Through stories of hand-rolled pasta and homemade chutney, local markets and backyard gardens, and wild mushrooms and foraged grape leaves—Breaking Bread:  Recipes and Stories from Immigrant Kitchens recounts in loving detail the memories, recipes, and culinary traditions of people who have come to the United States from around the world. Chef, teacher and author of this book, Lynne Christy Anderson, has gone into immigrant kitchens and discovered the power of food to recall a lost world for those who have left so much behind and we are lucky enough to have her in our own backyard.  Lynne will be joining us for an evening of recounting stories including the people she has met along the way, who come from all over the world, but all have the same connection to food. We will also hear more about what inspired her to write this book and her realization of the powerful relationship between food and culture.

The enticing, easy-to-prepare recipes feature specialties like Greek dolmades, Haitian soup joumou, Dominican sancocho, Persian Kou Kou Sabzi, and Sudanese mulukhiyah. Together with Robin Radin’s beautiful photographs, these stories and recipes will inspire cooks of all levels to explore new traditions while perhaps rediscovering their own culinary roots.

Books will be available for purchase and Lynne will be on hand to sign copies following her reading and discussion.

Lynne Christy Anderson (www.lynnechristyanderson.com) is a writer, teacher, and cook who lives in Jamaica Plain.  For many years she worked professionally in award-winning restaurants until she turned to a career in teaching, first working with immigrant adults learning English as a Second Language. Her students–mothers and fathers from places like Guatemala, Pakistan, Vietnam and Morocco, grandparents from Haiti, Cape Verde, Brazil, and China–shared the triumph and loss that marked their coming to America and the way that food lessened the struggle by serving as a link to the past and a bridge into the future. These stories led Lynne to first consider the powerful relationship between food and cultural well-being and were the inspiration for her book, Breaking Bread:  Stories and Recipes from Immigrant Kitchens. Lynne was the recipient of a Bread Loaf Rona Jaffe Foundation scholarship in non-fiction in 2008.  Currently, she teaches at Boston College and Bunker Hill Community College.

Thursday, April 14, 6 – 8 p.m. at Local 121, 121 Washington St., Providence, RI 02903.

$20 at the door – this includes cover and heavy appetizers. There will be a cash bar.