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An Instant New York Times Bestseller!

A candid, funny, and occasionally devastating culinary memoir of a woman making her way through the food world, navigating addiction, a cultural reckoning, and an unexpected tragedy

In this moving, hilarious, and insightful bestselling memoir, Laurie Woolever traces her path from a small-town childhood to working within the high-stakes celebrity chef culture at revered restaurants and food publications, alternately bolstered and overshadowed by two of the most powerful men in the business. But there's more to the story than the two bold-faced names on her resume: Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain.

Behind the scenes, Laurie's life is frequently chaotic, a high-functioning addict's often pleasurable buffet of bad decisions at which she frequently overstays her welcome. Acerbic and wryly self-deprecating, Laurie attempts to carve her own space as a woman in this world that is by turns toxic and intoxicating. Laurie seeks to try it all -- from a seedy Atlantic City strip club to the Park Hyatt Tokyo, from a hippie vegetarian co-op to the legendary El Bulli -- while balancing her consuming work with her sometimes ambivalent relationship to marriage and motherhood.

As the food world careens toward an overdue reckoning and Laurie's mentors face their own high-profile descents, she is confronted with the questions of where she belongs in a story of both workplace toxicity and personal recovery, and how to hold on to the parts of her life's work that she truly values: care and feeding.

This is a story of keeping it together, until several successive implosions -- careers, marriages, reputations, lives -- show that control is an illusion.

• A Behind-the-Scenes Look: Go from a seedy Atlantic City strip club with Mario Batali to the Park Hyatt Tokyo with Anthony Bourdain, witnessing the chaos and charisma of two of the food world's biggest stars.

• An Unflinching Addiction Memoir: A raw and darkly funny account of binge drinking, bad decisions, and the slow journey toward sobriety in an industry that runs on excess.

• Women in the Culinary World: A candid exploration of what it takes to carve out a space as a woman in a kitchen culture that is by turns toxic and intoxicating, balancing ambition with motherhood.

• A Cultural Reckoning: Witness the food world's overdue reckoning from the inside, as high-profile mentors face their own descents and hard questions must be answered.

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Price Summary

  • We started tracking this book on January 27, 2025.
  • This book was $14.99 when we started tracking it.
  • The price of this book has changed 5 times in the past 373 days.
  • The current price of this book is $13.99 last checked 3 hours ago.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past 90 days is $10.99.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $2.99.
  • The lowest price to date was $2.99 last reached on July 13, 2025.
  • This book has been $2.99 one time since we started tracking it.
  • The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on January 6, 2026.
  • This book has been $14.99 3 times since we started tracking it.

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Additional Info

  • Publication Date: March 11, 2025
  • Text-to-Speech: Disabled
  • Lending: Disabled
  • Print Length: 347 Pages
  • File Size: 45 KB

We last verified the price of this book about 3 hours ago. At that time, the price was $13.99. This price is subject to change. The price displayed on the Amazon.com website at the time of purchase is the price you will pay for this book. Please confirm the price before making any purchases.