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Burn the Place: A Memoir Audiobook
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Publisher Description
A singular, powerfully expressive debut memoir that traces one chef’s struggle to find her place and what happens once she does
Burn the Place is a galvanizing culinary memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan’s journey from foraging on the family farm to opening her Michelin-starred restaurant, Elizabeth. Her story is alive with startling imagery, raw like that first bite of wild onion, and told with uncommon emotional power. It’s a sure bet to be one of the most important new memoirs of 2019.
Regan grew up the youngest of four headstrong girls on a small farm in Northwest Indiana. Even when she was picking raspberries as a toddler still in diapers, Regan understood to pick only the ripe fruit and leave the rest for another day. In the family’s leaf-strewn fields, the orange flutes of chanterelles seemed to beckon her, while they eluded others.
Regan has always had an intense, almost otherworldly connection with food and earth. Connecting with people, however, has always been harder. As she learned to cook in the farmhouse, got her first job in a professional kitchen at age fifteen, taught herself cutting-edge cuisine while running her “new forager” underground supper club, and worked her way from front-of-house staff to running her own kitchen, Regan often felt that she “wasn’t made for this world.” She was a little girl who longed to be a boy, gay in an intolerant community, an alcoholic before she turned twenty, a woman in an industry dominated by men.
Burn the Place will introduce listeners to an important new voice from the American culinary scene, an underrepresented perspective from the professional kitchen, and a young star chef whose prose is as memorable and deserving of praise as her food.
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"With a voice that’s both bold and filled with determination, Iliana Regan’s story is a memorable tale, who’s prose deeply conveys the resilience and intensity she needed to find her undeniable success. Burn the Place will serve as inspiration for those in and outside of the kitchen.”
— Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin
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“Perhaps the definitive Midwest drunken-lesbian food memoir.”
— New York Times -
“A thrilling, disquieting memoir of addiction and coming of age.”
— New Yorker -
“Earthy and nearly gothic in places, evoking a farmsteading childhood, as well as alcohol abuse, tragedy, and settling into a sexuality not always cohesive with rural Indiana.”
— Chicago Tribune -
“Regan’s struggles and eventual triumph make Burn the Place a riveting read.”
— New City Lit -
“A long and winding story…well worth the journey.”
— BookRiot -
“Sounds as if narrator Eileen Stevens has pulled up a chair at a farm’s kitchen table to tell stories…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile -
“Foodies will appreciate this blistering yet tender story of a woman transforming Midwestern cooking, in a fresh voice all her own.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“An unusually poetic journey…A well-written and honest chef memoir, both rough and charming.”
— Library Journal -
“Told without skirting around darkness and with an engrossing narrative style.”
— Booklist -
“The basic narrative elements that comprise Regan’s story—a misfit hero fumbling and bootstrapping her way to culinary fame—are compelling.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“Iliana Regan writes the way she cooks: with a voice that’s bold and soulful, tender and tough, impossible to ignore, and utterly her own.”
— Jeff Gordinier, author of Hungry -
“Regan’s wild rags-to-Michelin story has appeal far beyond the ‘foodie’ market, particularly among those hungry for tales of unapologetic women who have made it entirely on their own terms.”
— Gina Frangello, author of Every Kind of Wanting -
“Regan is out to shake up the literary world in the same ways she’s shaken the culinary world. Unexpected, flavorful, and distinctive, Burn the Place is a debut to savor.”
— Beth Ann Fennelly, author of Heating & Cooling -
“With this deeply personal work, Iliana reminds us that there is great strength in vulnerability. Her story is one of resilience, determination, and vision.”
— René Redzepi, chef and co-owner of Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark -
“Iliana’s perspective is honest and unprocessed and speaks true to her own experiences. Burn the Place takes us through the incredible events that shaped her identity as a person and a chef. Iliana is one of the best chefs I’ve ever known.”
— David Chang, chef and founder, Momofuku
Awards
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A Publishers Weekly Pick of New Cooking Books of 2019
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Longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction
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A Smithsonian Magazine Pick of the Year's Ten Best Books about Food
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A BookRiot Pick of Best Audiobook Memoirs
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Finalist for the Heartland Booksellers Award
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About Iliana Regan
Iliana Regan is a self-taught chef. She is the founder and owner of the Michelin-starred “new gatherer” restaurant Elizabeth and the Japanese-inspired pub Kitsune, both located in Chicago. Her cuisine highlights her midwestern roots and the pure flavor of the often foraged ingredients of her upbringing. A James Beard Award and Jean Banchet Award nominee, Regan was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs of 2016.
About Eileen Stevens
Eileen Stevens is a voice-over actress whose voice can be heard on cartoons, promos, programs for English-language learners, and audiobooks. An Earphones Award–winning narrator, she is also an audiobook director and producer.