In this culinary memoir, Kwame Onwuachi describes how he arose from a rough-and-tumble childhood selling drugs to putting himself through cooking school and emerging as a 2019 James Beard "Rising Star Chef of the Year."

Every time I read memoirs from the culinary world, my mouth waters at all the descriptions of food preparation and regret that no one has yet invented books you can taste. I enjoyed Onwuachi's impressive and detailed life story (so far). The narrative flowed at a steady pace and was always interesting. I selected the version "adapted for young adults" to fulfill the Read Harder category "a YA nonfiction book," but I think I would have appreciated something meatier (no pun intended), so I would recommend prospective readers to reach for the other edition. ( )

I enjoyed this book. And adaptation of his adult novel, this will definitely appeal to Readers who have a passion for food and a determination to succeed at some thing they put their minds to. This is definitely a book you don’t read when you’re hungry. All I kept thinking about was having the opportunity to try out some of the foods and recipes he talked about during the novel. ( )