I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti

Memoir by Giulia Melucci

Jun 17, 2009

Food memoirs are sprouting faster than corn in summer and many are just as sweet and savory. I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is soul-satisfying and kitchen enticing.

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, Giulia Melucci from Grand Central Publishing whisks together soul-satisfying recipes and hilarious relationship tales in a lighthearted quick-read.

Cooking is The Way to a Man's Heart

Melucci knows the age-old wisdom that “food is the way to a man’s heart.” The book chronicles recipes that draw each man into her life; what she cooks for them while the relationship is heating up and what she cooks for herself when the relationship fizzles. The question is whether to add this to the cookbook shelf or the memoir shelf – either way it is worth devouring.

From the very first paragraph, Melucci sets up the premise and bares her personal man-woes on the page. “Whenever I start dating someone new, I just can’t hold back. No matter how often my girlfriend’s warn me, “Take it slow, let him win you over don’t give it away so quickly,” I just can’t resist, I have to cook for him.”

Italian American Recipes

The recipes are easy to follow and include her concoctions, Melucci family recipes and favorites from restaurants and chefs. Ingredients are widely available and cooking times vary for those with little time to spare or the gourmet who spends leisurely afternoons cooking.

Relationships and Food

Each man profiled has a love for food or drink or a lack of interest in both, much to the author’s dismay. The funniest antics are found in the chapters entitled, Mitch Smith Licked the Plate, Malcolm Caldewell Ate & Ran and Lachlan Martyn Was Passionate…About Food. The reader quickly finds solace in Melucci’s zany efforts at finding a man to love and cook for. Who hasn’t tried this tactic? From baking cookies for a junior high crush, to sending homemade brownies to the paramour who went off to college first or dinner parties in the first apartment post-college conspired to bring that target to the table as an olive branch for dating.

A recipe index makes it a snap to find what sounded appetizing whether it is the Fried Eggplant, Garlic & Bok Choy, F$#k-you Cakes or Spaghettini in White Truffle Oil. The dish titles are humorous and remind readers – like Proust’s Madeleine – of Melucci’s men and their quirks.

Born and raised and still residing in Brooklyn, New York, Melucci was the Vice President of Public Relations for Harper’s Magazine and previously worked at Spy Magazine, domino, Atlantic Monthly Press, Viking, Dutton and Scribner. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti is her first book.

The copyright of the article I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti in Biographies/Memoirs is owned by Dindy Yokel. Permission to republish I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.