Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table

From the amuse-bouche through the palate cleanser, this new food memoir is delightfully tongue in cheek as Rodell shares bites of knowledge that touch on epicureanism as an ingredient that is not always if ever a pantry staple in a world where food insecurity, imperialism, and intersectionality must be part of any recipe. As a food writer and New York Times contributor, Rodell has reviewed restaurants far and wide, but her plate wasn’t always full. After a childhood in Australia with a foodie father and a free-spirited mother, she moved with her mother to the United States at 14, homesick and struggling until she discovered the restaurant world, where she struggled to establish herself in the man-dominated world of restaurant reviewing. 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.