Care and Feeding

A Memoir

De: Laurie Woolever

Narrado por: Laurie Woolever

A candid, funny, and occasionally devastating memoir of a woman making her way through the food world, navigating addiction, a cultural reckoning, and an unexpected tragedy

In this moving, hilarious, and insightful memoir, Laurie Woolever traces her path from a small-town childhood to working at revered restaurants and food publications, alternately bolstered and overshadowed by two of the most powerful men in the business. But there’s more to the story than the two bold-faced names on her resume: Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain.

Behind the scenes, Laurie’s life is frequently chaotic, an often pleasurable buffet of bad decisions at which she frequently overstays her welcome. Acerbic and wryly self-deprecating, Laurie attempts to carve her own space as a woman in this world that is by turns toxic and intoxicating. Laurie seeks to try it all—from a seedy Atlantic City strip club to the Park Hyatt Tokyo, from a hippie vegetarian co-op to the legendary El Bulli—while balancing her consuming work with her sometimes ambivalent relationship to marriage and motherhood.

As the food world careens toward an overdue reckoning and Laurie’s mentors face their own high-profile descents, she is confronted with the questions of where she belongs and how to hold on to the parts of her life’s work that she truly values: care and feeding.

©2025 Laurie Woolever (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

The raw honesty

This book pulls no punches. Engrossing and fast paced. So glad the author found a new path.

Absolutely obsessed.

This book is phenomenal. As some reviews mention, the narration starts off a bit slow—but just like a car on a cold morning, it simply needs a moment to warm up before hitting full speed. Once it does, the writing is nothing short of breathtaking. Lyrical, evocative, and deeply satisfying, this book delivered everything I had hoped for in Blood, Bones, and Butter but didn’t quite find. A truly remarkable read.

Raw, honest, courageous

Excellent narration by the author. This story must have been so difficult and painful to write - and the author does so with incredible candor and personal accountability. Bravo.

I also binged this memoir

I loved it! A compelling memoir. Laurie really put it all out there. Good times, difficult experiences and struggles. It was honest and i enjoyed her opinions and sense of humor. She also did an amazing job narrating the Audible version of her book.

Ruined by dull narration

Great story. I’m going to buy it in book form. The Audible is ruined by the slow, plodding, dull thud of the narration. Hopefully Audible will recast a more lively reader.