Iliana ReganBesprekingen

this was fine.. this book will make you move slow and i think that’s the point. it’s like a walk in the woods. what i did enjoy: the author's descriptions of picking berries and foraging and cooking mushrooms which made me want to run out and find my own paradise off the grid. what i did not enjoy: the fact that i didn't know this was her second memoir and i didn't appreciate her references to her first memoir i felt like i was missing something. Iliana Regan did not leave out any of the painful parts of her story, but somehow optimism and love of family still seemed to be at the heart of this book. overall not a bad read, just not my favorite!

Read for a book club, I was the only one who didn’t like it. I’m not nostalgic or romantic about the simple life in the UP

I found Iliana Regan’s childhood interesting. She must’ve been a very precocious child. Her knowledge of mushrooms in the outside world is very interesting. I’ve been to her restaurant in Chicago. I don’t think I would go to her new place, Milkweed In. it would be too much like camping for me, but I think her food would be very interesting to try, as a lot of creative people, she seems to be depressed. Her writing style was hard for me to get into. It was a little bit too detailed oriented.

Overall, this was a really interesting read that kept me going. Regan is a chef, and had owned a Michelin rated restaurant in Chicago. She opened a small bed and breakfast with her wife, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This book alternates between her experience in the Hiawatha forest, and stories about her childhood as the daughter (or maybe son?) of an Indiana steelworker. She deals with issues around gender identity, addiction, connection to the earth, and lots about mushrooms.

My quibbles with the book: going back and forth in time was confusing at points, and I felt there were things left out, or not fully explored. Some of that might be clearer if I had read her first memoir [Burn The Place]. But definitely, she leaves a lot unsaid, which has the advantage of leaving the reader to think, but I would have liked a bit more certainty.

Also, she has this writing quirk of writing lists of things. It's OK once in a while, but is pretty much every page or two and got old for me. Example:

"There were lots of squirrels, chipmunks, field mice, porcupine, fox, coyotes, deer and other small creatures that made a surprising amount of noice, considering how small they were, walking around at night. It was probably just that."

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/VbJ67c1cifI

Enjoy!

nonfiction/memoir - Michelin-starred chef moves to forested/heavily logged Upper Michigan to open an inn/B&B with her wife (and maybe have a kid together?) when the COVID-2019 pandemic hits; she also reflects on her family and personal history (loss of older sister and memories of growing up genderqueer in Indiana) with addiction (beer, cigarettes). CW/TW: mentions sexual assault and interactions with a scary uncle that everyone knows not to leave young girls alone with).

sort of scattered memories of a person coping with addiction, anxiety and depression, interspersed with mushroom gathering trips and time spent among the animals and plants (and fungi) of the woods. A slow, calming, thoughtful book.

More like a 4.5, but I'm rounding up. Iliana wrote about her fascinating journey beautifully. I'm always impressed by people who are multi-talented and have managed to overcome a lot of adversity. Can't wait to see what she does next.

This is another memoir by a crazy alcoholic chef, this time Iliana Regan. I've worked in only two nice restaurants, the owners of both were alcoholics, the chefs were crazy. Regan thought, growing up, that her crazy family was normal. It seems half the time people with crazy families think they're normal and families with normal families think they're crazy. So Regan grew up confused about gender, she really, really wanted to be a boy, her parents had a very strained relationship, her sister was an alcoholic, but they all loved food. She knows about food literally from the ground up - where to find the best mushrooms, what they look like and how each one tastes. Her dad killed and butchered animals, her mother cooked great polish food, and Italian, and fish. And they all had great work ethics. So, it takes all kinds. Regan admits that she was mighty harsh early in her restauranteur career, but she has mellowed some. She's had a wild life, but she sure makes you want to taste her food.

Iliana Regan is the owner of the Michelin Star restaurant “Elizabeth”, named for her sister who died in a jail holding cell. She was exposed to food a lot as a child- they lived on a farm and grew, foraged, baked, and preserved most of their food, but until the point her mother rebelled at having to do all that and they moved to a city. Oh, and they also helped out in Regan’s grandmother’s restaurant, too. Little wonder her mother got exhausted! But Regan loved working with food. When she grew up, she worked for other restaurant and worked in every station, learning the ropes inside and out. For a while, she ran a small restaurant out of her home, foraging the daily ingredients right in the city.

But the book isn’t all about her incredible food talent. As a child she struggled with gender identity. She also had a problem with alcoholism and addiction. She could not sustain a relationship. She was working in a male dominated profession. Being a lesbian didn’t make her any more acceptable. She battled all these things and came out a winner. She’s been married to Anna for several years now, and running a restaurant and a Japanese inspired pub.

The book was a little hard to read. While divided into four parts, the story is all over the place, in the present at one point and then skewing into the past. The writing is raw and blunt- descriptions of slaughtering animals, rampant drug taking, and alcohol binges. But it has something that held me. I do wish I’d learned some about her process of recipe creation; one of the most compelling things is that even as a small child she had a connection with food- when it was ripe, how to combine it, how to serve it up. She has an almost mystical connection with the earth and its edibles. Four stars.