In dynamic, poetic prose, Grant relays the contours of her life ... It’s with the same attention and precision that Grant plucks and places her words. The vignettes in this lean collection are powerful, presented with plenty of white space between chapters, a pause to savor what is told and what is left unsaid ... In the final section, Grant provides recipes with wit and warmth ... Brimming with passion, tragedy and love, this slim volume delights, enlightens and satisfies.

... a series of vignettes, poetic and spare and powerful, that trace this writer’s life as a chef, a baker, a mother, a partner. I have never been a chef, so I found her passages from that period of her life compelling, but I especially appreciate her portrait of motherhood, including postpartum depression, the specific pain of childbirth, and getting an abortion as a mother of two. And yet it’s not a downer at all.

Sometime the subtitle really does tell it all. In this case, A memoir with recipes is the most succinct yet accurate description of this work; an often raw, stream of consciousness effort, describing the difficulties of being a restaurant line cook and new mother in equally vivid detail ... A somewhat idiosyncratic collection of the author’s personal favorite recipes range from pesto to spicy beef stew to strawberry balsamic tart, written in a cozy, conversational style, encouraging readers to use up what’s in the fridge ... A compelling memoir about cooking (at home and at work), life, and making it up as you go along.

In a series of short, spare, food-centric bulletins written in the present tense, Grant captures the passions of her life, from the rigorous intensity of her early ambitions to her more manageable present ... Grant nimbly pirouettes, pivots, leaps. She becomes a cookbook editor, a yoga instructor, a certified doula, a smitten mom who blogs about cooking with and for her kids, a bold, talented memoirist. Such flexibility is not a bad lesson for right now. Plus there's the bonus of 17 tempting, homey recipes.

Relating the adrenaline-surging hustle in restaurant kitchens, including nauseating moments of sexual harassment, Grant writes with bursting energy ... Grant captures life with her husband and growing babies in similarly spare and gripping images, to enjoyably entrancing effect. The book ends with recipes referenced in her essays, and more: tarte tatin, lamb popsicles, avocado bowls, a fridge- and pantry-flexible 'California pesto.' Narrative instructions match the rest of the book’s feel for finding a solid base and then following one’s intuition.

Grant has written a memoir relatively early in her life. The freshness of her memories from young adulthood make for vivid descriptions of the rights of passage often glossed over by authors with greater distance ... Grant’s writing pulses with the intensity of one’s twenties and all the yearning, passion, and searing disappointment that fills those years ... Grant’s stark, spare memoir feels like the literary equivalent a few bold slashes of color across a canvas. She briefly touches on loaded topics that could be books unto themselves: the culture of elite female dancers, being a woman in the restaurant world, coping with infertility, and surviving postpartum depression ... Grant illuminates the human condition in sometimes breathtaking ways—readers will surely see themselves on these pages—but she fails to fully reveal herself. Offering only the gut punches of a life story is a difficult way for an author to build rapport with readers. Grant’s book leaves one wondering if she is likeable, if she has a sense of humor, if anything embarrasses her. One finds oneself wanting more, which is not necessarily a bad thing—in a book or a meal.

Grant is particularly adept at packing a lot of emotion and detail into a few brief lines ... However, by the end, we’ve gleaned little about the important individuals in her life. Her husband, actor/director Matt Ross, is referenced only as 'M,' present throughout but peripheral to her story. In the last section, Grant offers a selection of favorite recipes, weaving in personal memories and confident advice and further confirming her talent as a food writer. Ultimately, her memoir, composed of brief paragraphs and chapters within ample white space, serves to showcase her writing style and inventive skills in the kitchen. While she fearlessly lays bare many of her personal experiences, the end result feels somewhat insubstantial ... A promising yet excessively sparse publishing debut.