Elissa Altman

In our era of great autobiographical fiction and memoir, and of great food writing, Elissa Altman is exhibit A. She writes about her life, and she writes about food, and sometimes she writes about food as if her life depended on it. Her books include TREYF: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw, and Poor Man’s Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking. Her latest book begins with a pastrami sandwich, but it’s not a food book. It’s called Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing.

On this episode Elissa Altman talks to Debbie about life, food, love, and the new book she wrote on the difficult relationship she has with her mother. “My mother has narcissistic personality disorder, she believes that all publicity is good publicity.”

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