Read by Eileen Stevens

A singular, powerfully expressive debut memoir that traces one chef's struggle to find her place and what happens once she does Burn the Place is a galvanizing culinary memoir that chronicles Iliana Regan's journey from foraging on the family farm to opening her Michelin-starred restaurant, Elizabeth. Her story is alive with startling imagery, raw like that first bite of wild onion, and told with uncommon emotional power. It's a sure bet to be one of the most important new memoirs of 2019. Regan grew up the youngest of four headstrong girls on a small farm in Northwest Indiana. Even when she was picking raspberries as a toddler still in diapers, Regan understood to pick only the ripe fruit and leave the rest for another day. In the family's leaf-strewn fields, the orange flutes of chanterelles seemed to beckon her, while they eluded others. Regan has always had an intense, almost otherworldly connection with food and earth. Connecting with people, however, has always been harder. As she learned to cook in the farmhouse, got her first job in a professional kitchen at age fifteen, taught herself cutting-edge cuisine while running her "new forager" underground supper club, and worked her way from front-of-house staff to running her own kitchen, Regan often felt that she "wasn't made for this world." She was a little girl who longed to be a boy, gay in an intolerant community, an alcoholic before she turned twenty, a woman in an industry dominated by men. Burn the Place will introduce listeners to an important new voice from the American culinary scene, an underrepresented perspective from the professional kitchen, and a young star chef whose prose is as memorable and deserving of praise as her food. Prologue - Living the DreamPart One1. The Farmhouse2. Chanterelles3. Jenny's Café4. Chinese Food5. First Drinks6. GoodbyePart Two7. Interlude - Girls8. First Jobs9. Tequila10. Trio11. Death12. Last DrinksPart Three13. Becoming the Boss Lady14. Yes, Chef15. Stories and creativity16. Good Ol' Indianan17. Things That Matter18. The EndEpilogue "A thrilling, disquieting memoir of addition and coming of age…Regan's book unfolds in episodic snapshots, their chronology ricocheting like a pinball; the effect is less a life story than an exacting, often disquieting exercise in excavating the self." "Being harsh, prickly, and foulmouthed is nothing new when it comes to chefs, but Burn the Place is anything but a typical chef's memoir." "The book is of a piece with her restaurants, earthy and nearly gothic in places, evoking a farmsteading childhood, as well as alcohol abuse, tragedy, and settling into a sexuality not always cohesive with rural Indiana." "This memoir often sounds as if narrator Eileen Stevens has pulled up a chair at a farm's kitchen table to tell stories. Her familiar tone and conversational cadence work…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award." "Regan's struggles and eventual triumph make Burn the Place a riveting read." "Foodies will appreciate this blistering yet tender story of a woman transforming Midwestern cooking, in a fresh voice all her own." "Regan's debut memoir is an unusually poetic journey…A well-written and honest chef memoir, both rough and charming." "Told without skirting around darkness and with an engrossing narrative style, Burn the Place brings readers into Regan's life and dreams." "The basic narrative elements that comprise Regan's story-a misfit hero fumbling and bootstrapping her way to culinary fame-are compelling." "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." "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." "Regan is out

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