The author of significant and beloved books such as The Greens Cookbook, ,  and the lamentably out-of-print Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen tells her inspiring personal story, before and after she became one of America’s most celebrated cooks.

A key to this thoughtful memoir is Madison’s address of her twenty years as a student of philosophy at the Zen Center of San Francisco where she also lived. It’s an aspect of her life she has not called attention to before, and although she ultimately left those living arrangements behind, the attention to detail and insight they instilled in her is evident all the way through this book.

An Onion in My Pocket offers an amazing array of American cultural references, culinary and otherwise. Hearing Cream play at the Fillmore; a William Carlos Williams poem; Marcella Hazan teaching in San Francisco; cooking at Chez Panisse; the assassination of Harvey Milk; lunch with Edna Lewis; being chided by Marion Cunningham for not using salt. And Madison’s gift for observation allows her to tell her stories quickly and deftly, tucking insights into them without the least bit of fanfare.

Comfortable and introspective at the same time.

Hardcover.