Salty: Lessons on Eating, Drinking, and Living from Revolutionary Women

by Alissa Wilkinson

If you could have a dinner party with anyone dead or alive, who would it be? That's the question film critic and food writer Alissa Wilkinson answered as she gathered a hypothetical table of women who challenged norms and defied conventional wisdom. Ella Baker, Alice B. Toklas, Hannah Arendt, Octavia Butler, Agnes Varda, Elizabeth David, Edna Lewis, Maya Angelou, Laurie these smart, engaging, revolutionary, and creative twentieth-century women were all profoundly influenced by their own relationships to food, drink, and other elements of sustenance. In Salty , Wilkinson explores the ways food managed to root these women into their various callings. For some, it was cultivating perseverance in the face of hardship. For others, it was nurturing a freedom to act, even in the face of opposition, toward justice and equality. For others, it was an examination of what it means to be human with all its desire, heartbreak, sacrifice, isolation, and liberty. Salty is Alissa Wilkinson's invitation to you. Join these sharp, empowered, and often subversive women and discover how to live with courage, agency, grace, smarts, snark, saltiness, and sometimes feasting--even in uncertain times. Ultimately you will leave this table with a greater understanding of food, drink, gathering, thinking, loving, and navigating the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, History, Essays, Feminism, Biography, Audiobook

194 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 2022

About the author

Alissa Wilkinson is a film, culture, and food writer. She is currently the senior culture reporter at Vox.com, as well an associate professor at The King's College. She was a writing fellow at the Sundance Institute's Art of Nonfiction initiative and has written for Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Wilkinson is a frequent guest commentator on various media, including PBS Newshour, NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and On Point. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - Recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy & I really enjoyed it a lot. An imaginary dinner party with some extremely interesting and very literary female writers as guests. I had not heard of a few of them before & think I may just investigate their works!

[Sandra The Old Woman in a Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for Modern Mrs. Darcy’s book club and the following are the comments I posted on that site:

I read Edna Lewis’ Taste of Country Cooking earlier this year, Laurie Colwin’s book after learning about it from MMD, and several of Maya Angelou’s books decades ago. I also just finished a mini-pilgrimage through Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery Alabama so learned a bit about Ella Baker. Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read most of her books, and some biographical material. The other guests were relatively unknown to me, except by name.

Octavia Butler’s chapter was my favorite. There was quite a bit of new background material that I enjoyed, and I appreciated how the author pulled her works together and integrated them with the theme. To me, this was the stand out chapter.

Edna Lewis and Laurie Colwin were also excellent choices for the book and their food-focussed/entertaining careers melded well with the book’s theme. They were also very different personalities so the contrast was fun.

Alice B. Toklas was also an interesting addition, but the chapter felt much more focussed on her partner Gertrude Stein. I went down the Google hole exploring both of these women, and what I learned about Gertrude was pretty much of a turnoff. For a Jewish woman in France to build an alliance with the Vichy government was certainly self-preservationist, but I couldn’t like Stein for her self-absorption and also many of her politics. I don’t think I would have liked her, or her writing. But I liked Alice at least enough to be interested in her cook book.

The other Google-hole I wandered down was George Schuyler who is featured in Ella Baker’s chapter as a host of intellectual salons in NYC and Harlem. The author does note that he started out as a socialist, but became a staunch conservative in later years. What she left out was the he and his wife were apparently eugenicists trying to breed perfect offspring. The horrific abuse they inflicted on their daughter trying to make her an internationally renowned pianist and child prodigy was sobering. I hope Ms Baker saw them as they were.

Overall, I thought many of the “guests,” especially those involved in some type of salon or cocktail party performative social construct were sad individuals whose identities were dependent on their success in the performative events they either hosted or attended.

In a way the central Salty dinner party felt the same. The book never came together for me. Overall it read like a collection of mini-biographies sourced by others. The theme may have played out better as a shorter article - I expect New Yorker readers would eat it up. I kept wondering how the guests, themselves, would perceive the book. Most, I think, would have abhorred it and felt it as appropriation of their stories.

This was a long ramble - thanks for reading it if you got this far. I’m interested in reading more opinions, especially from people who appreciated the book more than I. The fact that the book pushed me to additional research and reading does tell me that, even though I’d rate the book 2-stars, it had its merits.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book just as I'm starting to practice my own nascent love of cooking. It certainly warmed my enthusiasm for good food and the types of enriching interactions I can create using food as a tool. It also introduced me to women I'd never heard of, and women whose names I knew, but whom I knew nothing about.

This book consists of 9 chapters, each about a different "revolutionary" woman, each ending with a recipe relating to the life or work of that woman. It's written in a style warm, casual and conversational. The author's hedonistic ardor comes through in every chapter, both for the food described, as well as for the impactful and mottled lives of the women she writes about.

The 9 recipes all look straight forward and simple, I'm especially looking forward to trying out the no-knead bread, stiff Gibson, and poached pears.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful glimpse, through Alissa Wilkinson’s eyes, on revolutionary women in the kitchen and in their lives. Some of these are women I had not heard of before but feel like I’ve gotten to know them on a more personal level, as Wilkinson showcases the good, and sometimes the bad, on them and their entertaining. I was fascinated by all the meals that were created and the recipes that she has included, adapted for us to use today. I particularly liked the added stories of her own cooking experiments. This was an interesting read that will have me thinking of these dishes for a long time to come.

Audio was well done, no issues.

I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.

[Anne Bogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club November 2022 selection. Alissa Wilkinson will join us for a live discussion!

Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club Community Manager Ginger Horton put this nonfiction collection of cocktail party length stories on my radar. This feels like a series of the author chats that we do over in Book Club all the time. Ginger described this as the book form of that question: "Who would you invite to your imaginary dinner party?" That's almost what Alissa Wilkinson is answering in this collection and her guest list is exquisite. The subtitle's reference to "revolutionary women" includes names I expected to find, like Laurie Colwin, but also so many others—Edna Lewis, Hannah Arendt, Alice B. Toklas, Maya Angelou, and many more mentions besides as these women rub shoulders with all kinds of people in their places and times. I was especially not expecting to see Octavia Butler. If a small and short deep dive is possible, that's what she's doing in these pages. There's a recipe at the end of each chapter that's indicative of each woman's life and work. What she's talking about here is how she says these are women with strong opinions, but also generous hearts and who make strong arguments because they believe in them, but always do it with grace. I felt like I was in such good hands at her dinner table. I have to warn you slash encourage you that you could cobble together quite the reading list from the suggestions in these pages if you wanted to. It feels like the best kinds of literary conversations.

[Matt Lowy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author's debut literary release #Salty may go down as one of my favorite Summer Reads. The Dinner Party is one of the true fascinating things in this world for me and her book centers on nine women who have inspired her through the lens of the culinary arts but all in very different ways. Only one of the woman (a fictional dystopian fantasy writer) profiled didn't hit home with me but it does show her vast range of profiles. The book concludes with 8 of the women all embodying the anchor of the table and who Larry David would most likely give the nod to be The Middler in Dr Maya Angelou.

Each chapter ends with a recipe inspired by the woman featured yet with a bit of a twist from the author's family kitchen which makes for a fun interactive reading experience over a few weeks. There are few hypothetical conversations we can have with our inner circles than who (regardless of breathing state) would join us at our dream Dinner Parties and this book builds on that with such a wonderful history lesson that will also leave you inspired and motivated to be better. The book has a core theme of dinner parties not being so much about what is served but more the community that is built. Her prose of "Together, through the staying power of our long friendship, we are learning to love the world and one another in our particularities, and in that is something no power can overcome" really stuck with me post-read.  Read this book!! Gift this book to your hosts with the most and foodie friends!

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. Let's start with the good (of which there is plenty): Alissa is a wonderful writer, she is both so knowledgeable/well-researched and yet communicates the material in an engaging way. And her food writing is next-level-- I'd read a book of food essays-- a la Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking-- by her! Finally, she introduced me to some fascinating, influential historical women that I otherwise would have known nothing or little to nothing about, so I did appreciate learning about them. My main issue was I just didn't think it all held together under the book's premise-- some of the women were only very tangentially related to food, and it felt like those were people Alissa was interested in learning/writing about and used this hypothetical dinner party as an excuse to do so. As with any collection of essays, some are stronger than others, but I think if a couple had been removed/changed, the collection as a whole would have been a feast, when I was left just a little hungry at the end. Audiobook.

[Lynn Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you haven't seen this book, it's an interesting idea. It's essentially the "What would be your dream dinner party?" in book form. The author created an imaginary dinner party of women she admires. Each chapter contains a mini-biography, together with some tie-in to food and a recipe.

On the one hand, the author gives us an eclectic group of women who probably would be very interesting to have at a dinner party. We get folks with direct ties to food and cooking, such as Edna Lewis and Laurie Colwin, and others where the tie-ins are a little more of a stretch. Octavia Butler would fall more into that category, though I found the biographical sketch so interesting that I didn't care.

My main beef with this book was that it felt a little skimpy. The bios are interesting, but they barely scratch the surface even when one looks at them as just a surface introduction to their subjects. In addition, while a few chapters of the book stood out to me, others were fairly forgettable. In the end, I thought this book was an interesting idea but it averaged out to be just an okay read for me.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Certain parts I loved, other parts felt like an essay I would have written in my undergrad… it’s such a cool concept and I learned a lot! Just wasn’t the most enjoyable read for me

[Clare Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable!

[Brie Kendrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Of all the “food” books this one disappoints. The ties and the theme seemed lost. More like a book report on deserving women but the concept did not pull through.

[Joanne Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a 2022 MMDBC November selection that I thoroughly enjoyed. This collection of essays is about revolutionary women and how food played a role in their lives. I enjoyed them all but leaned into Google searches for the the unknowns such as Hannah Arendt and Alice B. Toklas. Thus, I have just increased my TBR pile.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This may have been the most mediocre book I have read all year. It felt like a collection of mini biographies/book reviews/dare I say Wikipedia entries? I really did not see much throughline. I only finished it because it was so short on audio, but otherwise I would have DNFd.

[Sonia]

DNF. I like cooking and I like eating but I don’t get worshipping either activity, not for me.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Octavia Butler and Hannah Arendt chapters were fascinating to me, and I also enjoyed the Edna Lewis and Maya Angelou. Overall though, many of the chapters felt more like a “Who Was?” book biography than anything having to do with food (except for the Octavia Butler chapter which you should read even if you skip or DNF the rest of the book, especially if you’ve ever read Parable Of The Sower, because Salty blew my mind in its interpretation of what that book was doing).

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nine remarkable women all seated around an imagined feast table. One chapter per woman with their relationship to eating, drinking, and living. I felt like the thread tying the whole thing together was a bit shaky. It was interesting to learn about the women, but overall the book was just okay. I should note that this felt like an essay collection which is usually not my favorite format.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: From the isolation of covid-19 (in NYC) a book-length discussion of the nine women that Wilkinson would like to have dinner with.

I think Alissa Wilkinson is one of the best critic of the arts writing today. Primarily she writes about movies at Vox, but she previously was the head movie critic at Christianity Today. She is also a professor of English and humanities at King's College. I loved the book that she co-authored with Robert Jousstra, How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World. So I preordered Salty without even reading the description (as I like to do with authors I enjoy.)

Wilkinson lives in NYC with her husband and a roommate in a small apartment. During the covid lockdowns, many people fanaticized about gathering with others for meals or parties. Wilkinson turned that fantasy into a book about her dream dinner party. Salty is nine mini-biographies, with recipes. Many, but not all of the characters have some food background in food or food writing. Wilkinson, primarily known as a writer and movie critic, loves cooking. So she wrote a book that considers her love of food, along with her desire for good conversation.

Most of these women are moderately known. A few are very well known, but I would be surprised if readers knew all these women well. The list of women is: Ella Baker, Alice B. Toklas, Hannah Arendt, Octavia Butler, Agnes Varda, Elizabeth David, Edna Lewis, Maya Angelou, and Laurie Colwin. I have read pretty much everything Octavia Butler has written and a couple of books by Maya Angelou. I have read a biography of Hannah Arendt. And I picked up a biography of Ella Baker immediately after finishing this book because I knew of her but had not read about her outside broad history of Civil Rights. The rest of the women were new to me.

Wilkinson is a compelling author; this was a good book for light summer reading. None of the chapters were very long, mostly around 20 pages. And Wilkinson made herself and her reasoning for including each of the women central to the discussion, which kept the book from being simply dry biographies. I appreciated the list of who was included and that she made a diverse list in many ways.

[Phyllis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book and found it didn’t deliver. The concept is that author Alissa Wilkinson imagines if she had invited a group of women to a dinner party. This specific group were women who challenged norms and defied conventional wisdom.

She chose Ella Baker, Alice B. Toklas, Hannah Arendt, Octavia Butler, Agnes Varda, Elizabeth David, Edna Lewis, Maya Angelou, and Laurie Colwin. Yes, they were smart, engaging, revolutionary, and creative twentieth-century women. But not all of these women had obvious relationships to food and drink as the book’s subtitle promises: “Lessons on eating, drinking, and living from revolutionary women.”

So I think it was a stretch to connect all these women through food and drink. The author tried to explore the ways food managed to root these women into their various callings. But most of the time I felt the author had done a lot of research and reading and was just writing a mini-biography of each woman that she had taken from a few other sources. For example, when she inserts the same quote about Ella Baker on page 73 and then again on page 76, I had to ask: where was the editor and/or proofreader? Didn’t Wilkinson herself notice the same quote?

Wilkinson explains her choices, “I’ve spent some time with each woman [through her research] interested especially in how their lives, work, and ideas tell us something about living a life of feasting. Some of them have a lot to say about eating and drinking. Others are experts on friendship, failure, and activism.” Reading Wilkinson’s personal impressions of these women and the inspiration imparted by them was the highlight of the book. I didn’t need to read a rehash of previously written biographies and profiles.

As Wilkinson reveals in her prologue, she began this book just weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. I agree that this was a great project to stay occupied and productive, but instead of writing this book, she should have used the research she acquired and written something else. And circling back to the original concept, I would have liked her to gather these women around the dinner table together and create a conversation for us to imagine joining. Now that would be something I’d enjoy reading.

[A Bookworm In Chile · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure if this book was meant to be read in the winter, but I would recommend doing so. For me, it was like a warm hug on a cold day.

The author takes a look at several prominent women from history who she'd like to invite to a dinner party, focusing in on their connection to food and the ways that it uplifts us and brings us together. Sometimes the connection is obvious (chefs and food writers), but other times it's more subtle (civil rights organizers and scifi writers) but for each chapter had me wanting to pour out a glass of wine and get to cooking.

(As it happens, I did make cookies while listening to the audiobook...but alas, no wine.)

I hadn't heard about all of the women mentioned, but it was fascinating to learn about them. Despite some of them not being complete angels, each one left a mark in her own way. Here, they're portrayed compassionately and with some very good writing. Additionally, if you decide you want to learn more about them, each chapter comes with a list of extra reading ( I've never before felt the need to read a cookbook, but now I have about 5 on my TBR)

Listening to this book in audiobook format was enjoyable for me as I found the narrator's voice to be soothing. In fact, it was the voice that helped form my final "warm hug" impression. Still, if you do decide to listen to the book, it may also be advisable to pick up a print copy as well. There are plenty of recipes included that are definitely worth trying, but might be easier to follow when written out.



Many thanks to NetGalley.

[Marsha Rafalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is Schrödinger’s cat alive or dead?
If you could have dinner with anyone—alive or dead—who would you choose?

During 2020 when we were all dealing with quarantine, Alissa Wilkinson set out to answer the thought experiment of planning a dinner party with a feast for the body, mind and spirit. To populate her party, she selected nine women from the past who had made a life of renown, service, activism, scholarship and contributed their unique gifts to the world. Among her guests were two of my favorite authors—Maya Angelou and Octavia Butler. Some I knew of by name and some were new acquaintances. Wilkinson provided a recipe associated with each guest. Her introduction provided enough information that I want to know more about each one. I actually have a cookbook by one of these ladies on order and I am not a person who likes to read cookbooks little less use them for actual cooking.

The book was well written, the premise was unique, and the research extensive. I listened to the audiobook and it was very well done. The book explored the effects of food and how it cultivated friendships, nurtured thoughts, spirits and what it takes to be human. Recommend to readers of biographies, essays, food and cooking, gatherings, and books-about-books.

[Lynne Vanderveen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take the old challenge: If you could invite people - from the past or present - to dinner, who would you invite. Wilkinson takes that challenge and offers up a wonderful collection of women to join her around the table. She selected women who have something to offer from the part food played in their lives and who are strong women who had impact on the lives around them and society at large. Each chapter offers up a biographical sketch of the person and a recipe. I was lured to the book by the women I recognized: Maya Angelou (especially her), Laurie Colwin, Octavia Butler, and Alice B. Toklas. I enjoyed learning more about these women as well as being introduced to some others I didn't know anything about like Agnes Varda, Ella Baker, Elizabeth David, and Hannah Arendt. Each was extremely interesting to learn about and some were exceptionally inspiring. I found some wonderful passages I highlighted to remember later that were written by the women being described and even more by Wilkinson herself. I'm eager to share this book with others, especially my teenage granddaughter because I know she will find women to admire and some she will feel a kinship with.

[Kait · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a reader, I’ve had the pleasurable experience of reading “the right book at the right time.” Perhaps you know that feeling. You’re going through something hard and a story offers you a hopeful perspective. Maybe it’s something as simple as a good, ole fashioned murder mystery during the month of October with a hot cup of tea. I love that and I was hoping for that with “Salty.”

I’ve had Ms. Wilkinson’s debut novel on my TBR since it’s publication (or slightly before, if I correctly remember reading about its conception in her newsletter). Back in the days that I was on Twitter, I loved her erudite missives and also enjoyed her film reviews for CT and Vox. So I knew I would love a book written by her.

Alas, that was not the case. It was interestingly written and clearly well-researched. I liked the concept of the book and found it fascinating. But, unlike my original thesis, I read this book at the wrong time– a year too late, actually. I’ve changed and I find myself no longer agreeing with the perspectives offered up in this book. It’s not the book’s fault–or an authorial misstep!–but “Salty” doesn’t suit my tastes any longer.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* Surprisingly deep and worthy. I am not usually drawn to cookbooks as part of my reading life. I use a variety of books from various food writers and chefs, but don’t consider it “reading” per se. So, at first, I was put off by the title and the brief descriptions. Because I participate in the MMD book club online, I wanted to give this a try. Reading the book in print form was not working for me. I listened to a portion of the author chat and decided I needed to forge ahead. This time I chose the audio format. I read the whole book and learned a great deal about women of history that I had not been introduced to in the past. The structure of the book was created on the idea of a dinner table with specific invitees who we learn about through their relationship with food and community. It’s a fascinating discovery of each women’s contributions whether you have previous knowledge of their work or not. And yes, I even chose a few recipes to add to my collection.

[Sue.the.very.busy.reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Salty with @mmdbook club this month. The premise of the book is who would you invite dead or alive to a dinner party? I thought about this for a couple days and I decided the type of party I most like to host is a bookish type. I have twelve dining room chairs and I need one for myself so I get to invite eleven guests. I would invite Louise Penny, Katherine Center, Fredrik Backman, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Patrica Callahan Henry, Karina Yan Glaser, Anne Bogel, Susan Meissner, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Kate Quinn and Kristin Hannah.

Salty is not a cookbook, it is more of a historical storybook about women who made a difference and some wonderful recipes. I am not much of a foodie but I did enjoy the stories. I gave the book ⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the introduction to SALTY, Alissa Wilkinson casts her book as a feast then provides essays on the contribution of nine different women of various historical statures in 20th and 21st century culture--from Edna Lewis to Alice B. Toklas to Maya Angelou. Wilkinson wrote the essays during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when she longed for gathering like never before. Each of the women she writes about have a connection to food, and each essay ends with a recipe. Wilkinson provides biography, literary & cultural criticism, historical detail, and self-reflection. The essays are interesting, surprising, and thoughtful. Highly recommended for foodies or readers interested in women in history.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives look at nine interesting women the author would like to invite to a dinner party. In each chapter she discusses a particular woman and why she wants her at her table. At the end of each chapter she includes a brief bibliography for further reading and a recipe inspired by that woman.
I enjoyed reading about each of the women and my favorite was Hannah Arendt. I was very moved by what Arendt had to say about friendship and politics. I find her words to be as important today as they were 60 years ago, especially if we want to take steps to heal the current divisiveness that is so prevalent. I look forward to reading more about Arendt.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Who would you invite to a dinner party if you could invite anyone?" is a classic question for both introspection and icebreakers, and here it provides a great framework to explore the lives, work, ideas, and food of the women who inspired the author. The short biographies and recipes for each are inspiring, although the author's invitees had challenging lives, and much of their work for equality, human rights, food security, and other issues continues on. It's especially intriguing to see how food -- preparing it, sharing it, the choices we make about ingredients, what we make and how we serve it -- can reflect and support the bonds of trust, friendship, activism, and communication.

[Glen U · Rating 4 out of 5]

An invitation to a dinner party with a myriad of diverse, important and loosely connected to food women who shaped the recent history of womankind. Some like Edna Lewis and Alice B. Toklas are famous for their direct effect on the food world. Others, like Elizabeth David, brought a new culture of food to an entire country and forever changed the food scene in Britain. Some were civil rights activists, movie directors, poets, authors ... nine revolutionary women, connected (some tenuously) to food and more importantly, food and sharing and humanity, that make for nine entertaining and informative stories. Also, a very good read for an old idea of a book.

[Georgina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little baffled by this book, a compendium of descriptions of different women (e.g., Hannah Arendt, Ella Baker, Alice B. Toklas) and their connections to food and the ways their lives echoed or inspired the author’s. It includes a recipe for each chapter. The idea is that the author is imagining inviting each of these formidable women to a dinner party. I found the women’s stories to be fascinating and inspiring, and to learn about women that I hadn’t known much about before. The benefit of this book is that it whets your appetite to learn more about the women profiled here. So, I feel that the book does a service but doesn’t much seem to have much weight or value in its own right. I feel a little mean spirited to write this but the whole time I was reading I felt that I was surprised it was published. It has the heft of an article but in the end didn’t come together as a book for me.

[Cheeks Butt · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you’re passionate about cooking, I don’t recommend. While I did enjoy the parts where she would read through a recipe, this book wasn’t really for that. I read it for book club and if I never read it again it’d be too soon. I have such bad adhd following along with this book was like trying to follow a fly on the highway. She has some fun stories about the other authors, but I couldn’t even tell you who they were and which person went to which story. Pretty forgettable in my opinion, but I think women who enjoy the history of how women fought their way through women’s rights might like it. Good luck.