About Hungry: What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me about Life, Love & the Power of Good Food
Publisher: Hyperion (August 6, 2013)
Pages: 272
“Few sane cooks would take on the trials of cooking five days a week for a fraternity house…. Unique, funny, touching.” —Booklist
Newly arrived in Seattle, Darlene Barnes stumbles on a job ad for a cook at the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity on the University of Washington, Seattle, campus, a prospect most serious food professionals would automatically reject. But Barnes envisions something other than kegs and corn dogs; she sees an opportunity to bring fresh, real food to an audience accustomed to “Asian Surprise” and other unidentifiable casseroles dropped by a catering service. And she sees a chance to reinvent herself, by turning a maligned job into meaningful work of her own creation: “I was the new girl and didn’t know or care about the rules.”
In HUNGRY: What Eighty Ravenous Guys Taught Me about Life, Love and the Power of Good Food (Hyperion Hardcover, August 6, 2013/ $24.99), naively expecting a universally appreciative audience, Barnes finds an exasperatingly challenging environment: the kitchen is nasty, the basement is scary, and the customers are not always cooperative. Undaunted, she gives as good as she gets with these foul-mouthed and irreverent—but also funny and sensitive—guys. Her passion for real food and her sharp tongue make her kitchen a magnet for the brothers, new recruits, and sorority girls tired of frozen dinners.
Laugh-out-loud funny and poignant, HUNGRY offers a female perspective on the real lives of young men, tells a tale of a woman’s determined struggle to find purpose, and explores the many ways that food feeds us.
“As much about nourishment as it is food…. A heartening memoir of good food and tough love.”—Kirkus Reviews
“[An] honest and witty kitchen memoir.”—Publishers Weekly
“I wish I had lived in Alpha Sig when Darlene Barnes was the chef. I would have loved her food and her lessons on how to be the right kind of grownup.”—Ann Hodgman, author of Beat This! Cookbook
“I love Darlene Barnes’ voice. She is honest, funny and brave—as is this book. HUNGRY is a story of meeting vulnerability with wholesome food, hard work, and humor.”—Holly Smith, chef/owner, Café Juanita, Washington
About Darlene Barnes
Darlene Barnes has been food and word passionate all her life, cooking professionally for the last eleven years. Born in the New Orleans area, she spent most of her pre-college years in London, eventually moving to Canada with her husband and graduating from Queen’s University with a BA in English. Since 2006, she has cooked for the men of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, offering fresh food, tough love and largely unsolicited advice to her college age customers. She has blogged about her experiences at www.hungryboys.net and now at www.darlenebarnes.com; she lives with her husband in Seattle, where her two grown sons also reside.
Darlene Barnes’ TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Wednesday, August 7th: ::steph chows::
Thursday, August 8th: Peppermint Ph.D.
Friday, August 9th: Lit and Life
Monday, August 12th: A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall
Thursday, August 15th: Peeking Between the Pages
Monday, August 19th: Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, August 21st: Guiltless Reading
Thursday, August 22nd: Svetlana’s Reads and Views
Monday, August 26th: Bookchickdi
Wednesday, August 28th: The Well Read Redhead
Tuesday, September 3rd: Kahakai Kitchen
Thursday, September 5th: BookNAround
Monday, September 9th: girlichef
Saturday, September 14th: Joyfully Retired