Mango & Peppercorns: A Memoir of Food, an Unlikely Family, and the American Dream (Book #2)

Title: Mango & Peppercorns: A Memoir of Food, an Unlikely Family, and the American Dream

Author: Tung Nguyen, Katherine Manning, Lyn Nguyen

Dates Read: Dec. 18 - Jan. 4

Format: ebook (pre-pub)

Rating: ★★★

Description: A powerful memoir of resilience, friendship, family, and food from the acclaimed chefs behind the award-winning Hy Vong Vietnamese restaurant in Miami.

Review: While I did enjoy the story that inspired this book, the actual organization of the book wasn't my favorite. I can appreciate how Tung and Kathy's voices contrast and how it's important that they each got to share their own experience in their own words, but it felt disjointed at times to have two completely different narratives. And while the recipes at the end of every chapter sounded delicious, I'm the type of person who needs a LOT of pictures to really give me a sense of the food. I'm more visual when it comes to recipes so the recipes in this book were kind of lost to me.

Final Note: I think the strongest element of this book is the relationship between Tung and Kathy. You can really see how different they are and how they butt heads, but at the end of the day they love and respect each other and have built something beautiful and successful together which is incredibly impressive.

- I received an Advance Reader's Copy of this memoir to review. This is my honest opinion.