- Tender at the Bone — Ruth Reichl, 1998
Reichl writes about eating without apology, which is rarer in food writing than it sounds. The book is a quiet argument for hunger as information rather than as moral failure, and for the table as a place where a person is allowed to want.
- Big Night — Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott, 1996
Two brothers cook one enormous meal and the film takes it seriously: the labor, the appetite, the long shared eating. It is one of the few films that does not punish its characters for being hungry, and the relief of watching it is the point.
- Rumours — Fleetwood Mac, 1977
An album recorded by people who were, by all accounts, hungry for everything at once: each other, the work, the next thing. It is not about food, but it has the right metabolism for this Companion: appetite as a force that runs a life rather than a thing to be managed.