Notes on a Banana by David Leite; Dey Street Books, $26.99
The bright, colorful, and informative foodie blog LeitesCulinaria.com won the coveted James Beard Award in 2006 and 2007 for content excellence, and its creator, David Leite, went on to publish his award-winning cookbook "The New Portuguese Table" to great acclaim. Though Leite's ascent through the ranks of the culinary world is impressive, even more remarkable is his harrowing personal history as divulged in his just-published debut memoir "Notes on a Banana," chronicling his anxious childhood in New England and his adult years living as an accomplished and ambitious gay man.
With generous helpings of humor and brio, Leite (nicknamed "banana" by his mother) describes his Portuguese-American boyhood in the unglamorous, blue-collar enclave of Fall River, Massachusetts, as the son of two Azorean immigrants in the 1960s. Feeling different and unable to find his niche as a youngster, the author found joy in the kitchen and became happiest when involved in the cooking process and the table presentation of food.
His later years would become clouded with extreme emotional highs and lows, including episodes of deep depression once Leite began to experience same-sex attractions, a definite no-no within the Catholic confines of his family. Suppressing the titillation he felt when viewing Sears catalog male underwear models, he focused on school and awaited the day he could be on his own. That liberation took place during his collegiate life, where Leite enjoyed dalliances with men, yet promised himself he would continue dating a woman in the hopes that something would "click."
Abandoning college, he discovered the lure of Manhattan, where his determination to adopt a heteronormative lifestyle manifested in misinformed participation with the SoHo-based group "Aesthetic Realism," a movement which once advertised itself as inspiring people to "change from homosexuality" through its teachings, but now believes, according to its website's declaration, in "completely equal civil rights for everyone."
Leite also rejoices in his nearly 25-year relationship to "The One," his loving longtime partner Alan, the man responsible for reinvigorating the author's lifelong interest in the joys of gastronomy. As his memoir looks back at a past that has seen its share of gloomy days, the author can admit that a combination of his strict yet loving upbringing and those darkest moments have made him the success story he is today. Leite's memoir is a true literary feast for the soul, presented with creative, honest prose, droll anecdotes, and all the savory trimmings of a happy ending.