Book Review: Tasting Grace

By Melissa D’Arabian
WaterBrook, 2019
224 pages

Amazon Description:

It wasn’t until Melissa d’Arabian evaluated her relationship with food in light of her relationship with God that she began to appreciate food as not only a gift from him but also as a deeper invitation into his love. As she prayed, studied Scripture, and reflected on the stories from her own life, Melissa saw how God had used food to draw her into community, to redeem her moments of greatest tragedy, and ultimately to connect her more to him.

In Tasting Grace, Melissa shares sixteen invitations that will transform your perception of food and the role it plays in your own life, from equality to connection to hospitality to stewardship and more. She explains how through her experiences, she learned to trust the ingredients–in recipes and in life–and join God in the act of creation.

Whether you are a mom struggling to throw together a healthy meal for your family each night or a single woman longing for fellowship around your table, you will draw encouragement and inspiration from Melissa’s reminder that all food, first and foremost, is a gift from God. When you return to him as the source, you will find the freedom to enjoy his beautiful and delicious creation.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I might make some extra coffee money at no extra expense to you if you buy something through one of my links. Read more about that here.

Thanks to WaterBrook & Multnomah for sending me a copy of Tasting Grace to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Wow! It’s a funny thing how some books draw you in, and this was one of those times for me. I knew I wanted to read it as soon as I saw the cover (it’s gorgeous, right?) and title on the publisher’s website, so I reached out and they graciously sent me a copy.

My intention when I started this book was to treat it like a daily devotional and stretch out the sixteen chapters over two weeks or so. I found that I would get to the end of an invitation, as she calls them, and feel compelled to read more. I so enjoyed this book and am grateful for the encouragement and challenge she simultaneously issues to her readers in shifting their view of food, eating, and meal preparation.

Tasting Grace gave me plenty to think about on a lot of different levels. It prompted me to re-evaluate my thoughts on food and eating from the perspective of a Christian, food blogger, and meal-preparer for my family. Am I cooking to serve the physical and relational needs of those who partake or am I doing it to make myself look good? I confess, hosting often sets me on a path of looking for complicated or impressive recipes to wow my guests instead of focusing on the relationship building that happens around a relaxed table.

It also made me analyze my mission for the recipes I post online. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to think up the newest, most unique recipe you can create to show what an amazing home chef you are, but that’s not what I actually want here. What I want are recipes that invite people to cook for their friends and families and share a mealtime together. Her chapter on foodie culture really gave me food for thought (pun absolutely intended) and will certainly have an impact on my recipe development going forward.

I also appreciated her view on our relationship with food, exercise, and our bodies. It very closely mirrors what you find in the book Intuitive Eating, which I mentioned earlier this year as a book I think everyone should read. Tasting Grace is much more faith-based than Intuitive Eating, and as a Christian I really appreciated the biblical parallels and examples she scattered throughout. Tasting Grace is a fabulously well-done book that I will be recommending to a lot of friends and family members. I think it would also make a really great gift. Two thumbs up!