Food Books for Cold Winter Nights

Iliana Regan grew up on a small farm in Indiana, going out on foraging expeditions with her family members and learning how to live with the land around her. As she grew older and began to realize she was queer, she tried to bury that knowledge with alcoholism and an intense amount of work in the food industry. As she worked her way up through the restaurant world, she discovered her calling, the thing that gave her purpose. She began to focus more on ingredients, remembering her childhood spent searching for ingredients with her family. Regan writes about her complex inner world, struggling to stay sober and create a better world for herself where she accepts who she is and becomes her best self. Eventually, she started a Michelin-starred restaurant that put her name on the map. What’s more, Burn the Place became the first food-related book in four decades to be longlisted for the National Book Award.

David Chang is known for his food documentaries Ugly Delicious and Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. And before that, he was known as a rising star, chef-owner of his award-winning restaurant Momofuku. But while everyone admired Chang for being a successful entrepreneur and chef, inside, he struggled with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. He struggled with anger management, yelling at his staff and hating himself after. After several years of therapy, David Chang finally came to the realization that he was, in fact, the problem. In his memoir, Chang describes his life as the child of Korean immigrants, his father pushing him to be the best golfer he could be. But Chang chafed at his parents’ never-ending list of expectations, while simultaneously understanding that pushing him was their form of loving him. Eat a Peach is not a memoir of a man who’s finished his path to healing. Instead, it is written by a man who has just started healing and is now facing the consequences of his actions, just beginning to make amends to the people he’s hurt along the way.