I do enjoy reading about the food industry- specifically restaurants and all its behind-the-scenes prep work, inner machinations, hookups, the challenging long hours of a chef, wait staff, reservationist, hostess...etc. This memoir takes us on a different tangent with a woman who becomes a food critic/writer. I didn't enjoy that aspect as much. However, Rodell is a gifted writer, especially when she so exquisitely describes her surroundings in these various eateries. I was intrigued by her childhood growing up with limited financial means, yet gravitating towards dining in expensive restaurants- always finding a way to do that. I was also fascinated by her cunning tactic of never being photographed so that the restaurants wouldn't know they were being scrutinized. Some of the things I didn't like were the cover of the book (which reminded me of a rom-com horror story), some political musings, and some intermittent cursing that increased during the end- which at first seemed natural and endearing but then began to grate on my reading ears. You've really got to love this job in order to deal with the strain of both travel and moving and the collateral impact on your spouse and children, which she honestly shared in this book. Rodell clearly has a passion for it and I applaud her dedication and strength in pursuing this profession.

Thank you to Celadon Books who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

An intriguing memoir by a food writer that focuses as much on the industry as it does on the author. It's linear until it's not and there's a review in the middle which seemed out of place. The essay on Bourdain reminded me once again of what he added to the world. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Hunger Like a Thirst a Memoir by Besha Rodell

Nothing could be finer to Besha Rodell than eating in a restaurant. This was true from childhood to adulthood. The career path was predetermined for this future food and restaurant critic/writer/reviewer.

Her humble beginnings in Australia shaped Besha’s life. Fate took her to the United States where she learned so much more about restaurants, food, being a server and any job related to the aforementioned. Besha was a go-getter talking to people in hospitality and learning all she could about this industry.

She was ways in the brink of poverty living hand to mouth and met many who helped her along or stood in her way as a writer. She moved around a lot and eventually found some stability with her partner Ryan. This memoir covers the successes and failures in her career.

A worthy read if this topic interests you. It’s a solid three star review from me.

The most beautiful chapter of the book is tucked away at the back. A bittersweet love letter to Bourdain and what he represented in food culture, it's the best example of how Rodell's writing can be about food while being about so much more than what is on the end of our forks. Rodell uses that chapter as a eulogy; for the dreams of her youth, for the state of food criticism today, for everything that has been lost due to the inescapable grind of the restaurant industry and the decimation brought on by the pandemic. Putting such a, frankly, downer of a chapter at the front of the book is probably a non-starter, but if I had had that taste of her writing at the start of this, at times too long, memoir, I think I would have been able to better contextualize her admitted navel-gazing and retreading of ground that, at times, has felt over-covered.

Her family sounds amazing though, sign me up.

This was a book full of great information. It was very easy to read and I would highly recommend it.

I’ve found food critics to come across as so pretentious, rubbing it in that they’ve dined at the best places, describing elements of entrees I’ve never heard of with an unnecessary amount of adjectives, but Besha Rodell isn’t that type of food critic. She’s down to get into the muck and mire of a Waffle House for 24 hours or dissect what the appeal is of an Outback Steakhouse. Amongst the popular chain restaurants, she’s here to educate about sheep to table service, her distaste of small plates and the luxury of service and food. You may know nothing about famous food critics or even fancy restaurants but it doesn’t matter because Besha gives you a brief run down on what matters.

I love the way she broke down the book from the appetizer of her early beginnings, the entree of criticism and her place within that role, and the dessert of why dining out and experiencing new foods appeals to so many of us. I appreciated her honesty about how hard it was at points in her life money wise and how alien it felt to live in certain places. That candor made her so endearing and pushed me to read on. The Interlude (smack in the middle of my entree and dessert) was an article previously published in 2013, and it really took me out of my food journey and into a food coma. I understand that the reader was given a break from the memoir and given a real review Besha wrote. We’re able to read her growth and enjoy a new perspective on where some of our food comes from, but it was too dry coming from her savory life story. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the other excerpts included throughout the book. I loved her article about Outback Steakhouse! The deep dive on TGI Fridays brought back so many memories of being in my 20s. The sheep farmer just didn’t do it for me.

I gravitate towards her desire to eat at a fancy restaurant with no money as well as sitting in a Waffle House not because the food is good but because it provides comfort. I enjoy the insights on drinks, food and beverages from our 20s and how our tastes and the culture have evolved. This book runs the gamut and the little deep dives of history are rich. I first thought this would be a book describing meal after meal but what I got was an incredible education on the life of a critic, the history of restaurants/cafeterias and the importance of service. If you read Sweetbitter or watched Mildred Pierce or The Harvey Girls, this book won’t disappoint. If you don’t know any of those references, pick this up anyways because we all love to eat and there’s bound to be something that wets your appetite.

Thank you to Celedon Books for this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Food writing is always a genre I enjoy, so when this memoir from a restaurant critic came up on Net Galley to request, I jumped at it. Ms Rodell held positions on papers in New York Atlanta, then Los Angeles, and finally back to her home in Australia where she grew up. She is a James Beard Award winner and served as restaurant critic for LA Weekly and The New York Times. The book is well organized for the first half, then tends to jump around a bit in time towards the end. It was very interesting to see her approach to the job as a question of why more than a question of what. Critics usually tell readers what they ate, how it was prepared and tasted, level of service and so on. Of course she did some of that. But she began to wonder about why people eat where they do, what makes Waffle House such a ubiquitous restaurant of comfort food? What is it about mid-price restaurant chains like Applebees that makes them so popular? She goes in to detail how Outback Steakhouse is not Australian, and how it was purely a marketing ploy, but the popularity is based in familiarity and reasonably priced meals. She goes into some history, which was very interesting, touching on Harvey House and Howard Johnsons. When she gets to 2020, her covid experiences are glossed over. What could have been a wonderful insight into how restaurants weathered or failed during lockdown and after would have been very interesting to read, but she skipped over it. From there, the book seemed to falter a bit, as she began to rant against the prejudice in the industry against women, the toll it takes on family as she traveled, how poorly free lance writers are paid and that they are expected to spend some their own money for expenses. A long treatise on a good friend’s battle with cancer, while touching, seemed out of place for the focus of the book. Overall, it was an interesting read.

I would like to thank Celadon Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. Somehow, I have never heard of Besha Rodell .I am sure I have read some of her work, the magazines listed in her bio are all ones I have read over the years.( Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, etc). Still her name did not ring a bell. I was interested to read her work, and find out more about her and her work. I was not as thrilled as the other reviewers have been. It is a combination of her life, her views and a few reprints of her food articles. It was ok, but not near as good as the other memoirs mentioned in the blurbs.( Ruth Reichl and Gabrielle Hamilton for example). It was ok, but just not for me.

“Hunger Like a Thirst” is a memoir by Besha Rodell. If, like me, you’ve never heard of Ms. Rodell (or read her work), this book is an interesting look at the food and newspaper industry. Ms Rodell started writing at the time that newspapers delivered to your door or being hawked on corners was being replaced by people getting their news via the internet. In some ways, her story is rather refreshing - she spent a number of years living in Australia then moved to the US. One of her essays is about Outback Steakhouse which I found rather delightful. I found her writing to be a bit angrier than I expected - something that she admits (she drops cuss words into her writing, along with politics, and her frustrations with many things). Ms. Rodell is passionate - and her writing shows that. I did like some of the food history she peppered into her essays and this book - information about the cocktail I thought was fascinating. While this book is about being a restaurant critic (there’s being a daughter, a mother, a wife, a friend, struggles regarding money, struggles regarding work, and struggles of finding oneself), there’s a lot more than “just eating at fancy restaurants.” In some ways, Ms. Rodell made me want to think of a younger, angrier Ruth Reichl - but that’s not a fair comparison for either woman. I’d recommend picking up this book to read - it’s not a fast read (which is fine) but it’s an interesting read.

I had never heard of Besha Rodell when I decided to read her memoir about her life as a James Beard Award-winning food writer. I only chose to read it because I like books about food and about people who like food. Hers is a fantastic addition to that category of books.

It’s about what it’s like to be a food critic (she previously worked for The New York Times, Food & Wine, and LA Weekly), it’s about dining culture and the evolving world of food writing, and a memoir about her life more broadly. She chronicles her moves to and from her home country of Australia and to small towns in North Carolina and Atlanta (my hometown and a place that she writes lovingly about, so fellow Atlantans will enjoy that about the book) and Los Angeles.

She talks about complex family dynamics and relationships. And she talks about her own relationship with her work. What I found most relatable was her writing about her struggle between her personal identity and her professional identity and the ways in which those do and don’t overlap. The struggles of maintaining work-life balance when so much of your life and ambition and ego is tied up in your work.

Besha is not Anthony Bourdain or Ruth Reichl or Jonathan Gold, but you can tell her work has been inspired by all of them and is the better for it. I recommend this book to any reader who is a fan of those folks or of food writing in general. You’re in for a delicious meal!

I just finished reading Hunger Like a Thirst by Author Besha Rodell.

This is a memoir by a food writer and New York Times contributor.

I did find this book to be very entertaining and enjoyable.

Being a foodie myself I do like to read about dinning and the insides and intricacies of the industry.

Besha who was from Australia, and then moved around the U.S with her career, has a very engaging personality and way of telling her career story.

At times when the book talked about certain restaurants or people in the U.S. I was a bit lost, being Canadian .

Overall a very enjoyable memoir indeed.

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author, and Celadon Books for my advanced copy to read.

I wish you much success with the book.

The writing of this book is very good with a different approach to the restaurant business. Rodell has had a interesting career in multiple places and has written for a wide range of publications.
She gives you a behind the scenes look of what it is like as an employee, reviewer and a Mom from her no holes barred perspective. I definitely recommend this book.

Interesting read.

Engaging and well written. I found myself involved in the story. The pace is engaging and made me scratch my head at times.

This is a beautifully written memoir from someone who has lived many lives in many different places. I loved that not only did Rodell write about her life and the intricacies of a job that people dream about but also interspersed histories - of food, of drinks, of people, of a region. I also loved reading about Jonathan Gold and Bourdain in relation to people who knew them and the impact those personalities had on the food world. I was interested in hearing more about how her job and moving so often impacted those around her - it felt glossed over. I thought her traveling back and forth across the globe for jobs sounded both enviable and stressful and it's been revelatory hearing about other people's experiences during COVID. Really enjoyed this and would highly recommend!

This was a very interesting book. Besha is a very interesting character, who you can't help but continue reading about as she has crazy stories and experiences.
I loved her look at food and how it brings us together.
You'll want to keep reading to hear her stories and reading about all the delicious food.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.