Kitchen Sentimental (Annie Smithers, T&H)

Why do we cook, and where do we learn to appreciate food? In her new memoir, Kitchen Sentimental, chef and author Annie Smithers (Recipe for a Kinder Life) tackles these questions. Spanning decades, the book follows Smithers to various restaurants and cafes in Melbourne and country Victoria as she faces physical and mental health challenges, adapts to changing family dynamics, and discovers her culinary identity. From her start at Stephanie’s in 1984 to her time at the renowned Lake House in Daylesford and her independent ventures, including du Fermier in Trentham, Smithers candidly shares the highs and lows of her life in the kitchen. Her heartfelt reflections on food and family resonate deeply; she recounts childhood memories of her mother’s dinner parties and later her experience assuming the role of caregiver for her elderly mother. Smithers’s evolution as a chef, advocating for paddock-to-plate cooking, is enriched by the recipes that reflect her journey at the end of most chapters. Kitchen Sentimental offers readers an intimate view into Smithers’s life as she accepts and embraces that she is ‘happy to be cooking food that leaves people with a sense of nourishment and love as opposed to impressing the pants off them’. For fans of culinary memoirs, such as Charlotte Ree’s Heartbake and Molly Wizenberg’s Delancey, or those interested in the inner workings of hospitality, as shared in Jess Ho’s Raised by Wolves, Kitchen Sentimental is a compelling and insightful read.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Jess Lomas is the editor for reviews at Books+Publishing. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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