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311 ratings | 6 reviews | avg rating:3.93

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David Leite

Goodreads Author

Born

Fall River, MA, The United States

Website

http://leitesculinaria.com

Twitter

davidleite

Genre

Memoir, Cookbooks

Influences

David Sedaris Jeffery Steingarten, John Irving ...more

Member Since

September 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/davidleite

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David Leite is a cookbook author, food writer, and memoirist. His newest book, Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression, was published by Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

He's also the publisher of the website Leite's Culinaria, which has won two James Beard awards, as well as the writer of The David Blahg. He's the author of The New Portuguese Table: Exciting Flavors from Europe's Western Coast, which won the 2010 IACP First Book/Julia Child Award.

His writing has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Pastry Art & Design, Food Arts, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, The Washington Post and the Charlotte Observer. His awa ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

David Leite It's trite, I know, but park your ass in the chair and write. And read, as much as you can, especially upward.…moreIt's trite, I know, but park your ass in the chair and write. And read, as much as you can, especially upward.(less)

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Obviously writing a cookbook and writing a memoir are very different undertakings on many levels, but is there any difference between them--either in the process or the mindset needed-- that took you by surprise?

David Leite Yaaresse, I wasn't prepared for the emotional onslaught the material brought up for me. I thought I had long ago dealt with this mishegas in therapy. …moreYaaresse, I wasn't prepared for the emotional onslaught the material brought up for me. I thought I had long ago dealt with this mishegas in therapy. How naive! It caught me off-guard, and I needed to find ways to allow myself to steep in it for the writing of the book, but at the same time not allow myself to be dragged under. I wasn't always successful.

In writing a cookbook, I needed to think logically, precisely. It was a lot about measures, and weights, and clarity. And there was as much memory work as there was time spent facing the stove. But in the end, while I had some emotional epiphanies while writing the cookbook, it's still a how-to book, a book that is of service to the reader. It tells its story through the foods I featured. The memoir, on the other hand, was all memory work; my job was to get lost in memory in order to tell the story.

And that is the biggest difference between the two books. How to tell the story. The hardest part of writing the memoir was picking and choosing those scenes that together tell the story. There was a lot of arranging and rearranging of those scenes, writing and rewriting, adding and subtracting. Many times whole chapters were cut in order to serve the larger story. (The largest cut was more than 15,000 words.) I didn't know what to include until I found out what not to include.(less)

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Combine Editions
David Leite’s books

Average rating: 3.84 · 1,071 ratings · 155 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression 3.77 avg rating — 882 ratings — published 2017 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Portuguese Table: Exciting Flavors from Europe's Western Coast by David Leite (Goodreads Author), Nuno Correia (Photographer) 4.18 avg rating — 189 ratings — published 2009 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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123 posts
David Leite's Blog

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Published on July 12, 2024 23:51

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The food writer turned memoirist in Notes on a Banana names his favorite books that helped him understand his mental illness.

Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: * Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	3129	311	Aug 31, 2022 09:00PM

David’s Quotes

“I am a cage, in search of a bird.”
― Franz Kafka

4715 likes

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

tags: aliteracy, books, classic, humor

51767 likes

David’s Friend Comments

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message 3: by David (last edited Feb 28, 2017 06:25PM)

Nov 20, 2016 04:24PM

Everyone, Notes on a Banana: A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression in now available for preorder of the print and ebook version. (Audiobook coming soon!) To preorder, just let your fingers do the clicking.

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message 2: by David

Nov 02, 2016 09:49AM

Stay tuned! The cover to "Notes on a Banana" is coming soon.

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message 1: by David

Aug 12, 2015 07:55AM

If you're interested in winning a copy of my book The New Portuguese Table, you can enter here. Good luck!