefor, the flaky and adventurous original.†—Barbara Kafka, author of Vegetable Love and Soup, A Way of Life “The next best thing to a dinner invitation from Clementine Paddleford herself, Hometown Appetites is a riveting three-dimensional portrait of this iconic American food personality.
†—Steven Shaw, author of Turning the Tables and Asian Dining Rules "Alexander and Harris’s excellent biography tells the story foremost of a journalist, a writer who travelled tens of thousands of miles in pursuit of first hand accounts of the way we live. Clementine Paddleford was among the first American writers to sense that what and how we ate day to day, whether in Hawaii, Louisiana or Kansas, or New York, provided a clear view of what America was as a nation. Hometown Appetites is fascinating, long overdue account of a seminal figure in America's food revolution." —Michael Ruhlman, author of The Elements of Cooking “Decades before Anthony Bourdain and The Galloping Gourmet, the indomitable Clementine Paddleford traveled the globe (sometimes piloting the airplane herself!) to deliver stories and recipes to millions of readers of the The New York Herald Tribune . Kelly Alexander's superb, engaging biography of this pioneering food- writer--a Kansas farmer's daughter--is essential reading, not only for today's foodies and feminists, but really for anyone who yearns to know more about American regional cooking.†—Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook “Reading Clementine Paddleford as a kid taught me the value of a bizarre byline. Now she's been rediscovered for a new generation as a character worthy of that singular name.
†—Regina Shrambling, Gastropoda.com.