OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HUNGER

The debut memoir of family and food from a renowned pastry chef and food writer.

Donovan, who received a James Beard Award for her work in Food & Wine, chronicles her career as a chef and her unrelenting passion for the culinary arts, but she also digs into her family history, offering keen reflections on the intersections of race and gender and spirited discussions of work, class, and opportunity. Donovan grew up in a mixed-race military family that featured both Southern and Mexican lineages, and she ably conveys the assimilationist pain of reckoning with the family pretense that it “was better to be invisible than to not be white.” From childhood to adulthood, the author unpacks her complex heritage through fascinating stories of trials, persistence, and success. At times, overly nostalgic flashbacks cloud the narrative—Donovan admits that she is “faulty for romanticizing all number of things. I know this about myself”—but a compelling voice holds everything together. The author integrates harrowing accounts of abuse, rape, abortion, marriage, and motherhood with discussions of her varied professional experiences, most of which have included workplace sexism. Donovan pointedly shows how women’s labor behind the scenes is often exploited to advance profits and egos. “Women are revered straight into abjection,” she writes, “useful only as a totem of inspiration. When we go to make that work our own, we are unable to survive in the industry the men built, the one they sell our wares within.” Occasionally, the author’s underdetailed representations flatten the impact of her experiences, but Donovan is to be commended for bringing exploitive work relationships to light while tackling the ego-driven world of celebrity chefs. As such, the book is not just a lively story of a talented pastry chef at the top of her game; it’s also a profoundly relatable memoir of the pervasive push back against female success.

A fresh voice with a recipe for empowerment.