What do you think?
Rate this book
Serious Eater: A Food Lover's Perilous Quest for Pizza and Redemption
"A hilarious and moving story of unconventional entrepreneurialism, passion, and guts." --Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group; Founder of Shake Shack; Author of Setting the Table
Original recipes by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of The Food Lab and Stella Parks of BraveTart
James Beard Award-winning founder of Serious Eats Ed Levine finally tells the mouthwatering and heartstopping story of building--and almost losing--one of the most acclaimed and beloved food sites in the world.
In 2005, Ed Levine was a freelance food writer with an unlikely dream: to control his own fate and create a different kind of food publication. He wanted to unearth the world's best bagels, the best burgers, the best hot dogs--the best of everything edible. To build something for people like him who took everything edible seriously, from the tasting menu at Per Se and omakase feasts at Nobu down to mass-market candy, fast food burgers, and instant ramen.
Against all sane advice, he created a blog for $100 and called it...Serious Eats. The site quickly became a home for obsessives who didn't take themselves too seriously. Intrepid staffers feasted on every dumpling in Chinatown and sampled every item on In-N-Out's secret menu. Talented recipe developers like The Food Lab's J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Stella Parks, aka BraveTart, attracted cult followings.
Even as Serious Eats became better-known--even beloved and respected--every day felt like it could be its last. Ed secured handshake deals from investors and would-be acquirers over lunch only to have them renege after dessert. He put his marriage, career, and relationships with friends and family at risk through his stubborn refusal to let his dream die. He prayed that the ride would never end. But if it did, that he would make it out alive.
This is the moving story of making a glorious, weird, and wonderful dream come true. It's the story of one food obsessive who followed a passion to terrifying, thrilling, and mouthwatering places--and all the serious eats along the way.
Praise for Serious Eater
"Read[s] more like a carefully crafted novel than a real person's life." --from the foreword by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
"Wild, wacky, and entertaining...The book makes you hungry for Ed to succeed...and for lunch." --Christina Tosi, founder of Milk Bar
"Serious Eater is seriously good!...you'll be so glad [Ed] invited you to a seat at his table." --Ree Drummond, author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks
"After decades of spreading the good food gospel we get a glimpse of the missionary behind the mission." --Dan Barber, chef, Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Original recipes by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of The Food Lab and Stella Parks of BraveTart
James Beard Award-winning founder of Serious Eats Ed Levine finally tells the mouthwatering and heartstopping story of building--and almost losing--one of the most acclaimed and beloved food sites in the world.
In 2005, Ed Levine was a freelance food writer with an unlikely dream: to control his own fate and create a different kind of food publication. He wanted to unearth the world's best bagels, the best burgers, the best hot dogs--the best of everything edible. To build something for people like him who took everything edible seriously, from the tasting menu at Per Se and omakase feasts at Nobu down to mass-market candy, fast food burgers, and instant ramen.
Against all sane advice, he created a blog for $100 and called it...Serious Eats. The site quickly became a home for obsessives who didn't take themselves too seriously. Intrepid staffers feasted on every dumpling in Chinatown and sampled every item on In-N-Out's secret menu. Talented recipe developers like The Food Lab's J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Stella Parks, aka BraveTart, attracted cult followings.
Even as Serious Eats became better-known--even beloved and respected--every day felt like it could be its last. Ed secured handshake deals from investors and would-be acquirers over lunch only to have them renege after dessert. He put his marriage, career, and relationships with friends and family at risk through his stubborn refusal to let his dream die. He prayed that the ride would never end. But if it did, that he would make it out alive.
This is the moving story of making a glorious, weird, and wonderful dream come true. It's the story of one food obsessive who followed a passion to terrifying, thrilling, and mouthwatering places--and all the serious eats along the way.
Praise for Serious Eater
"Read[s] more like a carefully crafted novel than a real person's life." --from the foreword by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
"Wild, wacky, and entertaining...The book makes you hungry for Ed to succeed...and for lunch." --Christina Tosi, founder of Milk Bar
"Serious Eater is seriously good!...you'll be so glad [Ed] invited you to a seat at his table." --Ree Drummond, author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks
"After decades of spreading the good food gospel we get a glimpse of the missionary behind the mission." --Dan Barber, chef, Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
288 pages, Hardcover
Published June 11, 2019
101 people are currently reading
585 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
July 8, 2019
Those coming to this book hoping for a Calvin Trillin like journey of food will be sorely disappointed. It would be like going to see Barbra Streisand in concert, and the concert begins with the announcement that she has fallen in love with the harmonica and there will be absolutely no singing.
Instead of a love letter to eating, this is a grim look at how hard it is to start a business and obtain funding. This book was such a downer I lost my appetite. The very few flashes of his love for food give way to a mountain of how depressing it was to build his business. You can’t help but like this guy but it’s pretty easy to hate the book.
Instead of a love letter to eating, this is a grim look at how hard it is to start a business and obtain funding. This book was such a downer I lost my appetite. The very few flashes of his love for food give way to a mountain of how depressing it was to build his business. You can’t help but like this guy but it’s pretty easy to hate the book.
July 11, 2019
A man goes on a quest for pizza and redemption. I'm not all that familiar with Serious Eats (had no idea this was the guy behind it, although I had read stuff by J. Kenji López-Alt) but this sounded like a fun book with its fun cover. Food/foodie books are something I enjoy so I thought I was going to dive into one of those.
It's actually Levine's backstory and how he came to creating Serious Eats. And I'll admit, his writing and earlier life was compelling to read. It was interesting to see how he had lost both parents by the age of 12 and had to navigate a world where he was placed in the care of people who meant well but were not really ready to take on such a responsibility. I felt a lot for Levine and think it's awesome how he came to this spot.
But after that...the book gets kind of boring. I had been a little uneasy after reading the flap on how he really put so much to the test: his marriage, family, friendships, etc. to get SE going. I was happy to see he thanked his still-wife, who stuck him through thick and thin as well as his son along with a bunch of other people who appear in and out of the book.
But the story of getting to SE was boring. I really wasn't interested in a "how I did it" business plan. I wanted more about the site itself or really about the pizza that's mentioned in the title (or any other food!) There are recipes but the food itself is not really part of the story and it was a little disappointing to see that once again, this was a marketing ploy.
It's not the worst and I really did enjoy his "voice" as an author. I'll check out other books/writings by him but I'd probably give this a pass unless you're really interested in the nitty gritty of how Serious Eats began and how it got to where it is now.
It's actually Levine's backstory and how he came to creating Serious Eats. And I'll admit, his writing and earlier life was compelling to read. It was interesting to see how he had lost both parents by the age of 12 and had to navigate a world where he was placed in the care of people who meant well but were not really ready to take on such a responsibility. I felt a lot for Levine and think it's awesome how he came to this spot.
But after that...the book gets kind of boring. I had been a little uneasy after reading the flap on how he really put so much to the test: his marriage, family, friendships, etc. to get SE going. I was happy to see he thanked his still-wife, who stuck him through thick and thin as well as his son along with a bunch of other people who appear in and out of the book.
But the story of getting to SE was boring. I really wasn't interested in a "how I did it" business plan. I wanted more about the site itself or really about the pizza that's mentioned in the title (or any other food!) There are recipes but the food itself is not really part of the story and it was a little disappointing to see that once again, this was a marketing ploy.
It's not the worst and I really did enjoy his "voice" as an author. I'll check out other books/writings by him but I'd probably give this a pass unless you're really interested in the nitty gritty of how Serious Eats began and how it got to where it is now.
June 28, 2019
His strength is not in changing people or molding them into his image, it’s in being able to pull them in and slingshot them around at just the right trajectory to help them reach, in his words, onward and upward.
I found Serious Eats through Kenji and his book The Food Lab (my review of it: https://codingfearlessly.com/book-rev...). I'm subscribed to Serious Eats' RSS feed and that way regularly receive new articles and recipes, which I consume for fun and practical reasons. When I found out that there'll be a book about Ed Levine's journey to create it - I was sure to read the story.
I expected the story itself to be about food. But actually, the words on the cover describe the journey quite accurately - "a food lover's thrill ride through business". While the food-filled background was compelling, at its heart - it's a startup story.
I liked the book and was mainly affected by the parts about Ed's struggle to keep and sustain the business. Rooting for him, it was not always easy to read through the hardships, but at all times it was enthralling.
I found Serious Eats through Kenji and his book The Food Lab (my review of it: https://codingfearlessly.com/book-rev...). I'm subscribed to Serious Eats' RSS feed and that way regularly receive new articles and recipes, which I consume for fun and practical reasons. When I found out that there'll be a book about Ed Levine's journey to create it - I was sure to read the story.
I expected the story itself to be about food. But actually, the words on the cover describe the journey quite accurately - "a food lover's thrill ride through business". While the food-filled background was compelling, at its heart - it's a startup story.
I liked the book and was mainly affected by the parts about Ed's struggle to keep and sustain the business. Rooting for him, it was not always easy to read through the hardships, but at all times it was enthralling.
June 24, 2019
Because I knew Ed from college nearly 50 years ago, and I signed on to Serious Eats because of that connection, I’ve followed the evolution of Serious Eats from nearly its genesis. Like millions of others (you go, Ed!), it has become my First Choice site for anything having to do with food. I enjoyed the first 1/3 of the book immensely; the last 2/3 of the book brought back the painful memories of owning my own business, sweating payroll, going into debt to sustain it...but the utter joy of what the business was about. Owning a business based on missionary zeal is not for the faint of heart. The book itself? Almost 4 ⭐️
July 8, 2019
Where was Ed Levine's editor in all this mess? Honestly, most of the book was about securing/not securing funding for Serious Eats. Boring! And the dialogue was...hard to read. I really thought the book would be more about the people at Serious Eats, the food, etc. So if you like books about start-up websites that are constantly somehow on the verge of collapsing, this is the book for you.
May 11, 2019
An excellent book about food, New York, food culture and the upheaval that characterized the decline of print related food writing and the rise of the internet and digital content. Read along side Ruth Reichl’s recent book about her ten years at Gourmet magazine these books cast a fascinating light on all things food in New York City. Highly recommended.
July 10, 2019
3.5 stars and rounding down because I don't think this is a book that will appeal to those who haven't followed the site for as long as I have. I've used Serious Eats as my go-to (and often my only) food and cooking resource for nearly as long as it's been running, so reading this book was like finding out the True Hollywood Story (TM) of people whose names have come to be so familiar to me, I almost feel like I know them.
On the bright side, it's a great look into how Web 2.0 (I remember when that was the buzzword!) took forth and changed the way we consume media, as well as all of the business drama that took place behind the scenes. Luckily, we as readers were always oblivious to what was really going on. I appreciated the exposition of the author's upbringing, too, as I agreed with him that it really informed a lot of the business decisions he made.
However, I'm docking stars because I didn't feel the book was necessarily well-written – it was a recounting of what happened, but it didn't feel like there was a real arc to the story. As a big food person, I appreciated all of the food tips, but the way the digressions were written into the book were often jarring and didn't work as well in prose as they would in a conversation. Go to [RESTAURANT] and you won't regret ordering [DISH]. More often than not, they came off as abrupt interruptions and asides, I said to [PERSON] at [RESTAURANT]. [DISH] is my favorite. See?
All that said, I did enjoy this book, and read it quickly. I just don't think I'd recommend it to someone not familiar with the site; I didn't come away from it having learned something new that I can apply to my own life.
On the bright side, it's a great look into how Web 2.0 (I remember when that was the buzzword!) took forth and changed the way we consume media, as well as all of the business drama that took place behind the scenes. Luckily, we as readers were always oblivious to what was really going on. I appreciated the exposition of the author's upbringing, too, as I agreed with him that it really informed a lot of the business decisions he made.
However, I'm docking stars because I didn't feel the book was necessarily well-written – it was a recounting of what happened, but it didn't feel like there was a real arc to the story. As a big food person, I appreciated all of the food tips, but the way the digressions were written into the book were often jarring and didn't work as well in prose as they would in a conversation. Go to [RESTAURANT] and you won't regret ordering [DISH]. More often than not, they came off as abrupt interruptions and asides, I said to [PERSON] at [RESTAURANT]. [DISH] is my favorite. See?
All that said, I did enjoy this book, and read it quickly. I just don't think I'd recommend it to someone not familiar with the site; I didn't come away from it having learned something new that I can apply to my own life.
July 19, 2019
The rollercoasters of entrepreneurship honestly told by the man, Ed Levine. I've been a Serious Eater for so long and had to read this. I loved his honesty about the story of Serious Eats.
It was indeed a rollercoaster. I just put it down and I needed to decompress from the story.
Thank you Ed for sharing your story. I am glad that Serious Eats has lived to tell the tale
It was indeed a rollercoaster. I just put it down and I needed to decompress from the story.
Thank you Ed for sharing your story. I am glad that Serious Eats has lived to tell the tale
December 14, 2020
Definitely an interesting behind the scenes look at how Serious Eats was created, but as a book, it dragged a little.
I love a good food memoir, but the author's descriptions of food definitely focused on quantity over quality. Every meal was catalogued extensively. However, the descriptions were quite dry, just listing where the food was from and giving a brief verdict like "the burger was great."
And of course Ed Levine has plenty to be proud of, but he came off sounding a bit full of himself. If you believe him, everyone else who started a food blog apparently stole the idea from him. He seemed to be desperate to convince the reader he's a really big deal, spending more time on lengthy descriptions of all the awards he's won and the famous people he's met than simple things like how he fell for his wife or raised his son. It made for an impressive resume but a fairly bland story.
I love a good food memoir, but the author's descriptions of food definitely focused on quantity over quality. Every meal was catalogued extensively. However, the descriptions were quite dry, just listing where the food was from and giving a brief verdict like "the burger was great."
And of course Ed Levine has plenty to be proud of, but he came off sounding a bit full of himself. If you believe him, everyone else who started a food blog apparently stole the idea from him. He seemed to be desperate to convince the reader he's a really big deal, spending more time on lengthy descriptions of all the awards he's won and the famous people he's met than simple things like how he fell for his wife or raised his son. It made for an impressive resume but a fairly bland story.
December 23, 2021
This is a memoir by the founder of Serious Eats, who started out writing about the things that he loved, that made new York City so special from a food stand point. Pizza and bagels were early subjects, and then he got big dreams and some talented people working with him who have been really big, Kenji Lopez-Alt being the superstar, with his incredible attention to detail and his talent for teaching people to care about it as well. There is also Stella Park who went on to write the iconic book about classic American desserts. The book, however, is a business book more than it’s a food book, and while that’s okay, it is not my jam. Levine has a lot to say about the scramble for survival among the food sites and blogs. There’s a fair amount to learn here about acquisitions and deal structuring and scaling up and monetizing content, but I would have preferred something leaning more heavily on food.
August 13, 2019
Entertaining and enlightening view into how Ed Levine started the web site Serious Eats, evolved its mission from focusing on restaurants and food purveyors to the best recipe site on the Internet, and eventually sold it as a company. While many were making millions and billions selling technology start-ups, Levine did something different: he figured out how to create a self-sustaining business that ran a food site which charged its users nothing, paid for by advertisers. Along the way, he borrowed every cent he could from friends and family, mortgaged his New York City apartment twice, risked alienating his wife and his older brother, and lived in terror for years. This is a look behind the award-winning SeriousEats.com site to see how the sausage is made.
June 2, 2020
Great Insight On The Joys and Hardships of starting a Company
I've followed Serious Eats online for several years and have enjoyed reading and learning quite a few things. Ed took me on a roller coaster ride with his honest, thorough descriptions of the joys & angst he went through trying to stay afloat I couldn't read fast enough as I was totally invested in finding out the outcome. Kudos to Ed for his dedication and loyalty to his employees past and present, and his friends, also for sharing his loving complicated relationship with his brother Mike. Much respect to Vicki his wife for hanging in there when things got really stressful. As wedding vows go, you make a commitment for better or worse to stay with someone and these two exemplified that!!
I've followed Serious Eats online for several years and have enjoyed reading and learning quite a few things. Ed took me on a roller coaster ride with his honest, thorough descriptions of the joys & angst he went through trying to stay afloat I couldn't read fast enough as I was totally invested in finding out the outcome. Kudos to Ed for his dedication and loyalty to his employees past and present, and his friends, also for sharing his loving complicated relationship with his brother Mike. Much respect to Vicki his wife for hanging in there when things got really stressful. As wedding vows go, you make a commitment for better or worse to stay with someone and these two exemplified that!!
February 27, 2020
I went into this book thinking it was going to be about food and food writing but it pleasantly surprised me that this was more of a business book. I really enjoyed learning all about the early days of blogging and how it carved a niche in the digital media world. I also truly admire Ed's perseverance to continue to fight for his dream and make it a reality. While you're sitting there thinking "How much more can this guy endure? How does he do it?" when he ends up making his dream a reality, it makes you realize that if you put your mind to it and don't sweat the small stuff (or the big stuff in his case) anything can be possible.
September 27, 2019
So. When I reserved this book from the library, I was expecting an adventure in food. That’s how I read the title. Serious eater, a food lovers perilous quest for pizza and redemption. I was a full go on that. I want to get enthralled in food stories.
Well, the book is nothing like that. I had never heard of Ed Levine not serious eats so I was at a disadvantage. The book is a memoir on Ed and serious eats. Barely food unfortunately. Actually like no food. So. If you know about serious eats and Ed Levine than read it otherwise I wouldn’t. It’s an intriguing story about a blog
Well, the book is nothing like that. I had never heard of Ed Levine not serious eats so I was at a disadvantage. The book is a memoir on Ed and serious eats. Barely food unfortunately. Actually like no food. So. If you know about serious eats and Ed Levine than read it otherwise I wouldn’t. It’s an intriguing story about a blog
April 10, 2020
This book ended up being a good read- no regrets, just not what I expected. It was an interesting memoir by a foodie, but the majority was about him creating, running and selling a business about food way more than the food itself. I loved the connections for me though- from Anthony Bourdain, to Per Se which was part of Kwame Onache’s memoir I just finished, and a few others. I loved some parts- the tail end was my favorite- that was the kind of food writing I thought would be found throughout.
March 11, 2021
Wow what a ride! A world of insane acquisitions and hopes and dreams and fighting to live another day for your dreams. The biggest takeaway is the treatment of Ed’s employees and where they are today. That about says it all. Great story well worth the page turning reading. Hints of food and restaurants for added interest. What a nice balance. I was not expecting anything like the business tribulations from this book and it turned out to be a different exciting world of business in the 2000’s. And doing what you believe in.
Thanks Ed! Quite an inspirational ride.
Thanks Ed! Quite an inspirational ride.
March 8, 2023
Man I almost hate to even give Levine a bad review after all this. This guy wrote the book on business failure. However, I felt like the downfalls were so negative that it made the book imbalanced. I almost don’t even know how Serious Eats is still alive. Sheer luck I guess. It certainly was frustrating to read about.
I like Ed a lot, I just feel like this book wasn’t as good as it could be. Like others, I really wanted a book focused more on the adventures and food, or even what Serious Eats is and what it has become. It wasn’t even an underdog story, it was just purely self deprecation.
I like Ed a lot, I just feel like this book wasn’t as good as it could be. Like others, I really wanted a book focused more on the adventures and food, or even what Serious Eats is and what it has become. It wasn’t even an underdog story, it was just purely self deprecation.
July 5, 2019
I picked up the book because I'm a fan of Serious Eats. It's a good website for food lovers. I expected a fluffy book about how Levine became passionate about food. The reality is far more interesting. It's really about an entrepreneur's quest for funding. It is a roller coaster ride in the best way. So many success stories fail to elaborate on all the failures. While the writing is concise, you really feel the pain Levine went through to keep his business alive.
January 6, 2022
Had to scan the last half of this short book as I quickly lost interest in all the meetings the author had to raise money for his website. The earlier bits where he is a jazz lover who hustles gigs and celebrates great burgers were more my style. His playlist is worth checking out but ultimately it seemed to me that many of his selections were simply because the song title matched the theme of the chapter.
May 30, 2020
More about business than about food
I was disappointed to find that this book was more about starting a business than it was about food. It didn't interest me. The food mentioned was largely things like pizza, hot dogs, and hamburgers - also things that don't hold much interest for me. It wasn't in the same arena as Reichl's or Bourdain's books.
I was disappointed to find that this book was more about starting a business than it was about food. It didn't interest me. The food mentioned was largely things like pizza, hot dogs, and hamburgers - also things that don't hold much interest for me. It wasn't in the same arena as Reichl's or Bourdain's books.
December 13, 2025
What a drag. I wrongly expected a fun filled food adventure and instead got a whiny egomaniac’s over detailed, dry blow by blow of how not to operate or sell a business. An extra star for the few times that non obvious food spots were mentioned and there were a few interesting tales, including one about the failed Great American Food Fest.
June 25, 2019
👏👏👏 so good. The Food Lab is how I found Serious Eats and now it's the first website I search for any food, drink, recipe or technique. I had no idea the incredible story (and man) behind both of those. A wonderfully written narrative with a bonus playlist for each chapter. Great work.
June 30, 2019
A real nail-biter of a book while the author was looking for financing. And sad while he recollected his childhood, well, his teen years. I never heard of this blog but thanks to this book now have it in my bookmarks and can't wait to try some of the restaurants in NYC soon.
August 17, 2019
How a guy started a website and employed amazing food writers. Whoa, man. I’m a fan of the website, Serious Eats, but there is no sense of storytelling or raison d’être here. Writing is dull. The glowing blurbs on the book jacket come from current or former employees or promotional beneficiaries.
January 6, 2020
Interesting but apparently it was a very long process to get Serious Eats up and running. This book gives a lot of the details, more than I really cared to know about. I love the website but didn't need to know about the stress and aggravation of getting to that point.
February 15, 2020
So much trivia about staying a business. This book is all about business meetings and raising money. It's like Ed walks you though getting his business off the ground in real time. So much of this should have been edited out and something interesting out in it's place.
October 8, 2020
A well-written story of the founder of Serious Eats. Necessarily, there's a lot of information about funding a site like this, but my favorite parts were Levine's interactions with his family and the food-loving people he hired for Serious Eats.
January 22, 2021
Not my favorite foodie memoir. I like Serious Eats (the blog) and was interested in how it started and how it ended up. Half the book could have been removed and it would have made me enjoy this a lot more.
Read
July 14, 2019Stared off good and then bogged down too much in business and details I lost interest in the story.
July 29, 2019
This book explores the contrast between creative desires and designs, and practical and professional realities, and is emotionally very honest. Be warned - Mr. Levine will make you hungry!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews