This is part of my Summer Reads series where I’ll be sharing book recommendations – a series of “not just cookbooks”.
For Summer Reads this week, I’ve got a story that’s close to my heart.
Moving to Paris is something so many people dream about. Moving to Paris and falling in love is the ultimate dream for others. I moved to Paris in my mid-20s, ostensibly to finish my Ph.D. in French literature (I JUST donated all those university texts to a book bank last week – truly the end of an era!), fresh-faced (kinda) and full of hope. I didn’t have too many illusions about what living in Paris would look like – remember this was pre-internet (if you are old enough to remember that!) and I hadn’t read any “fairytale” memoirs at that point either. I DID imagine it would be so much more sophisticated and cosmopolitan than living in Australia, just wasn’t sure what that would look like exactly.
In fact, it looked like living in a “foyer des jeunes filles” (like a boarding house for women) for a couple of months while I found my feet. Then I moved to a 10m2 room (with an electric shower – ! – in the corner and a toilet down the hall) where I lived for a few months, dealing with a decidedly odd landlord. The concierge let me know about another studio for rent in the same building so I moved to a 20m2 “studio” which had TWO rooms (and 2 tiny balconies which made it seem much bigger, but the toilet was still down the hall) which was my home for four years. For my last year in Paris, I had a 40m2 studio with an actual BATHROOM (the luxury!), a tiny galley kitchen, a dining table, a living room area, and a bedroom area. LE LUXE, quoi! Oh and all the while holding down more than one part-time job to make ends meet for many years (many of them far outside the city) until I finally got a full-time job teaching (let’s not talk about the Ph.D. LOL!). So, umm, not so glamourous or sophisticated!
In my own way, I did experience the “Paris fairy tale shattered” – thankfully before there was the internet to make you feel even worse about your own situation (people only sharing the good times and not the reality on social media!). Living in Paris was hard. Meeting friends was hard. Dealing with cultural differences was hard. Juggling all those part-time jobs was hard. But I wouldn’t change those years for anything. “Character-building,” I think they call it! But definitely not “fairy tale”.
Dinner for One: How Cooking in Paris Saved Me recounts one woman’s fairy tale romance, move to Paris, and marriage to what she thought was the perfect Frenchman… and the consequent unravelling of the fairy tale.
From the publisher:
From podcast host Sutanya Dacres comes Dinner for One, an unforgettable memoir of how she rebuilt her life after her American-in-Paris fairy tale shattered, starting with cooking dinner for herself in her Montmartre kitchen
When Sutanya Dacres married her French boyfriend and moved to Paris at twenty-seven, she felt like she was living out her very own Nora Ephron romantic comedy. Jamaican-born and Bronx-raised, she had never dreamed she herself could be one of those American women in Paris she admired from afar via their blogs, until she met the man of her dreams one night in Manhattan. A couple of years later, she married her Frenchman and moved to Paris, embarking on her own “happily-ever-after.” But when her marriage abruptly ended, the fairy tale came crashing down around her.
Reeling from her sudden divorce and the cracked facade of that picture-perfect expat life, Sutanya grew determined to mend her broken heart and learn to love herself again. She began by cooking dinner for one in her Montmartre kitchen. Along the way, she builds Parisienne friendships, learns how to date in French, and examines what it means to be a Black American woman in Paris—all while adopting the French principle of pleasure, especially when it comes to good food, and exploring what the concept of self-care really means.
Brimming with charm, humor, and hard-won wisdom, Sutanya’s story takes you on an adventure through love, loss, and finding where you truly belong, even when it doesn’t look quite how you expected.
I LOVED this book and read it in one day (well, disrupted – I read it through part of a flight, a bus ride, a train ride, and later, finished it in bed). Admittedly, I am drawn to this type of story but they’re not all this well-written (and not all of them talk about people who I also know in real life/ are my friends!) – it was a “page-turner” because you simply MUST know what happens next.
Sutanya has a wonderful, descriptive voice and is open and honest about her relationship and how it crumbles. You really feel like you are living all the highs and lows along with her.
The first part of the book deals with her relationship – how it started (long-distance) and how it evolved into marriage. The “dinner for one” part doesn’t come in until about 2/3 way into the book so if you’re thinking it’s one of those memoirs with a recipe at the end of each chapter that symbolises that period in the person’s life, it’s not that.
The end of the book contains recipes that are referenced throughout the book – French classics and others which are “pulled from different parts of [Sutanya’s] life and various influences”. From the Pasta Salad that was a staple meal during her years at Hartford (I have a similar recipe that I used to make when I lived in Paris) to Confit de Canard and Tarte Tatin, the recipes represent moments in a life and tell stories of their own.
A love letter to Paris (despite everything) and food, this will appeal to Francophiles, Paris-lovers, romantics and armchair travellers alike!
Buy Dinner for One on Amazon (this affiliate link should bring you to the Amazon store in, or closest to, your country). Or, for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository.
Please note: This post contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post also contains affiliate links from The Book Depository. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!
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Buy my books! In the French kitchen with kids and French Food for Everyone: le goûter (after school snacks) and le dîner (dinner) are out now! Click here for details and how to order!
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