What I Made for Dinner: A Memoir

by Krys Malcolm Belc

From the author of The Natural Mother of the Child, an exquisite memoir about an amateur home cook’s hard and fast descent into an obsession with food celebrities, including Dessert Person Claire Saffitz, Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman, Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, and Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa

When the pandemic sends Krys Malcolm Belc and his young children home to live their lives on laptops, he turns to internet chefs for comfort and inspiration. It begins with Stella Parks and her 46 YouTube videos in which she teaches viewers how to make classic, nostalgic American treats like Cheez-Its, Klondike Bars, and Texas sheet cake. But the recipes aren’t enough—Belc needs to watch her showcase each ingredient, explain its importance, and weigh each item on a scale. His fixation on recipe videos, and the women who produce them, start to feel like the only thing that makes sense.

Most of life has been put on pause, but food is the one thing that continues to change day to day, season to season. Belc captures the joy and pleasure of cooking for a large family, as well as the mundane reality and occasional frustrations that come with simply getting food on the table. In the midst of it all, he feels a spark of inspiration to carry a second baby, a decision that forces him to confront how he has used both the internet and cooking to cope and distract.

Following a trans man whose life is largely structured by keeping the family household running, What I Made for Dinner asks the question we all might ask ourselves while elbow-deep in a roasting Is having the opportunity to cook meals for your family every day a blessing or a curse?

384 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication June 9, 2026

Reviews

[Michele Lamb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed What I Made for Dinner by Krys Malcolm Belc. It’s a warm, reflective read that captures a very specific moment in time—life during lockdown—and the role food plays in connection, comfort, and identity.

At times, the narrative felt a bit rambling or uneven, with certain sections wandering more than I expected. That said, it also felt true to the experience it’s describing—those long, blurred-together days where thoughts and routines didn’t always follow a neat structure. In that way, the style almost adds to the authenticity of the story.

What stood out most to me was how inspiring it was. This book genuinely made me want to cook—not just out of necessity, but as a way to care for the people around me and to find meaning in everyday routines. It highlights the beauty in what might otherwise feel mundane, and reminds you that even simple meals can be an act of love.

Overall, a thoughtful and comforting read, especially for anyone who found solace in the kitchen during uncertain times.

[Hannah Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This absolute banger of a nine-course meal, from one of our all-time memoir greats. I love its explorations of loneliness, queerness, family, parenthood, domestic labor, home as a cultural concept and a place of creation and self. I LOVE its structure, in morsels a reader can devour, and its dynamic, fluid movement toward the gorgeous ending. As someone with complicated relationships to food; to performances of femininity and motherhood; to the households and kitchen(s) of my own life; and to my place in my family of origin before, during, and after I began to build my own queer family and my own rhythms of queer domesticity and caretaking as love: I couldn't put it down. A must-preorder, and a must-read in 2026.

[Krys Belc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty good stuff