Crazy in the Kitchen : Foods, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family Louise DeSalvo

During Louise DeSalvo"s childhood in 1950s New Jersey, the kitchen becomes the site for fierce generational battle. Louise"s step-grandmother insists on recreating the domestic habits of her Southern Italian peasant upbringing, clashing with Louise"s convenience-food-loving mother; Louise, meanwhile, dreams of cooking perfect fresh pasta in her own kitchen. But as Louise grows up to indulge in amazing food and travels to Italy herself, she arrives at a fuller and more compassionate picture of her own roots. And, in the process, she reveals that our image of the bounteous Italian American kitchen may exist in part to mask a sometimes painful history.