The Winner: Eat a Peach. Especially since in the months after David Chang released this book, he went on the celebrity version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, actually won the million dollars, and pledged it all to restaurant workers in this decimated economy. That is such a wonderful thing to do.
I also wanted to mention my favorite novel from audio, which is set in the food world as well: All Stirred Up. A charming rom com set in the restaurant world of Edinburgh (and a little bit of London), it was fun and well-written and well narrated, and I recommend it to all foodies with a thing for fictional romance.
David Chang has made quite a name for himself as a chef, restaurateur, media personality, public speaker, podcaster, and writer. His restaurant Momofuku changed the way Asian food was cooked and eaten in the American food scene, and he hasn’t stopped trying to shake up the establishment. His memoir, Eat a Peach, is a crazy mix of food talk, restaurant history, philosophy, personal stories, heartbreaking mental illness, and sheer force of will.
Some parts of the book are a fairly linear story, from his childhood through his decision to become a chef, and to the opening of his first restaurant, Noodle Bar, and on through other restaurants. But he also jumps around quite a bit, sometimes stopping the story to talk through what he was wanting to do with his food, or stopping to talk about his mental health, or the importance of finding other chefs to spend time with. But the book still flows well, as it all makes sense to the man putting the words together, and you can just go along for the ride.
There are some of those crazy chef stories, so if you’re looking to find out what it’s like to hang out with Tony Bourdain or to have a secret boys’ club with chefs like Rene Redzepi, Massimo Bottura, and Magnus Nilsson, then you’ll find some of that here. If you want to know what it’s like to open a renegade noodle shop in New York when no one even understood the concept of ramen, that is here too. Looking to get in the head of a Korean American who made it big with his own distinctive voice? Eat a Peach offers that up also.
Or if you want to know what it’s like to struggle with bipolar disorder, workaholism, and emotional dysregulation, you can also find that here. Chang opens up about his struggles with suicidal thoughts, with mania, with PTSD, and with a rage so volatile in his kitchens that he lost employees and customers during his screaming fits. It’s not pretty to hear about, but his honesty and transparency offer insight into how it feels to struggle for decades with emotions that feel too big and too loud to contain.
I have not yet gotten to try any of his food, as I’ve been locked in the American Midwest for as long as he’s been opening restaurants. But I know of his reputation. I can watch him on television and listen to his podcasts and read his books. I admire everything he has accomplished, even more now that I understand how difficult it was for him and how much grit and ingenuity it took.
I listened to this on audio, because I wanted to hear the words in the chef’s own voice. Hearing him tell his own stories added such life to the book that I recommend this as an audio book for everyone. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Is any memoir perfect? We all have blind spots and personal agendas, things we want to talk about and things we don’t, and an author’s ideas of a complete book don’t always coincide with a reader’s, so there will always be more you want to know.
But Eat a Peach is a journey worth taking. Even if you don’t care about the restaurant business, you’ll still find the story of one man’s path through failure to success. You’ll still see how a bullied Korean-American kid grew into an influential leader. You’ll still learn how to grow as a person and create art despite fighting mental illness. And if you do want to be a chef, or know someone who does (this would be an amazing gift!), then you’ll find at the end of this book Chang’s 33 rules to becoming a chef, which includes everything from your education to bringing Band-Aids and Advil to work to traveling as much as possible.
I’ve received a free copy of Eat a Peach from Clarkson Potter in exchange for a free and and unbiased review, with many thanks, but I bought the audio book myself through Audible, to hear the author read the book himself.
