Burn the Place: A Memoir

Burn the Place: A Memoir - Hardcover

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Burn the Place: A Memoir
  • Burn the Place: A Memoir
Burn the Place: A Memoir - Hardcover

Burn the Place: A Memoir - Hardcover

by Iliana Regan
$25.00
$25.00

Book Overview

by Iliana Regan (Author)

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

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 memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan's journey from foraging on the family farm to running her Michelin-starred restaurant, Elizabeth. Her story is raw like that first bite of wild onion, alive with startling imagery, and told with uncommon emotional power.

Regan grew up the youngest of four headstrong girls on a small farm in Northwest Indiana. While gathering raspberries as a toddler, Regan preternaturally understood to pick just the ripe fruit and leave the rest for another day. In the family's leaf-strewn fields, the orange flutes of chanterelles beckoned her while they eluded others.

Regan has had this intense, almost otherworldly connection with food and the earth it comes from since her childhood, but connecting with people has always been more difficult. She was a little girl who longed to be a boy, gay in an intolerant community, an alcoholic before she turned twenty, and a woman in an industry dominated by men--she often felt she "wasn't made for this world," and as far as she could tell, the world tended to agree. But as she learned to cook in her childhood farmhouse, got her first restaurant job at age fifteen, taught herself cutting-edge cuisine while running a "new gatherer" underground supper club, and worked her way from front-of-house staff to running her own kitchen, Regan found that food could help her navigate the strangeness of the world around her.

Regan cooks with instinct, memory, and an emotional connection to her ingredients that can't be taught. Written from that same place of instinct and emotion, Burn the Place tells Regan's story in raw and vivid prose and brings readers into a world--from the Indiana woods to elite Chicago kitchens--that is entirely original and unforgettable.

Author Biography

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 2016.

Number of Pages: 250
Dimensions: 1.2 x 8.1 x 5.3 IN
Publication Date: July 16, 2019
Award: National Book Awards (2019)
ISBN9781572842670
Author Iliana Regan
PublisherAgate Midway
GenreBiography and Food & cooking
FormatHardcover
PublishedJuly 2019
LanguageENG- English
Pages250
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography Cooking Nonfiction

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More by Iliana Regan

Burn the Place: A Memoir

Burn the Place: A Memoir - Paperback

Burn the Place: A Memoir - Paperback

By Iliana Regan

About Iliana Regan

Iliana Regan is the creator of the Michelin star-awarded restaurant Elizabeth, which she turned over to her employees in 2020 in order to run the Milkweed Inn bed and breakfast in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In 2019 her debut memoir, Burn the Place, was longlisted for the National Book Award, the first time a food writer was so recognized since Julia Child won in the year Regan was born, 40 years ago. She earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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