Food, Bullshit, and... Other Complications
Paperback
Culinary BiographiesFood WritingGeneral Sociology
Publisher: Foodnbullshit
Published: Mar 12 2026
Pages: 200
Weight: 0.60
Height: 0.46 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
I'm a French chef. Exiled in the United States for twenty years. I did not say expatriated for a reason. I watch my country from a distance and carry the absence like an open wound that refuses to heal. Here, I'm also a restaurant customer. I do my grocery shopping like everyone else. And I watch this world change-aisle by aisle, plate by plate.
A republic isn't built only in parliament, congress, or senate-but at the counter, at the table, and in a kitchen.
That's why this book wasn't written from a kitchen but while sitting at a restaurant table. It talks about what we order, what we eat, and above all-what we've lost without even noticing.
A journey between two worlds. Two countries. Two ways of eating. Two ways of living.
On one side: a world where traditional cooking gets deboned by apps, where you order in three clicks what you no longer want to cook. A world where you eat while driving, while working, while chasing time.
On the other: bistros, brasseries, neighborhood cafés, and old-school restaurants. Dining rooms that vibrate, kitchens that catch fire, servers hanging on, and cooks entrenched behind their stoves. And customers, torn between quinoa and beef bourguignon.
A muffled but merciless war between the butter nostalgics and the gluten-free converts.
This book is also about the dishes that tell a story about an era.
About what we no longer dare serve or say. Food lovers looking for comfort on a plate and craftsmen holding the line.
Those who do their grocery shopping like a pilgrimage and find each other at a table, around a dish in sauce, like around a compass.
A culinary tale for those who love to eat, who know that food says more about us than any speech ever could.
A love letter to a cuisine that still has flavor.
Seasoned, as always, with sarcasm and venom.
Because they're part of the taste.
I'm not looking for either disciples, or followers.
I'm looking for guests.
Also from
Fenot, Alex
Also in
Culinary Biographies
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect
Guidara, Will
Hardcover
Kitchen Confidential Annotated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Bourdain, Anthony
Paperback
Main, Middle & Gay: A Chef Finds His Place in the World Against All Odds
O'Connell, Patrick
Hardcover
What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture
Meyer, Danny
Hardcover
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Bourdain, Anthony
Paperback
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks
Wilkinson, Crystal
Hardcover
The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef
White, Marco Pierre
Paperback
El Chef Migrante: La Vida Y Los Tiempos de Lalo García / The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García
Tillman, Laura
Paperback
The Meat Teacher Cookbook: The Ultimate Backyard BBQ Guide for an A+ in Pitmastery
Groark, Matt
Hardcover
Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection
Ramsay, Gordon
Paperback
The Secret in the Sauce: Kitchen Wisdom and Life Lessons from an Irish Cookery School, with Recipes
McMichael, Kelly
Paperback
Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America's Gay Restaurants
Piepenburg, Erik
Hardcover
Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste
Bosker, Bianca
Paperback
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef (Large Print Edition)
Hamilton, Gabrielle
Paperback
Julia Child's Kitchen: The Design, Tools, Stories, and Legacy of an Iconic Space
Johnson, Paula J.
Hardcover
The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading about Eating, and Eating While Reading
Garner, Dwight
Paperback
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should (and Shouldn't) Cook from Scratch to Save Time and Money
Reese, Jennifer
Paperback
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter (Harper Perennial)
Dublanica, Steve
Paperback
Eat Like a Fish: A James Beard Award Winner: My Adventures Farming the Ocean to Fight Climate Change
Smith, Bren
Paperback
The Gentleman's Companion: Being an Exotic Drinking Book Or, Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask
Baker, Charles Henry
Hardcover
Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table
Rodell, Besha
Hardcover
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats
Stone, Daniel
Paperback
The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Changed the Way America Eats Pizza
Rosenfield, Rick
Hardcover
Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka, Accompanying the Acclaimed New London Restaurant
Shanmugalingam, Cynthia
Hardcover
What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture (Large Print Edition)
Meyer, Danny
Paperback
From Here, You Can't See Paris: Seasons of a French Village and Its Restaurant
Sanders, Michael S.
Paperback
Beaujolais In My Blood: Growing Up Gay and Well-Fed in a Family-Run French Restaurant
Pitsenbarger, Eric Neil
Paperback
Jean Paré an Appetite for Life: The Inspiring Story of Canada's Most Popular Cookbook Author
Schultz, Judy
Paperback
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
Buford, Bill
Paperback
Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table
Rodell, Besha
Paperback
We've Always Had Paris... and Provence: A Scrapbook of Our Life in France
Wells, Patricia
Wells, Walter
Paperback
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School
Flinn, Kathleen
Paperback
Reflections of a Vintner: Stories and Seasonal Wisdom from a Lifetime in Napa Valley
Kenward, Tor
Hardcover
Gluten for Punishment: Just Desserts for the Heartbroken, Lovesick, and Jilted
Seyler, Julie
Paperback
Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World
Gordinier, Jeff
Paperback
Old Farm Country Christmas: Favorite Recipes, Homespun Crafts, and Merry Memories
Apps, Jerry
Apps-Bodilly, Susan
Paperback
Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat
Achatz, Grant
Kokonas, Nick
Paperback
The Roast Penguin Chronicles: Hoosh, Scurvy Days, Sleeping with Vegetables, and Other Adventures in Antarctic Cuisine
Anthony, Jason C.
Paperback
Poor Man's Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking
Altman, Elissa
Paperback
