National Network for Equitable Library Service

As a teenager, French fell in love with food while working the line at her dad's diner. She found her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. In her memoir, Erin opens up to the challenges, stumbles and victories that have led her to the exact place she was ever meant to be, telling stories of multiple rock-bottoms, of darkness and anxiety, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but in the end ripped away her very sense of self. And of the beautiful son who was her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food --- as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of bringing goodness into the world. Erin's experiences with deep loss and abiding hope, told with both honesty and humor, will resonate with women everywhere who are determined to find their voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best selves despite seemingly impossible odds.