Eat a Peach
by David Chang (2020)
2022 reads, book 3/20:
I’ve only started watching chef David Chang the past couple of years, when I first saw him guest star on The Chef Show with Roy Choi and Jon Favreau. I then watched his most famous show Ugly Delicious, and more recently, The Next Thing You Eat. But these (mainly) lighthearted food-oriented shows are a stark contrast from the deeply personal stories and thoughts that Chang offers here.
In the preface, Chang says something along the lines of him being afraid for you to read his book – and I understand why. He lays out all of the ugly details here, many of which are his own mistakes. The first part of the book is in classic memoir style, written in a more-or-less chronological order; he touches on his childhood, college, and culinary school experiences, then focuses on his time working in a restaurant, to finally becoming a restaurant owner. The second part then loses its chronological format, and to me became more of a series of essays, where he touches on an important topic/event in his life or the restaurant industry in general.
What Chang does really well is offer a stellar view of what it’s like to rise up the ranks and run a restaurant in a messed-up industry (all with the imposter syndrome he dealt still deals with). We’ve all heard about chefs yelling in kitchens à la Gordon Ramsey, but Chang goes into even more detail about how all the stressors that come from working as a chef, including racism and sexism to name a few, lead to drugs, alcoholism, and poor mental health for many young chefs. I truly appreciated Chang’s candor throughout this book; especially seen in the chapter where he shows you how he would have wanted to rewrite his history, and the chapter where he turns 35 years old.
Bottom line: the synergistic interaction between Chang’s turbulent life and all of the issues that come with working in a restaurant is what made this book so honest, heartbreaking, and hopeful.