When Besha Rodell moved from Australia to the United States with her mother at fourteen, she was a foreigner in a new land, missing her friends, her father, and the food she grew up eating. In the years that followed, Besha began waitressing and discovered the buzz of the restaurant world, immersing herself in the thrilling lifestyle and community while noting the industry's shortcomings. As she built a family, Besha realized her dream, though only a handful of women before her had done it: to make a career as a restaurant critic. From the bustling streets of Brooklyn to lush Atlanta to sunny Los Angeles to traveling and eating around the world, and finally, home to Australia, Besha Rodell takes us on a journey through her life and career, as well as exploring the history of criticism and dining and the cultural shifts that have turned us all into food obsessives.
The life of Beshaleba River Puffin Rodell has been as unusual as her name ... Her outsider status has also left her well positioned to excavate the history of restaurant criticism and the role of those who have practiced it. She relays this with remarkable clarity and explains how it’s shaped her own work ... It’s this analysis that renders Rodell’s book an essential read for anyone who’s interested in cultural criticism ... Packing all of the above into one book is a tall order, and if Rodell’s has a flaw, it’s in its structure. The moving parts can seem disjointed and, although the intention behind the structure is a meaningful one, the execution feels forced ... As she explains in her epilogue, she used the table of contents from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential as inspiration for her own. Titled 'Tony,' the section is dedicated to him. But, however genuine the sentiment, to end on a man whose shadow looms so large detracts from her own story ... It certainly shouldn’t deter anyone from reading it. Rodell’s memoir is a singular accomplishment. And if this publication were to hire her as a dining critic in New York, there would be no complaints from this reader.
This new food memoir is delightfully tongue in cheek ... Rodell’s foodie/hippie origin story, always entangled with issues of money and access, makes her insights throughout the book complex and encourages readers to understand opulence in new ways ... Each chapter of this memoir brings the flavor, from comforting memories to spicy encounters and sour experiences, that will make readers hungry for more.
Structured like a good meal, or a good review, rendering a superb memoir ... A meld of autobiography and culinary memoir with meat on its bones ... She cut her teeth in the restaurant trade in America and retains a keen understanding of the camaraderie (and brutalities) experienced by its workers. Often joyous, sometimes melancholy, her first book recounts a lifelong hunger for discovery and meaning, with exceptional food as both focal point and an end in itself. She provides observant capsule histories of the landscape relating to food and service, all while charting the rise of the contemporary dining craze and celebrity chefs ... Her incisive writing, which chooses to reveal the cultural and historic backstories of the cuisines and locales she reviews, is what makes her work so distinctive. But above all, it is Rodell’s candor, her gift for asking so many savory, enlightening questions, that rewards the reader’s palate
... Structured like a good meal, or a good review, rendering a superb memoir.
