Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way

“A rich, engrossing, and deeply intelligent story….This is a book I won’t soon forget.”
—Molly Wizenberg, bestselling author of A Homemade Life

“Fresh, smart, and consistently surprising. If this beautifully written book were a smell, it would be a crisp green apple.”
—Claire Dederer, bestselling author of Poser

Season to Taste is an aspiring chef’s moving account of finding her way—in the kitchen and beyond—after a tragic accident destroys her sense of smell. Molly Birnbaum’s remarkable story—written with the good cheer and great charm of popular food writers Laurie Colwin and Ruth Reichl—is destined to stand alongside Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia as a classic tale of a cooking life. Season to Taste is sad, funny, joyous, and inspiring.

An aspiring chef's moving account of finding her way—in the kitchen and beyond—after a tragic accident destroys her sense of smell

At twenty-two, just out of college, Molly Birnbaum spent her nights reading cookbooks and her days working at a Boston bistro, preparing to start training at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. She knew exactly where she wanted the life ahead to lead: She wanted to be a chef. But shortly before she was due to matriculate, she was hit by a car while out for a run in Boston. The accident fractured her skull, broke her pelvis, tore her knee to shreds—and destroyed her sense of smell. The flesh and bones would heal...but her sense of smell?And not being able to smell meant not being able to cook. She dropped her cooking school plans, quit her restaurant job, and sank into a depression.

Season to Taste is the story of what came next: how she picked herself up and set off on a grand, entertaining quest in the hopes of learning to smell again. Writing with the good cheer and great charm of Laurie Colwin or Ruth Reichl, she explores the science of olfaction, pheromones, and Proust's madeleine; she meets leading experts, including the writer Oliver Sacks, scientist Stuart Firestein, and perfumer Christophe Laudamiel; and she visits a pioneering New Jersey flavor lab, eats at Grant Achatz's legendary Chicago restaurant Alinea, and enrolls at a renowned perfume school in the South of France, all in an effort to understand and overcome her condition.

A moving personal story packed with surprising facts about our senses, Season to Taste is filled with unforgettable descriptions of the smells Birnbaum rediscovers—from cinnamon, cedarwood, and fresh bagels to rosemary chicken, lavender, and apple pie—as she falls in love, learns to smell from scratch, and starts, once again, to cook.

“A wonderful book about life’s unexpected turns, about love and its complexities, and about the ineffably mysterious human brain. I couldn’t stop telling people about it, while I was reading it. It will make you see your nose, your life, and your most important decisions in a whole new way.” - Maile Meloy, bestselling author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

“Season to Taste would be a lovely food memoir, if it were only that. It would be a fascinating book about the sense of smell, and about a loss that might have undone someone less brave, curious, and persistent than Molly Birnbaum. But it’s also something more: it’s a book about life’s unexpected turns, about love and its complexities, and about the ineffably mysterious human brain. I couldn’t stop telling people about it, while I was reading it. It will make you see your nose, your life, and your most important decisions in a whole new way.” - Maile Meloy, bestselling author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It

“Imagine discovering the scent of cucumber, skunk, and even your own brain. Season to Taste reminds us how much our sense of smell grounds us, is part of our identity and, without it, we are bereft of our most profound memories and desires. Molly Birnbaum’s fascinating journey, told with charm and compassion, is ultimately a story of triumph. A book for food lovers, sensualists, and all of us in search of our true heart’s desire.” - Kim Sunée, bestselling author of Trail of Crumbs

“Molly Birnbaum’s fascinating journey, told with charm and compassion, is ultimately a story of triumph. A book for food lovers, sensualists, and all of us in search of our true heart’s desire.” - Kim Sunée, bestselling author of Trail of Crumbs

“Moving and informative.” - Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating and vivid. . . . Packed with information and a great read to boot. I was smitten.” - Library Journal

“A fascinating, illuminating and heartwarming read and a revelation of how aroma is woven, in intricate and complex patterns, through the tapestry of our lives.” - Frangrance Forum

“Rich and insightful. . . . A veritable feast for the reader.” - Charlotte Observer

“After reading Birnbaum’s smart, lovely book, readers will be reminded to savor their next meal, each fragrant bite.” - Boston Globe

“Evocative.” - Daily Beast

“Molly Birnbaum writes with great curiosity and depth, reawakening in us all the sense of taste that we take for granted.” - Amanda Hesser, author of The Essential New York Times Cookbook

“When Molly Birnbaum lost her sense of smell in a brutal accident, it was a tragedy for her plans to become a chef, and yet it was a strange kind of gift, too. Deprived of one sense, Molly drew on all others, and on her memories of aroma, to become a masterful and moving writer. And we, her readers, are the ultimate beneficiaries of her great heart and her vast talent. Season to Taste is a memoir, an inquiry, a rumination, and a love story, too, delivered with a poet’s touch and a scholar’s restless intellect.” - Samuel G. Freedman, author of Letters to a Young Journalist

“Tantalizing. . . . A pilgrimage out of devastation, toward reclaiming the dream of being a chef. . . . Where [Birnbaum] ends up will surprise you, much as it did her.” - Washington Post

“A culinary-minded journalist . . . movingly depicts the nearly ineffable plight of the anosmic . . . alongside passages of sweeping journalistic discovery of all things olfactory. A brave, unflagging memoir.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Powerfully explores the science of smell and its ties to emotion, love and even memory. . . . A truly mouthwatering read.” - BookPage

“A Summer Hot Read.” - New York Post

“I had a hunch that Molly Birnbaum could tell a rich, engrossing, and deeply intelligent story, but what I didn’t know is that I would learn so much from it - about strength, about persistence, about the resilience of the human body and mind. This is a book I won’t soon forget.” - Molly Wizenberg, bestselling author of A Homemade Life

“Molly Birnbaum’s fascinating book takes her--and us--deep inside the mysterious world of scent. Her writing about this unseen force is fresh, smart, and consistently surprising. If this beautifully written book were a smell, it would be a crisp green apple.” - Claire Dederer, bestselling author of Poser

“[Birnbaum has an] insatiable curiosity, convivial voice and talent for unpacking the significance of smell.” - Minneapolis Star Tribune