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Eat a Peach

A Memoir

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the chef behind Momofuku and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious—an intimate account of the making of a chef, the story of the modern restaurant world that he helped shape, and how he discovered that success can be much harder to understand than failure.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, Fortune, Parade, The New York Public Library, Garden & Gun
In 2004, Momofuku Noodle Bar opened in a tiny, stark space in Manhattan’s East Village. Its young chef-owner, David Chang, worked the line, serving ramen and pork buns to a mix of fellow restaurant cooks and confused diners whose idea of ramen was instant noodles in Styrofoam cups. It would have been impossible to know it at the time—and certainly Chang would have bet against himself—but he, who had failed at almost every endeavor in his life, was about to become one of the most influential chefs of his generation, driven by the question, “What if the underground could become the mainstream?”
 
Chang grew up the youngest son of a deeply religious Korean American family in Virginia. Graduating college aimless and depressed, he fled the States for Japan, hoping to find some sense of belonging. While teaching English in a backwater town, he experienced the highs of his first full-blown manic episode, and began to think that the cooking and sharing of food could give him both purpose and agency in his life.
Full of grace, candor, grit, and humor, Eat a Peach chronicles Chang’s switchback path. He lays bare his mistakes and wonders about his extraordinary luck as he recounts the improbable series of events that led him to the top of his profession. He wrestles with his lifelong feelings of otherness and inadequacy, explores the mental illness that almost killed him, and finds hope in the shared value of deliciousness. Along the way, Chang gives us a penetrating look at restaurant life, in which he balances his deep love for the kitchen with unflinching honesty about the industry’s history of brutishness and its uncertain future.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 29, 2020
      Chang (Momofuku), Momofuku restaurateur and star of Netflix’s Ugly Delicious, starts this self-effacing, heart-on-sleeve memoir with a disclaimer: “Frankly, I just don’t understand my appeal.” Chang writes about being a hard-driving Korean-American kid with an anger problem who channeled his frustrations into an eagerness to test limits and himself. He left a “soul-sucking” post-college finance job after discovering that, though he was far from a natural at cooking, it was something he “didn’t hate doing.” He opened his first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar, in the East Village in 2004 at least partially to stave off suicide, and in the course of becoming an international restaurateur, Chang tried to upend people’s expectations of ethnic culinary categories while pushing himself to the financial and emotional brink. Chang writes about the sweaty tension of his manic episodes and his dark depression, and there are stories of kitchen screaming fits, reflections on being in the “cool chefs club,” and particularly affecting passages about Chang’s late friend, Anthony Bourdain. In the book’s most heartfelt section, Chang rhapsodizes about the egalitarian Asian dining ethos he wanted to import to the West and even allows himself a rare pat on the back for his influence (“Food across the country had become porkier, spicier, brighter, better”). Foodies and chefs alike will dig into Chang’s searing memoir.

    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2020
      The debut memoir from the star chef and restaurateur. It would be unfair to label Chang's book as the Korean American Kitchen Confidential, but the similarities in tone and attitude certainly invoke the late Anthony Bourdain. The author, probably best known for his now-global Momofuku culinary brand, is no slouch as a writer, with a style that features a refreshingly defiant attitude and some of the best inessential footnotes since A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Chang whisks readers through the steps it takes to be a successful restaurateur, and he makes it clear that there are few ventures harder to pull off. During his first years in the restaurant trade, the author was the beneficiary of family money, a fact that he is not ashamed to admit: Chang's father gave him a generous loan for the financial foundations of his series of restaurants. "There were no apologies or heartfelt conversations, only the money and the particulars of starting a business," he writes. "[My father] was vulnerable. I was vulnerable. We were leaning on one another, just as a family might." Following his early success, Chang began making TV appearances (he now has his own show on Netflix). Of course, there's always a price for success. After moving to Australia and opening a restaurant, he began to feel the stress of managing his many global culinary assets, and a hepatitis scare in one of his restaurants put his business in danger. There's also the inevitable chapter on his addictions: The author was a heavy drinker for years, and he also struggled with anger issues. Chang's memoir eventually becomes a smorgasbord of random recall, covering everything from contemplating the ideal volume of the music in his restaurants to his extended bouts with depression and anxieties about his open-ended future in food. An entertaining, admirably candid self-assessment of life in the foodie fast lane.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      August 1, 2020
      Throughout his first memoir, chef, restaurateur, and Ugly Delicious host Chang (Momofuku: A Cookbook) never loses sight of the "monumental weirdness" of writing a book about himself. While he discusses his upbringing in a Korean American family with poignance, particularly his relationship with his father, this is primarily a book about Chang's career and mental health, and how the two are intertwined. After some post-college searching that led to culinary school, in the early aughts he opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in Manhattan's East Village. One restaurant became several, with accolades and new opportunities aplenty. But Chang is just as open about professional missteps as successes, lauding his talented team while never sparing himself criticism. He also applies brave transparency to the realities of coping with his bipolar disorder, and battling suicidal thoughts. Culinary-minded readers will find much instruction here (including a section on "33 rules for becoming a chef"), as well as the intimate self-portrait of a chef who works hard not to be at the top of his game, but instead always growing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

    • Library Journal

      October 1, 2020

      Chang is a big name in the culinary world. From Momofuku and his other restaurants, to the gone-too-soon magazine Lucky Peach, to the popular Netflix show Ugly Delicious, his star has continued to rise, despite the occasional setback. Is it luck? Hard work? Tenacity? Yes, to all that and more. Chang's memoir wrestles with those questions and the feelings of inferiority, rage, and depression that have plagued him all his life, from his time first working in kitchens to success as a restaurateur to becoming a father. He is as open about his life with bipolar disorder and struggle with self-destructive impulses as he is in describing the missteps he made while managing the Momofuku empire. This openness about the business side of the culinary world makes for a compelling read, even as readers might wince at some of Chang's self-excoriation. He closes the book with a list of 33 Rules for Becoming a Chef; anyone considering the life would do well to read it before getting started. VERDICT A solid choice for memoir fans and chef-followers alike.--Devon Thomas, Chelsea, MI

      Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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