Burn the Place: A Memoir (hardcover)

With resonant endorsements from their professional colleagues, Lane Regan has written a smart and moving account of how someone who seemed to have a long list of things against them became a successful and respected chef. Regan is now the owner of two Chicago restaurants (Kitsune and the starred Elizabeth) but they grew up on an Indiana farm. Although Lane connected strongly to the foods their family grew and that they foraged nearby, Lane was an outsider in their community: a girl who wanted to be a boy, a woman who loved women. And as they began working in the restaurant world, they continued to be an outsider but somehow managed to turn that difference into something remarkable. Told in vivid, short chapters that combine lyrical writing with sometimes raw emotion—to say nothing of the intensity of professional cooking—Burn the Place is a strong antidote to the familiar chef memoir and an invigorating read. Hardcover.