Hungry Heart

A Story of Food & Love

Author: Clare Finney

Publisher: Aurum Press

Available: 13^th June 2024 in Paperback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours and Aurum Press for my lovely gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

A soul-searching memoir for foodies everywhere. Let award-winning food writer Clare Finney take you on a passionate exploration of food and love From family feasts to comfort food, first dates to office cake; how does what we eat define us, and the relationships we have with others?

In Hungry Heart award-winning food writer Clare Finney investigates the role that food plays in modern society, exploring how eating unites us in varied ways throughout our lives. Starting with her own childhood spent in her grandmother’s hotel kitchen, she reflects on the food that has shaped the person she is today, through the lens of fourteen memorable recipes.

Think of the dance of culinary courtship entailed in dating. Or the funeral foods that remind us of the connections between life and death, Finney examines the power of food and drink to attract, bind and define us—and of course, its power to divide and repel.

Packed with transformative stories from the heart, this book may just change your relationship with food, dining and mealtimes. At a time when our relationship towards what, when and where we eat has become increasingly complicated, Hungry Heart is a feast. It’s an honest, heart-warming account of humans breaking bread together and what that really means.

My Thoughts:

There are some books, that I fall instantly and completely in love with, the moment I start reading them and Clare Finney’s Hungry Heart, is the perfect example of such a book. Reading it, is heavenly, just like a cold glass of champagne on a summer evening or that first sip of good strong coffee on a morning. This is a book, that feels familiar and comforting and at the same time, is entertaining and inspiring and the more I read, the more I adored how considerately and cleverly Clare has curated it and, just like a tub of Ben & Jerry’s One Sweet World, this book is impossible to put down, which probably explains why my copy might now have a few smears of peanut butter on it! Hungry Heart is undeniably delicious, and it is one of my favourite reads of 2024! So now you’ll have to get a copy and find out why for yourselves, won’t you!!

As far as I’m concerned, Clare has written a literary foodtopia, a divine abundance of food related vignettes, with emotional ingredients, pinches of historical reference and sprinkled with the heady spice of psychological examination and mixed into medley of memories. What I admired about the compilation of the book, was that Clare shared her own personal relationship and memories relating to food as well as sharing the constant love affair or battles with it, that her various friends also have. Food, is the archetypal love/hate relationship, especially I think for women who are under the most pressure societally in terms of their physicality. I mean, who can resist a mini cheddar or 50, topped with primula cheese spread or warm aromatic sausage rolls, that are simultaneously soft and crispy and one is never enough or the glide of a gooey chocolate brownie, filled with gems of fruit and nuts…OK that might just be me and given that I am short and round…you can see I have opted for the lover of food side of the relationship.

But as much as we adore the moment we bite into these delightful morsels…for many,  that moment of bliss is often tainted with a sense of reproach or guilt soon after, whether it be an internally perceived failure of self-control for being unable to resist sweet treats, or the knowledge that this moment on the lips, will add more layers to your hips and will probably result in some level of physical torture (aka exercise) to balance the indulgence! Food is so often a symbol of love, of care and of solace and these and other emotional connections are shared so beautifully and vividly by Clare within each chapter.

The main ingredients of this book, aren’t solely focused on the wonderful different types of foods we enjoy but the correlation of our favourite or most hated foods, with various personal and social experiences; from sharing a family meal, to not being able to countenance eating a roast chicken, because it reminds you of the dissolution of your family (divorcing parents) to the packed lunch you share with your bestie, when the halving dairylea lunchables, chipsticks and wagonwheels is as important as expressing teenage angst over your weight, your looks, school, that boy or the unfathomable, unreasonable behaviour of parents!

The breaking of bread, the sharing of a meal; the environment in which you under take your food journey; from greasy spoon café to a Michelin starred restaurant. The atmospheres, be it the clinking of crystal glasses or the cries of excited children when presented with a happy meal and its hidden surprise. The undiluted importance of food community, sharing with others be they, friends, family, work colleagues or guests at wedding reception, creates an impression and shapes us, societally, intellectually and emotionally. Food, whether it be the eating of it, or the preparation of meals is an undiminished factor of all our lives, it can open conversations, it can provide frames of reference, it can be a gateway to finding common ground. In expressing both the positive and the negative connotations and connections in her book Clare, has made me really consider the importance of all these elements and has encouraged me to be more mindful and appreciative of them going forward.

Fundamentally, I think Clare is suggesting that we all have hungry hearts; hungry for love, for acceptance, for happiness, for welling being, for relationships, for family and that food on its own, cannot fill the sometimes empty spaces in our hearts, but the relationships food community in all its glorious variety can, does and will continue to do so.

Hungry Heart is comfort food in literary form, a reading recipe for appreciating the banquet of life. This is an exceptional, entrancing and enriching read, it will satisfy your emotional intellect and tantalise your taste buds (so make sure you have plenty of snacks to hand when you read it). I absolutely LOVED it and I hope you do too…

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Clare Finney is an award-winning food writer – Fortnum and Mason Food Writer of the Year 2019 – and author of The Female Chef, which won Fortnum and Mason’s Debut Food Book Award in 2022. Born in London in 1988 and unhappily educated at an all girls school, she spent large stretches of the school holidays in her grandparents’ large hotel kitchen on the south coast.

There, food and love were inextricable; yet it wasn’t until after university that she fell in love with food writing itself, whilst working for Borough Market’s magazine. Today her food journalism appears regularly in the Guardian, the Evening Standard, delicious magazine, Vogue, the Telegraph and the iPaper, amongst many other titles. She writes about sustainability, food and relationships, producers, food and feminism, trends in food culture, and cheese. IG: @finneyclare

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.