To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes by Rosie Grant, HarperCollins - Harvest, 2025, 155 p.
Tik-tokker and author Rosie Grant defines a gravestone recipe as “someone’s recipe etched into their final resting place.” Her book contains forty of these recipes, accompanied by fascinating stories about the lives of amateur cooks and bakers, now departed, as well as historical information about food, celebrations, and cemeteries. Most of the recipes included in the book come from headstones erected after 2000. This connection between cemeteries and food seems to have re-emerged in this century with the newer practice of including the deceased’s favourite recipe on their gravestone.
The recipes come from home cooks who loved to celebrate and share their culinary talents with friends and family. The stories about these individuals are touching and fitting remembrances of people who touched the lives of others through their generosity via food. From a genealogy standpoint, I would have loved to see the author include the birth and death dates in every biography. Some dates appear in gravestone images and in the text, but not consistently.
The author provides some genuinely interesting bits of historical information. Having visited hundreds of cemeteries across North America, I’m not squeamish at all about them, but I was surprised to learn that Victorians liked to picnic in rural cemeteries. It makes sense. Cemeteries are peaceful, idyllic and park-like, so, why not share a meal there?
I’m going to try some of these recipes because if someone thought to etch them in stone, they must be good! I recommend this book to genealogists who love using the oven. Most of the recipes are of baked goods, the type often shared at family and community celebrations. Will I ask to have a recipe included on my gravestone? Probably not, but I knows other who have “signature bakes” that would be worthy of such a permanent placement.
Recommended, for a fun and unusual read.
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