Melanie Rehak

Writer Melanie Rehak is the mother of then 1-year-old Jules, a picky eater. She also has a head full of facts about organic food, hormone-free milk, free-range chicken, and food miles. What should she be feeding — or at least attempting to feed — her child? “If I chose chicken that was hormone-free but not free-range, was there any point?’’ she asks. “Was it really so bad to eat a hot dog once in a while?’’

If you feel a sensual rush in an open-air farmers market ("Ah, pyramids of mellow fruit") and a smidgen of moral uplift ("I'm buying local"), you will enjoy "Eating for Beginners," a fine blend of the investigative and the intimate.

Foodies have it pretty good these days. Farmers markets abound. Reality TV shows serve up every conceivable kitchen-related scenario. A bounty of new culinary books comes out each year, from gloriously illustrated cookbooks to engaging reads on where food really comes from, how it's processed and why you shouldn't be eating so much of it. Here are three that caught our eye.

Rehak, who writes Bookforum’s “Paper Palate” food books column and the blog Eating for Beginners, felt confused and guilty about her food choices after reading books by Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, and others. So she joined the kitchen staff at a small restaurant that served almost exclusively locally grown food, and worked on some of the farms that supplied the restaurant. She shares what she learned and how she used it to combat her young son’s fussy eating habits.

Rehak recounts her journey as an amateur chef, amateur farmer, and amateur parent.