How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories, and Places

How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories, and Places by Diana Henry

When Diana Henry was sixteen, she began a menu notebook, carefully covered in wrapping paper. Planning a menu remains her favorite part of cooking, as menus create different moods and take you on journeys, from an afternoon in Brittany to a sultry evening in Istanbul. They must flow well and be manageable for the cook.

How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories, and Places includes 24 menus and 100 recipes inspired by places Diana loves and dishes that are her real favorites. Each menu is introduced with a personal essay in Diana's familiar voice, discussing places, journeys, or particular times, and explaining her choice of dishes. Each menu tells a story, though the recipes can also stand alone.

The title How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories, and Places, refers to a summer tradition in Italy where, too hot to cook, the host serves a bowl of peaches with glasses of chilled moscato or Marsala. Guests slice their peach into the glass, eat the slices, and drink the wine. This tradition highlights the essence of eating: simplicity, generosity, and sometimes, not cooking at all.

We added How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories, and Places because Peaches are prevalent in Georgia and just like Italy sometimes it is just too hot to cook!!