Review by New York Times Review
That the title of Regan's memoir refers to her fantasy of torching her restaurant with some of the employees still inside offers a not-so-subtle clue to her temperament and outlook. Being harsh, prickly and foulmouthed is nothing new when it comes to chefs, but "Burn the Place" is anything but a typical chef's memoir. For one thing, most of Regan's story hardly touches on her career in the food industry, chronicling instead her early struggles with her sexual identity and substance abuse. Only in the last quarter of the book does she finally share her journey to become a celebrated chef, from setting up a table at farmers' markets to sell pierogi, to starting an underground "new gatherer" restaurant and "staging" in local kitchens, to finally founding the Michelinstarred Elizabeth restaurant, and the recently shuttered Bunny Bakery and Kitsune, all in Chicago. It's fascinating to get a glimpse of the creative and scientific process behind her unusual dishes, but, regrettably, this segment of her story isn't just too short but undermined by a slapdash style. Her book would have benefited from some of the obsessive polish she brings to her food preparation. DAWN DRZAL is the author of "The Bread and the Knife: A Life in 26 Bites." She has written about food, travel and fiction for The Times, Food & Wine and other publications.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 14, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Michelin-starred chef Regan grew up in a farmhouse in rural Indiana, where her mother was famous for her pierogi and her father taught her how to forage for chanterelle mushrooms. In this memoir, Regan recounts her upbringing as the much-younger child in a family of sisters. She started her first restaurant job at age 15. From her hometown, Regan moved to Bloomington and later to Chicago, where she worked in innovative restaurants such as Trio and Alinea. In 2010, she began hosting pop-up dinners at her home with food she'd grown in her backyard or foraged herself. In 2012, she opened Elizabeth, a restaurant named for her sister who passed away suddenly when Regan was 22. Beyond an origin story of her life as a chef, Regan delves into her parents' separation, her gradual acceptance of her sexuality, and her struggle with alcoholism that started in her teen years. Told without skirting around darkness and with an engrossing narrative style, Burn the Place brings readers into Regan's life and dreams.--Laura Chanoux Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this biting debut memoir, Regan, chef and owner of Chicago's Elizabeth and Kitsune restaurants, writes of growing up in a small Indiana town, where she struggled with gender identity and sexuality before finding herself as doyen of Chicago's "new gatherer" culinary movement. Regan depicts her early life in an "outrageously enchanting" farmhouse with her parents and three sisters, including the day she "became a chef" after picking chanterelles with her father (they "smell like the earth but also sweet like apricots and spicy like peppercorns"), taking them home to sauté in butter and wine-experiences that later influenced the food served at her restaurants. After her parents divorced, Regan coped with the frustrations of growing up gay in a "Red state" by turning to alcohol; after graduating from high school she moved to Chicago, first delivering Chinese food, then hosting at high-end restaurants. After her sister died unexpectedly (she had a seizure while in jail for punching her husband), Regan began selling farm-to-table and foraged foods at farmers markets ("tortillas made with wheat I'd sprouted"). She became known citywide for her pierogis, and after becoming sober she opened her Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant, Elizabeth. Foodies will appreciate this blistering yet tender story of a woman transforming Midwestern cooking, in a fresh voice all her own. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Regan's debut memoir is an unusually poetic journey from her early years living in a small town in Indiana to her current position as owner of the Chicago-based restaurants Elizabeth and Kitsune. Growing up on a farm, Regan knew at an early age that she loved food and wanted to make it her life's work. From tales of picking raspberries as a child to crafting eclectic and foraged cuisine at her two restaurants, it's clear that food is one of Regan's passions. She warmly tells about her life with her three sisters and parents, and how they accepted her even though she was unsure of her identity, longing to be a boy, and later identifying as a gay woman. Regan explains how her father taught her to forage and hunt, and that she learned to make meals, such as simply sautéed chanterelle mushrooms, with their finds. Addictions came early, as she started drinking and abusing drugs to cope with the difficulties in her life. Struggling to be sober and successful, she eventually rose to the top of her field in a male-dominated industry. VERDICT A well-written and honest chef memoir, both rough and charming.--Holly Skir, Broward Cty. Lib., FL
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A chef tells how she overcame family dysfunction and substance abuse to become the proprietor of a Michelin-starred restaurant.Regan grew up a tomboy on an Indiana farm "dropped smack in 10 acres of cornfields, wild edibles, and Native American burial grounds with pulsating ghosts." From a mother who saw "food [as] love," she learned how to cook and can from scratch. From her father, whose mother owned a small cafe, she learned how to roast meat on homemade grills and forage for wild mushrooms. For most of her childhood, she lived with her colorful, raucous family, watching her parents grow apart, threaten divorce, and then come back together again. Relief at having her family back came at the cost of leaving the farm she loved but that her mother no longer wanted to maintain. Adolescence proved to be as painful as it was forgettable: "High school sucked a small flaccid dick." At first, Regan, who questioned both her gender identity and sexuality, tried to fit in. Then she rebelled, drinking, crashing cars, and going to jail twice before graduating high school and eventually going to live in Chicago. Up-and-down relationships and a string of restaurant jobs helped her survive the difficult years after her parents' divorce and her alcoholic sister's untimely death in a Florida jail. Wanting to do more with her life than "[wake] up in cells or beds or other places I didn't want to be," the author launched a successful restaurant business that she initially ran from her own home, featuring dishes she not only created, but for which she also foraged ingredients. The basic narrative elements that comprise Regan's storya misfit hero fumbling and bootstrapping her way to culinary fameare compelling. However, the temporally fractured nature of the story makes it difficult to follow, and the unevenness of the writingsometimes lively, sometimes messy and unconsideredmakes for less than satisfying reading.An interesting life rendered in a flawed manner. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
