Care and Feeding

I anticipated Laurie Woolever's memoir to be a time capsule of the early-aughts NYC Food World, what I didn't expect was a nuanced exploration of self-worth via self-destruction.

Publishers constantly send me books for blurbs.

I’d say 30% are cook books, 40% have to do with being Asian, and another 20% are hip hop adjacent. Out of respect, I read the letter from the publisher, flip to a random spot in the book, and sample one page.

If I enjoy the voice, I’ll read it. Otherwise, these books end up like the bad wine people bring to my house destined to be regifted to Lujano, the plumber unclogging my toilet for the 75th time.

Oddly enough, no one sent me Laurie’ book Care and Feeding so I just reached out myself and asked to read and interview her for Canal Street Dreams. I’d known Laurie from her time working with Uncle Tony Bourdain. Over the years, a lot has been said and written about Tony. I blocked a lot of it out and didn’t engage based simply on who was making said work.

Then, I saw Helen Cho - another longtime friend and Tony collaborator - host a book reading with Laurie. I really liked that Laurie chose Helen as she’s one of the few people I trust regarding his last days. Helen was the one who introduced me to Tony back in May 2011 and she’s always been a 10 toes down ass chick who also enjoys listening to Coke Boyz 2.

I received the book last week and finished it in 72 hours.

If you want to see that time when America’s understanding of food got supercharged and free based through the eyes of a woman who was constantly pushed down, discouraged, and discarded, read Care And Feeding.

From the first few pages, I was transported back to that time in New York where it felt like we were discovering food culture for the first time collectively as a country.

Growing up Taiwanese-Chinese in America it was laughable watching Americans fumble and stumble around ethnic food. Every time people came to eat at our house it was a cacophony of “ewws” and “ughs” intermixed with complaints about “texture”. People gagged sipping tea with boba or gasped at anything gelatinous, then Tony appeared and nothing was ever the same again.