{"title":"Iliana Regan","description":"\u003cp\u003eIliana Regan is a celebrated author and renowned chef whose literary works offer a captivating glimpse into her remarkable journey and perspective on life. Her writing is deeply rooted in themes of personal identity, nature, and food, blending elements of autobiography with evocative storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRegan's debut memoir, \u003cem\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/em\u003e, not only chronicles her rise to culinary fame but also provides an intimate look at her struggles and triumphs, making it a compelling read in the Biography \u0026amp; Memoir category. Readers are taken on a poignant and immersive journey through her life's most formative experiences, from her upbringing in rural Indiana to becoming a James Beard-nominated chef.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHer subsequent work, \u003cem\u003eFieldwork\u003c\/em\u003e, continues to explore similar themes while offering new insights into her life as she delves into experiences with nature and solitude. This book further cements Regan's reputation for crafting narratives that are as introspective as they are inspiring.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIliana Regan's books are not just memoirs; they are a reflection on the interplay of identity, resilience, and the natural world, making them a must-read for anyone interested in richly layered autobiographical storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"burn-the-place-by-iliana-regan-9781572842670","title":"Burn the Place","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED for the National Book Award 2019\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichelin-starred chef Iliana Regan's (Elizabeth, Kitsune) culinary memoir, chronicling this intensely driven chef's upbringing in rural Northwest Indiana, her battle with addiction, and the development of her career in urban restaurants. A singular, powerfully expressive debut memoir that traces one chef's struggle to find her place and what happens once she does.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/i\u003e is a galvanising memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan's journey from foraging on the family farm to running her Michelin-starred restaurant, Elizabeth. Her story is raw like that first bite of wild onion, alive with startling imagery, and told with uncommon emotional power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRegan grew up the youngest of four headstrong girls on a small farm in Northwest Indiana. While gathering raspberries as a toddler, Regan preternaturally understood to pick just the ripe fruit and leave the rest for another day. In the family's leaf-strewn fields, the orange flutes of chanterelles beckoned her while they eluded others.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRegan has had this intense, almost otherworldly connection with food and the earth it comes from since her childhood, but connecting with people has always been more difficult. She was a little girl who longed to be a boy, gay in an intolerant community, an alcoholic before she turned twenty, and a woman in an industry dominated by men—she often felt she 'wasn't made for this world,' and as far as she could tell, the world tended to agree. But as she learned to cook in her childhood farmhouse, got her first restaurant job at age fifteen, taught herself cutting-edge cuisine while running a 'new gatherer' underground supper club, and worked her way from front-of-house staff to running her own kitchen, Regan found that food could help her navigate the strangeness of the world around her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRegan cooks with instinct, memory, and an emotional connection to her ingredients that can't be taught. Written from that same place of instinct and emotion, \u003ci\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/i\u003e tells Regan's story in raw and vivid prose and brings readers into a world—from the Indiana woods to elite Chicago kitchens—that is entirely original and unforgettable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/i\u003e is a thrilling, disquieting memoir of addiction and coming of age.' - \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/i\u003e is a \"chef memoir\" only in the sense that the author turned out to be a chef. More rightly, it belongs on a shelf with the great memoirs of addiction, of gender ambivalence and queer coming-of-age, of the grand disillusionment that comes from revisiting, as a clear-eyed adult, the deceptive perfection of childhood.' - Helen Rosner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, read the full review here\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'With this deeply personal work, Iliana reminds us that there is great strength in vulnerability. Her story is one of resilience, determination, and vision.' - Rene Redzepi, chef and co-owner of Noma\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'It turns out that Iliana Regan writes the way she cooks: with a voice that's bold and soulful, tender and tough, impossible to ignore, and utterly her own. \u003ci\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/i\u003e is much more than an account of hustling in the kitchen. It's a story about identity and addiction. It's about getting creative and becoming a boss. And it's full of scenes of gothic drama that still give me goosebumps when I think of them.' - Jeff Gordinier, author of \u003ci\u003eHungry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'What bold new voice is this? Iliana Regan is out to shake up the literary world in the same way she's shaken the culinary world. Unexpected, flavourful, and distinctive, \u003ci\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/i\u003e is a debut to savour.' - Beth Ann Fennelly, author of \u003ci\u003eHeating \u0026amp; Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Renowned chef Iliana Regan turns stuffy patriarchal stereotypes upside down. She is self-taught, charismatic, delightfully foul-mouthed, and utterly devoid of pretension as she parallels her ascent in the culinary world with a past strewn with AA chips, jail cell stints, and brutal family losses. This groundbreaking memoir reinvents the well-worn trope of the 'bad boy' superstar chef, presenting us instead with a palpably vulnerable, complicatedly feminist, and sexy-queer-girl genius who takes no prisoners, including herself. Regan's wild rags-to-Michelin story has appeal far beyond the 'foodie' market, particularly among those hungry for tales of unapologetic women who have made it entirely on their own terms.' - Gina Frangello, author of \u003ci\u003eA Life in Men and Every Kind of Wanting\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46800167698668,"sku":"9781572842670","price":47.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27561573482747.jpg?v=1757273804"},{"product_id":"fieldwork-by-iliana-regan-9781572843325","title":"Fieldwork","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom National Book Award-nominee Iliana Regan comes a new memoir, \u003cem\u003eFieldwork\u003c\/em\u003e, which explores her life and heritage as a forager. Spanning her ancestry in Eastern Europe, her childhood in rural Indiana, and her new life set in the remote forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, \u003cem\u003eFieldwork\u003c\/em\u003e delves into how Regan's complex gender identity informs her acclaimed work as a chef and her profound experience of the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNot long after Iliana Regan's celebrated debut, \u003cem\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/em\u003e, became the first food-related title in four decades to be nominated for a National Book Award in 2019, her career as a Michelin star-winning chef took a sharp turn north. Previously based in Chicago, she and her new wife, Anna, decided to create a culinary destination, the Milkweed Inn, located in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula. Here, much of the food served to their guests would be foraged by Regan herself in the surrounding forest and nearby river. Part fresh challenge, part escape, Regan's move to the forest was also a return to her rural roots, in an effort to deepen the intimate connection to nature and the land that she'd long expressed as a chef, but experienced most intensely growing up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn her family's farm in rural Indiana, Regan was the beloved youngest in a family with three much older sisters. From a very early age, her relationship with her mother and father was shaped by her childhood identification as a boy. Her father treated her like the son he never had, and together they foraged for mushrooms, berries, herbs, and other wild food in the surrounding countryside, especially on her grandfather's nearby farm. There, they also fished in its pond, and young Iliana explored the accumulated family treasures stored in its dusty barn. Her father would share stories of his own grandmother, Busia, who helped run a family inn while growing up in Eastern Europe, before settling in Gary, Indiana, and opening Jennie's Cafe, a restaurant that fed generations of local steelworkers. He also shared with Iliana a steady supply of sharp knives and, as she got older, guns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIliana's mother had family stories as well, not only of her own years marrying young, raising headstrong girls, and cooking at Jennie's, but also of her father, Wayne, who spent much of his boyhood hunting with the men of his family in the frozen reaches of rural Canada. The stories from this side of Regan's family are darker, riven with alcoholism and domestic strife, often expressed through harm—both physical and otherwise—perpetrated by men. This encompasses the harm men do to women, families, and the entire landscapes they occupy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Regan explores the ancient landscape of Michigan's boreal forest, her stories of the land, its creatures, and its dazzling profusion of plant and vegetable life are interspersed with hers and Anna's efforts to create a home and a business out of an inn. This inn became suddenly empty of guests as their first full season in 2020 coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. She discovers where wild blueberry bushes bear tiny fruit, where to gather wood sorrel, and where and when the land's different mushroom species appear—despite surrounding parcels of land being suddenly and violently decimated by logging crews that obliterate plant life and drive away the area's birds. Along the way, she struggles not only with the threat of COVID, but also with her personal and familial legacies of addiction, violence, fear, and obsession—all while she tries to conceive a child that she and her immune-compromised wife hope to raise in their new home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith \u003cem\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/em\u003e, Regan announced herself as a writer whose extravagant, unconventional talents matched her abilities as a lauded chef. In \u003cem\u003eFieldwork\u003c\/em\u003e, she digs even deeper to express the meaning and beauty we seek in the landscapes and stories that reveal the forces which inform, shape, and nurture our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46832986980588,"sku":"9781572843325","price":52.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27568123482747.jpg?v=1758421600"},{"product_id":"fieldwork-by-iliana-regan-9781572843189","title":"Fieldwork","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom National Book Award-nominee Iliana Regan, a new memoir of her life and heritage as a forager, spanning her ancestry in Eastern Europe, her childhood in rural Indiana, and her new life set in the remote forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eFieldwork\u003c\/em\u003e explores how Regan's complex gender identity informs her acclaimed work as a chef and her profound experience of the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNot long after Iliana Regan's celebrated debut, \u003cem\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/em\u003e, became the first food-related title in four decades to become a National Book Award nominee in 2019, her career as a Michelin star-winning chef took a sharp turn north. Long based in Chicago, she and her new wife, Anna, decided to create a culinary destination, the Milkweed Inn, located in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula, where much of the food served to their guests would be foraged by Regan herself in the surrounding forest and nearby river. Part fresh challenge, part escape, Regan's move to the forest was also a return to her rural roots, in an effort to deepen the intimate connection to nature and the land that she'd long expressed as a chef, but experienced most intensely growing up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn her family's farm in rural Indiana, Regan was the beloved youngest in a family with three much older sisters. From a very early age, her relationship with her mother and father was shaped by her childhood identification as a boy. Her father treated her like the son he never had, and together they foraged for mushrooms, berries, herbs, and other wild food in the surrounding countryside—especially her grandfather's nearby farm, where they also fished in its pond and young Iliana explored the accumulated family treasures stored in its dusty barn. Her father would share stories of his own grandmother, Busia, who'd helped run a family inn while growing up in eastern Europe, from which she imported her own wild legends of her native forests, before settling in Gary, Indiana, and opening Jennie's Cafe, a restaurant that fed generations of local steelworkers. He also shared with Iliana a steady supply of sharp knives and—as she got older—guns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIliana's mother had family stories as well—not only of her own years marrying young, raising headstrong girls, and cooking at Jennie's, but also of her father, Wayne, who spent much of his boyhood hunting with the men of his family in the frozen reaches of rural Canada. The stories from this side of Regan's family are darker, riven with alcoholism and domestic strife too often expressed in the harm, physical and otherwise, perpetrated by men—harm men do to women and families, and harm men do to the entire landscapes they occupy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Regan explores the ancient landscape of Michigan's boreal forest, her stories of the land, its creatures, and its dazzling profusion of plant and vegetable life are interspersed with her and Anna's efforts to make a home and a business of an inn that's suddenly, as of their first full season there in 2020, empty of guests due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She discovers where the wild blueberry bushes bear tiny fruit, where to gather wood sorrel, and where and when the land's different mushroom species appear—even as surrounding parcels of land are suddenly and violently decimated by logging crews that obliterate plant life and drive away the area's birds. Along the way she struggles not only with the threat of COVID, but also with her personal and familial legacies of addiction, violence, fear, and obsession—all while she tries to conceive a child that she and her immune-compromised wife hope to raise in their new home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith \u003cem\u003eBurn the Place\u003c\/em\u003e, Regan announced herself as a writer whose extravagant, unconventional talents matched her abilities as a lauded chef. In \u003cem\u003eFieldwork\u003c\/em\u003e, she digs even deeper to express the meaning and beauty we seek in the landscapes, and stories, that reveal the forces which inform, shape, and nurture our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46843562918124,"sku":"9781572843189","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27566763482747.jpg?v=1758804066"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/iliana-regan.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}