Colorful Palate

A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience

RAJ TAWNEY

160 pages, 16 b/w illustrations

9781531504571, Hardback, $24.95 (HC), £21.99

Simultaneous electronic edition available

OCTOBER

Memoir | Food Studies | New York City & Regional

“Raj’s memoir about food, class, and race in the New York area is not your usual upperclass, upper-caste Indian story. Here is an Indian who is equally Puerto Rican as much as Italian. A kid raised well on Arroz Negro, Insalata di Mare, and Tandoori chicken. Read it and cook from it to figure out what it might mean to be authentically American.”

—KRISHNENDU RAY, PROFESSOR OF FOOD STUDIES AT NYU AND AUTHOR OF THE ETHNIC RESTAURATEUR AND THE MIGRANT’S TABLE

“A lovingly wrought and deliciously intimate memoir that captures the stupendous mélange that is Tawney’s American life (and ours). A feast for the mind, a banquet for the heart, as generous as hospitality and as unforgettable as your favorite meal.”

—JUNOT DÍAZ, AUTHOR OF THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER

“Being an immigrant myself, I have always appreciated the cultural diversity and acceptance of it in the United States. Raj Tawney is born American, and in this delightful book he relates to his identity, his life, and growing up in three cultures. The recipes that follow in each chapter are a delicious recall of memories and flavors of each culture. He connects to his roots with tenderness, appreciation, and understanding of his multiethnic family that ends in the kitchen cooking those favorite recipes. Overcoming, with understanding, some of the difficulties he encountered as a multi-ethnic child growing up, he knows that there are many young Americans who are of different cultural blends as he is, and that that is evermore what America is and what makes America the great country it is. A great read. The tasteful recipes are the bonus.”

—LIDIA BASTIANICH

“Raj Tawney’s Colorful Palate is a delicious, charming, and winning coming-of-age story that is authentically American in exploring the messy, beautiful, painful, and ultimately rewarding contradictions of trying to expand stifling boundaries to accommodate and celebrate the multi-hyphenated experiences of those who are often relegated to the margins.”

—WAJAHAT ALI, AUTHOR OF GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM: AND OTHER HELPFUL RECOMMENDATIONS ON HOW TO BECOME AMERICAN

“Raj Tawney deftly explores his culturally rich upbringing, unearthing pivotal answers to one of the most fascinating questions in the world: Who am I? Through a captivating mix of intimate stories of family, tradition, and flavor, he paints a poignant portrait of identity and what it really means to be an American. Coupled with mouthwatering recipes that reflect his multifaceted heritage and his respect for food, Colorful Palate is a touching example of the power we can all yield when we embrace our roots as we partake in—to use Tawney’s words—the ‘Great American Experiment.’”

—JOHN LEGUIZAMO

“Too often in America, we are asked to put ourselves into boxes and categories that reduce us to just one aspect of our identity. In Colorful Palate, Raj Tawney rejects the notion that folks with intersectional identities have to choose which aspects to highlight, and which to set aside. He artfully maps the many facets of his own identity: the ethnicities, relationships and meals that shaped him. In doing so, he shows us that both our plates, and our pages, can and should reflect the multitudes we contain. As a new mom to a baby with Indian, Jewish, Irish, and Italian roots, I am so grateful that this book will grace our shelves, and offer a map to my daughter for how to honor her own intersectional story.”

—NEEMA AVASHIA, AUTHOR OF ANOTHER APPALACHIA: COMING UP QUEER AND INDIAN IN A MOUNTAIN PLACE

A timely self-examination of the “mixed” American experience featuring exclusive recipes and photographs from the author’s multicultural family.

As citizens continue to evolve and diversify within the United States, the ingredients that make up each flavorful household are waiting to be discovered and devoured. In Colorful Palate, author Raj Tawney shares his coming-of-age memoir as a young man born into an Indian, Puerto Rican, and Italian-American family, his struggles with understanding his own identity, and the mouthwatering flavors of the melting pot from within his own childhood kitchen.

While the world outside can be cruel and unforgiving, it’s even more complicated for a mixedrace kid, unsure of his place in the world. Turning to his mother and grandmother for guidance, Tawney assists in the kitchen, providing intimate moments and candor as he listened to the tales behind each culinary delicacy and the women who perfected it. Each lovingly prepared meal offered another opportunity to learn more about his extraordinary heritage. The ability to create delicious fare with his family wasn’t just a duty for the grand ladies who raised him; it was a survival tactic for navigating new and unknown cultures, not always willing to accept them at first or even a hundredth glance. As Tawney examines both himself and his loved ones through the formative stages of his life, from boyhood through adulthood, he begins to realize, through all of the chaos and confusion, just how “American” he actually was.

In this contemporary coming-of-age tale, Tawney tackles personal hot-button issues about race and identity through poignant, heartfelt moments centered on delicious meals. From succulent tandoori chicken to delectable arroz con habichuelas to scrumptious spaghetti and meatballs, Tawney shares his family recipes along with the intimate stories he overheard in the kitchen as he played sous chef to hundreds of recipes that not only span continents but also come with their own personal histories attached. Colorful Palate is a tale of the mixed experience, one of the millions that rarely get told, undefined by a single group or birthright and unapologetic about its lack of classification.

RAJ TAWNEY is a writer and journalist whose work largely reflects his New York–area upbringing and sensibility. Raised in an Indian, Puerto Rican, and Italian-American household, Tawney has explored his own race and identity through stories published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, USA Today, Smithsonian magazine, and many other outlets throughout the country.