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Undercooked : how I let food become my life navigator and how maybe that's a dumb way to live  Cover Image Book Book

Undercooked : how I let food become my life navigator and how maybe that's a dumb way to live

Ahdoot, Dan (author.).

Summary: "A collection of hilarious essays about how food became one man's obsession and coping mechanism, and how it came to rule-and sometimes ruin-his relationships, from the Cobra Kai actor, stand-up comic, and host of Food Network's Raid the Fridge. "When most people say they have an unhealthy relationship with food, they mean they eat too much of it or too little. When I say I have an unhealthy relationship with food, I mean it's what gives my life meaning. That's a really dumb way to live your life, as the stories in this book will attest to." Despite an impressive résumé as an actor and writer, Dan Ahdoot realized that food has been the through line in the most important moments of his life. Growing up as a middle child, Ahdoot struggled to find his place in the family until he and his father discovered their shared love for la gourmandise. But when the tragic death of his brother pushed his parents to strengthen their Jewish faith and adopt a strictly kosher diet, Ahdoot and his father lost that savored connection. To fill the absence left by his brother and father, Ahdoot began to obsess over food and make it central in all his relationships. This, he admits, is probably crazy, but it makes for good stories. From breaking up with girlfriends over dietary restrictions, to hunting just off the Long Island Expressway, to savoring his grandmother's magical food that was his only tactile connection to his family's home country of Iran, to jetting off to Italy to dine at the one of the world's best restaurants, only to send the risotto back, Ahdoot's droll observations on his unconventional adventures bring an absurdly funny yet heartfelt look at what happens when you let your stomach be your guide"--

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780593240793
  • ISBN: 0593240790
  • ISBN: 9780593240809
  • Physical Description: print
    xi, 220 pages ; 22 cm
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Crown, [2023]

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note: Appetizer (JK) -- A hunter with a gatherer vibe -- Dan the intern -- Meditations on falafel Phil -- Undercooked -- Elk camp -- Hello my name is mumun Helen -- Cream of tartar -- Chasing dear -- Forgetting in Paris -- Feels on wheels.
Subject: Ahdoot, Dan
Gastronomy United States
Food Psychological aspects
Restaurateurs United States Biography

Available copies

  • 2 of 2 copies available at Kenton County.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 2 total copies.
Show All Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Covington Branch 647.95092 A285 2023 (Text) 33126025421458 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Erlanger Branch 647.95092 A285 2023 (Text) 33126025421441 Adult Nonfiction Available -

  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2022 October

    Stand-up comic, actor (e.g., Netflix's Cobra Kai), and host of the No. 1 food podcast in the country, Green Eggs and Dan, Ahdoot uses an essay format in Undercooked to explain how food became a crutch and finally a dangerous obsession for him, starting with his brother's untimely death. Before he died of cancer, Braitman's father rushed to teach her important things like how to fix a carburetor and play good practical jokes; long after his death, she realized the cost of What Looks Like Bravery in suppressing her sorrow at his passing; following the New York Times best-selling Animal Madness. In Forager, journalism professor Dowd recalls her upbringing in the fervently Christian cult Field, founded by her domineering grandfather, where she was often cold, hungry, and abused and learned to put her trust in the natural world. Hospitalized from ages of 14 to 17 with anorexia nervosa, Freeman (House of Glass) recalls in Good Girls her subsequent years as a "functioning anorexic" and interviews doctors about new discoveries and treatments regarding the condition. In Happily, which draws on her Paris Review column of the same name, Mark uses fairytale to show how sociopolitical issues impact her own life, particularly as a Jewish woman raising Black children in the South. Philosophy professor Martin's How Not To Kill Yourself examines the mindset that has driven him to attempt suicide 10 times. Award-winning CBS journalist Miller here limns a sense of notBelonging: abandoned at birth by her mother, a Chicana hospital administrator who hushed up her affair with the married trauma surgeon (and Compton's first Black city councilman) who raised Miller, the author struggled to find her place in white-dominated schools and newsrooms and finally sought out her lost parent (60,000-copy first printing). From Mouton, Houston's first Black poet laureate and once ranked the No. 2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (Poetry Slam Inc.), Black Chameleon relates an upbringing in a world devoid of the stories needed by Black children—which she argues women must now craft (60,000-copy first printing). A graduate of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, Mount Holyoke College, and Columbia University, Ramotwala demonstrates The Will To Be in a memoir of early hardship (her mother's first-born daughter died in a firebombing before the author was born) and adjusting to life in the United States (75,000-copy first printing). In Stash, Robbins, host of the podcast The Only One in the Room, relates her recovery from dangerous drug use (e.g., stockpiling pills and scheduling withdrawals around PTA meetings and baby showers) as she struggles with being Black in a white world. Author of the multi-award-winning, multi-award-nominated No Visible Bruises, a study of domestic violence, Snyder follows up with Women We Buried, Women We Burned, her story of escaping the cult her widowed father joined and as a teenager making her way in the world (100,000-copy first printing).

    Copyright 2022 Library Journal.

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