Burn the Place: A Memoir

Iliana Regan grew up the youngest of four headstrong girls on a small farm in Indiana. While gathering raspberries as a toddler, Regan intuitively understood to pick only the ripe fruit; orange flutes of chanterelle mushrooms beckoned her in the fields while they eluded others. Regan's intense connection to food and the earth has been with her from an early age, but connecting with people was more difficult. She grew up gay in an intolerant community, was an alcoholic before she turned twenty, and, as a woman working in an industry dominated by men, she struggled to find her place. But cooking helped her navigate the strangeness of the world around her -- making pasta with her mother, getting her first restaurant job at age fifteen, teaching herself cutting-edge cuisine while hosting an underground supper club, and working her way up to running her own kitchen. Regan cooks with instinct, memory, and an emotional connection to ingredients that can't be taught. Written from that same place of instinct and emotion, Burn the Place tells Regan's story in vivid prose and brings readers into a world that is entirely unforgettable.