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12 days and 21:44:36
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On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites
Not yet published
Expected 14 Apr 26Win a free print copy of this book!
12 days and 21:44:36
15 copies available
U.S. only
With lush prose and evocative storytelling, Alicia Kennedy shares her journey “from eater to cook,” exploring how we can eat for both joy and justice in a warming, overworked, and globalized world.
As a girl, I ate like a king.
So begins beloved author, journalist, and influencer Alicia Kennedy’s captivating new book. On Eating is more than a memoir; in true Alicia Kennedy style, it is also on desire, on the roles of women “in the kitchen,” on domesticity, on diaspora, on foodways and food sovereignty, on home and how we find home through food, on how food can help us bring us back to those we love. Beautifully rooted in place—from Long Island (on oysters, on martinis) to San Juan (on plantains, on sugar), On Eating is not only a provocative bildungsroman and a celebration of appetite, it also challenges each of us to consider our own relationship with food, and how our need to eat—to live—impacts the world.
Ultimately, On Eating is a paean to food and those who grow and cook it, asking the urgent questions in our world today about what and how we eat.
As a girl, I ate like a king.
So begins beloved author, journalist, and influencer Alicia Kennedy’s captivating new book. On Eating is more than a memoir; in true Alicia Kennedy style, it is also on desire, on the roles of women “in the kitchen,” on domesticity, on diaspora, on foodways and food sovereignty, on home and how we find home through food, on how food can help us bring us back to those we love. Beautifully rooted in place—from Long Island (on oysters, on martinis) to San Juan (on plantains, on sugar), On Eating is not only a provocative bildungsroman and a celebration of appetite, it also challenges each of us to consider our own relationship with food, and how our need to eat—to live—impacts the world.
Ultimately, On Eating is a paean to food and those who grow and cook it, asking the urgent questions in our world today about what and how we eat.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication April 14, 2026
3 people are currently reading
1558 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 6, 2026
Rigorous and beautiful, thank you to Alicia for the review copy. The ethical stakes of food are inextricable from our appetites- the negotiation of these are always difficult for me and most others but Alicia’s writing and ethos surrounding food always inspire me to do better. More to come elsewhere on this book, hopefully.
January 12, 2026
I didn't really read the synopsis, I just saw the title and knew this was a book I wanted to read. As someone in ED recovery, Alicia's perspective on food was incredibly refreshing. This was such an enjoyable book to read!! Alicia was able to help me see food (even if only for the slightest moment) in a way that didn't make it something I dread, something that is a required chore of my existence. Through her words, food became something worth celebrating and relishing, something that is worth the effort put in. For that alone, I am thankful. Hearing someone talk so lovingly and with such passion about the foodstuffs she consumes is healing in and of itself in its own way.
Thanks to Alicia, NetGalley, and Grand Central Publishing for the eARC 😊
Thanks to Alicia, NetGalley, and Grand Central Publishing for the eARC 😊
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Anytime there's a book about food, I'm showing up for it. There have been ones that I've been deeply affected by and others that I've generally given up on and this one pulled me in with the whimsy of organizing it by a food or drink like "on mushrooms" or "on bread" and then providing an avenue to share a story or two about her life, her background, geographical location and history of a specific food item, a memory, etc. wrapped in the warmth of a love and appreciate of eating.
It was enchanting and important to Kennedy, you can tell by the writing and care of the subject and organization. It's one of the good ones in that it mixes the autobiography without being too heavily skewed in that direction. A warmth like a hug about appreciating food, preparation of food, and connection through food.
"It was a drudgery I'd seen my mom take on: "You'll spend your life doing it," she told me. "For a man." The venom of that last part, from someone who never made any feminist avowals, struck me like lightning: If having to make dinner every day could turn my mom into someone who names the patriarchy when usually she seemed rather politically disinterested, then there must be no fate worse. The heteronormativity of this assumption aside, I took her advice to heart, because aside from my grandma, I'd never seen women truly happy in the kitchen unless they were on television. Men took on cooking for intellectual or creative reasons, and they enjoyed professional success through restaurant kitchens- even the ones on TV, like Bobby Flay and Emeril, had that chef-whites' sheen of lived-in expertise; meanwhile, women like Ina Garten, Giada De Laurentiis, and Rachel Ray were tasked with making women's misery somehow more palatable and easy, as far as I could tell. They put a happy face on the unpaid labor of domesticity."
It was enchanting and important to Kennedy, you can tell by the writing and care of the subject and organization. It's one of the good ones in that it mixes the autobiography without being too heavily skewed in that direction. A warmth like a hug about appreciating food, preparation of food, and connection through food.
"It was a drudgery I'd seen my mom take on: "You'll spend your life doing it," she told me. "For a man." The venom of that last part, from someone who never made any feminist avowals, struck me like lightning: If having to make dinner every day could turn my mom into someone who names the patriarchy when usually she seemed rather politically disinterested, then there must be no fate worse. The heteronormativity of this assumption aside, I took her advice to heart, because aside from my grandma, I'd never seen women truly happy in the kitchen unless they were on television. Men took on cooking for intellectual or creative reasons, and they enjoyed professional success through restaurant kitchens- even the ones on TV, like Bobby Flay and Emeril, had that chef-whites' sheen of lived-in expertise; meanwhile, women like Ina Garten, Giada De Laurentiis, and Rachel Ray were tasked with making women's misery somehow more palatable and easy, as far as I could tell. They put a happy face on the unpaid labor of domesticity."
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I love this book and have compiled a list of at least four friends I'm going to gift it to. I'll also be picking up a copy for the little free library outside our community garden.
Alicia Kennedy, a food writer now based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, grew up on Long Island in one of those working-class towns that people from the city started flocking to after World War II. My mother's family was one of them. Like Kennedy, my family history is rife with silences, mixed marriages, rupture, addiction, exile, displacement, estrangement, early deaths and, despite it all, an insatiable curiosity about the wider world. I was hooked from page one.
Part food history, travelogue, and sociocultural history, On Eating will appeal to readers who love to cook; to history buffs; to those concerned about where their food comes from and how climate change is affecting growing conditions. It's also an invitation to those of us feeling stuck in small, repressive towns to look for, and embrace, the cultural treasures at our doorsteps.
Kennedy is a natural travel writer whose mixed heritage inspires her to become curious about where her ancestors came from and the cultural practices, and recipes, they left behind. Infused with a love for humanity and what brings us together—in this case, food—it's a celebration of humanity, of taking risks, of peeling back layers of pain and staying with them long enough to remember shared moments of love and tenderness. On Eating is a book infused with hope and vision. And it's delightfully insightful and funny.
Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Hachette for an ARC, and to Alicia Kennedy for writing a book that has touched me to the core.
Alicia Kennedy, a food writer now based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, grew up on Long Island in one of those working-class towns that people from the city started flocking to after World War II. My mother's family was one of them. Like Kennedy, my family history is rife with silences, mixed marriages, rupture, addiction, exile, displacement, estrangement, early deaths and, despite it all, an insatiable curiosity about the wider world. I was hooked from page one.
Part food history, travelogue, and sociocultural history, On Eating will appeal to readers who love to cook; to history buffs; to those concerned about where their food comes from and how climate change is affecting growing conditions. It's also an invitation to those of us feeling stuck in small, repressive towns to look for, and embrace, the cultural treasures at our doorsteps.
Kennedy is a natural travel writer whose mixed heritage inspires her to become curious about where her ancestors came from and the cultural practices, and recipes, they left behind. Infused with a love for humanity and what brings us together—in this case, food—it's a celebration of humanity, of taking risks, of peeling back layers of pain and staying with them long enough to remember shared moments of love and tenderness. On Eating is a book infused with hope and vision. And it's delightfully insightful and funny.
Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Hachette for an ARC, and to Alicia Kennedy for writing a book that has touched me to the core.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts and review.
On Eating is a beautiful memoir tying a food or beverage to a specific stage in the author's life. These stages include grief, renewal, epiphanies, breakups, and acceptance. She weaves her story, from a child in Long Island to a food writer in San Juan, using food to mark each new phase of life. Within these food-phase increments, we learn not just about her life but also about her decision to become vegan, her decision to move to Puerto Rico, and the reason she champions ethical agriculture. This is more than a memoir; it is a guide, a manifesto, an inspiration to be a more responsible and informed consumer.
On Eating is a beautiful memoir tying a food or beverage to a specific stage in the author's life. These stages include grief, renewal, epiphanies, breakups, and acceptance. She weaves her story, from a child in Long Island to a food writer in San Juan, using food to mark each new phase of life. Within these food-phase increments, we learn not just about her life but also about her decision to become vegan, her decision to move to Puerto Rico, and the reason she champions ethical agriculture. This is more than a memoir; it is a guide, a manifesto, an inspiration to be a more responsible and informed consumer.
November 30, 2025
4.25 stars - I enjoyed this! A combination of memoir and and examination of the ethical, political, gendered aspects of food and our eating of it. As a vegetarian of over 20 years, I appreciated her discussion of veganism/vegetarianism without the book being "about" vegetarianism. You don't see that a lot in "regular" writing about food. Some interesting takes on food I had not considered.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: April 14, 2026.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: April 14, 2026.
January 15, 2026
Reading this book is something I enjoy. The book revolves around Alicia's journey through the pleasures of eating. It also provides information about her story. Each chapter, essay, or prose is a story related to food and drink. This book explores more than just the significance of eating. It's about so many things that bring out beautiful moments and experience the impacts of life.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I'd read a number of Alicia Kennedy's pieces over the years, so was excited to hear that she had an upcoming memoir and jumped at the chance to get an early copy.
Following a loosely chronological format, "On Eating" opens with Kennedy's earliest memories as a young child growing up in Long Island, wanting lamb that her grandmother cooked for her to her foray into the complex and alluring food culture of New York City, to her eventual move to Puerto Rico. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a specific food or ingredient - from lamb to chocolate, beans to bread, and even a nod to the classic martini. Each of these items are key memories to Kennedy's life and journey, and in between she weaves in her own personal stories, from her decision to become vegan (and then return to vegetarianism after the devastating loss of her brother Brian, her journey into food writing at the Village Voice, and her trip to Puerto Rico that was intended to be brief - but became her future home. In between, she's weaved components of history, folklore, and religion that add greater context to the food at focus, which add greater context and an educational component to her memoir as well.
As someone who's been in NYC for the past decade and has thoroughly enjoyed the food and restaurant culture, this was a joy to read - the nods to current and past restaurants, the farmers markets that I also frequent, and the struggles that I also understood as a fellow woman (with an appetite!) made this an easy book to finish within a day. Kennedy's writing is descriptive and thought-provoking, and it's clear she has placed a great deal of love and time into "On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites", which chronicles not only her personal food journey. how the focus and approaches to it have evolved at large.
Following a loosely chronological format, "On Eating" opens with Kennedy's earliest memories as a young child growing up in Long Island, wanting lamb that her grandmother cooked for her to her foray into the complex and alluring food culture of New York City, to her eventual move to Puerto Rico. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a specific food or ingredient - from lamb to chocolate, beans to bread, and even a nod to the classic martini. Each of these items are key memories to Kennedy's life and journey, and in between she weaves in her own personal stories, from her decision to become vegan (and then return to vegetarianism after the devastating loss of her brother Brian, her journey into food writing at the Village Voice, and her trip to Puerto Rico that was intended to be brief - but became her future home. In between, she's weaved components of history, folklore, and religion that add greater context to the food at focus, which add greater context and an educational component to her memoir as well.
As someone who's been in NYC for the past decade and has thoroughly enjoyed the food and restaurant culture, this was a joy to read - the nods to current and past restaurants, the farmers markets that I also frequent, and the struggles that I also understood as a fellow woman (with an appetite!) made this an easy book to finish within a day. Kennedy's writing is descriptive and thought-provoking, and it's clear she has placed a great deal of love and time into "On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites", which chronicles not only her personal food journey. how the focus and approaches to it have evolved at large.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
4.25 stars -- I love books about food, and this one did not disappoint. I loved the chapter headings and musings on each food (ex: On Oysters, On Plantains). There were quite a few personal stories with family and relationships (as expected with any memoir). I enjoyed the settings, mainly taking place in NYC, Long Island, and Puerto Rico (the latter of which I did not know much about the local food, so I loved learning more). Overall, an engaging, thoughtful, and reflective food memoir!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!
December 22, 2025
When it comes to books like cookbooks, I tend to read them in the same way I would a novel and this book checked off every mark in my mind for a great story as well as a cookbook. It's personable yet poetic and really gets into the depths of someone who is described as going from an eater to a cook. It's absolutely relatable in every stretch of the imagination and I'm very happy I had the chance to check out this book for myself!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews