LOVE IS MY FAVORITE FLAVOR
A Midwestern Dining Critic Tells All
By: Wini Moranville
Published: July 17, 2024
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Memoir
Wini Moranville is known for her French cookbooks and for being the long-time Des Moines Register dining critic. She spent many years writing reviews of local restaurants each week for the newspaper. How can I possibly write a compelling review for someone who has written many reviews with such flair and detail?
While reading Moranville’s memoir, I was taken back to my own high school waitressing days. I remember the regular coffee guys who came in every Saturday morning and expected me to know their order and have it ready for them. I remember being nervous around the cooks and cringing when I got an order wrong or had to take a plate back to the kitchen to be redone. I also remember the fun times with women old enough to be my grandma or high school friends while working shifts, supporting each other, and rolling our eyes over demanding customers.
The funny thing is, reading this book while waiting tables now for a cute little roadside cafe hit so close to home as Moranville describes the experience she hoped to give her customers. In the cafe, we aren’t serving gourmet meals, but we do serve damn good pie. I, like Moranville, hope that my customers feel like they are at home. But, the best part is when all of us workers gather at the table at the end of our day for a meal and a slice of whatever pie is left over. This camaraderie around the table after a crazy shift makes it all worth it. Moranville talks about these experiences and more during her many years as a waitress in several Des Moines area restaurants. Her years at the Meadowlark, the restaurant in Younkers were a joy to read and reminisce. I hope like her, that my customers leave the table happier after having dined at the cafe.
“When thinking back to our meals, I think of an oft-cited quote from Virginia Woolf: ‘One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.’
Because restaurant work demands a certain kind of love, I would add that one cannot wait tables well if one has not dined well either.”
Wini Moranville, LOVE IS MY FAVORITE FLAVOR
Moranville’s near yearly travels to France made my mouth water with her description of various four or five-course meals. I truly had FOMO as I imagined stopping into a cafe or bistro and being welcomed with delicious food and wine.
Since Moranville has worked in many places, including New York City, has traveled all over the world visiting restaurants and wineries, and has taken numerous hits regarding her reviews, especially once social media made backlash easier, she offers this advice:
“If you’re in a job where you find yourself unable to speak up when others are being stupidly vicious, then that job is probably a bad fit. Especially if you pretty much hate the job anyway.”
Wini Moranville, LOVE IS MY FAVORITE FLAVOR
Moranville’s tales after years of eating bland to 5-star meals, trips to wineries enduring the lengthy explanation of the fermenting process or how the specific dirt in the region enhances the flavor, and memories of meals where she was treated like family made this book such an enjoyable experience for me. Her experience at a Chilean winery where the American flag was flown just for her reminded me to always make sure guests in my home feel loved and appreciated.
Her most fervent advice as I was reading focused on the feeling of love around the table. Whether it was the food that was shared or the people she was surrounded with, love was the most important part of the meal. When sharing her experiences visiting wineries, she states:
“The food and wine were always lovely, and what a privilege it was to be treated to such splendors. But now that I have fewer days ahead of me than behind me, nothing could drag me back to most of those tables. Always remember, it’s later than you think; spend your remaining meals like the rare gold coins that they are.”
Wini Moranville, LOVE IS MY FAVORITE FLAVOR
In this diet-culture, calorie-counting world, I will remember this advice and enjoy the food in front of me, but most of all, spend my meals with those who make me laugh and feel loved around the table. Iowans, foodies, former waitresses, and fans of memoirs will devour this one as I did.
Wini Moranville has worked as a cookbook author, food and wine writer, and restaurant reviewer for more than twenty-five years. She has written hundreds of food-related articles for national food magazines and has served as the wine columnist for Relish Magazine, a TV food segment host, and a James Beard Restaurant Awards panelist. Check out her website, HERE.
To purchase a copy of LOVE IS MY FAVORITE FLAVOR, click HERE.
See all her cookbooks, HERE.
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Thanks to the publisher for sending a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. This review is my honest opinion. If you choose to make a purchase through the above links, I may receive a small commission without you having to pay a cent more for your purchase.
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Posted Under Book Review, food, memoir, non-fiction, Wini Moranville