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

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

by Besha Rodell

Celadon Books ·2025 ·272 pages ·Culture
Near the Top
Near the Top
I Index
58/99
Near the Top

61/99

Critics

Near the Top

55/99

Readers

n/a

Scholars

88/99

Rating

34/99

Volume

49/99

Rating

61/99

Volume

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About This Book

A witty and lively memoir from food writer and New York Times contributor Besha Rodell, (formerly) one of the world's last anonymous restaurant criticsWhen 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, Rodell began waitressing and discovered the buzz of the restaurant world, immersing herself in the lifestyle and community while struggling with the industry's shortcomings. As she built a family, Rodell realized her dream, though only a handful of women before her had done to make a career as a restaurant critic.From the streets of Brooklyn to lush Atlanta to sunny Los Angeles to traveling and eating around the world, and, finally, home to Australia, Rodell takes us on a delicious, raw, and fascinating journey through her life and career and explores the history of criticism and dining and the cultural shifts that have turned us all into food obsessives. Hunger Like a Thirst shares stories of the joys and hardships of Rodell's coming-of-age, the amazing (and sometimes terrible) meals she ate along the way, and the dear friends she made in each restaurant, workplace, and home.


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Reviews

"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 ..."

Emily Bowles· Library Journal Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"She cut her teeth in the restaurant trade in America and retains a keen understanding of the camaraderie (and brutalities) experienced by its workers."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Throughout, Rodell proves the accuracy of her self-description­—'I'm a classic restaurant critic with a slightly filthier vocabulary and an audience in mind that was less wealthy gourmand and more ratbag line cook'­—with punchy and accessible prose."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The life of Beshaleba River Puffin Rodell has been as unusual as her name ..."

Charlotte Druckman· The New York Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

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