Serious Eater: A Food Lover’s Perilous Quest for Pizza and Redemption

In just over a decade, food blogs have gone from a niche for hobbyists to multi-millionaire dollar properties. Levine rode the entire wave; he started the blog that became the Serious Eats website in 2005, which he sold in 2015 after ten years of chasing money to keep the enterprise afloat. In that time, the concept, content, tone, and business model were constantly in flux. Levine had already cobbled together a freelance writing career while working in advertising and promotion. While he had some business training, he was naïve among venture capitalists, traitorous partners, and hard-nosed businessmen. But he had the support of friends and family and found excellent creative partners including J. Kenji Alt-López and Stella Parks, both of whom contributed a handful of recipes to the text. Alt-López also wrote the forward. Other positives include Levine’s entertaining writing style, his impressive memory for food experiences, and a suggested playlist to accompany the book. While Levine never forgets to name-check a good meal or restaurant, the focus of this memoir is more entrepreneurial than culinary.