From takeout boxes to feeling boxed in, growing up as a "restaurant kid" is a unique experience.

• Curtis Chin and Rachel Phan share memories of growing up in their parents' Chinese restaurants
• Cookbook author Irina Georgescu finds inspiration east of the Danube River in Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria
• Jeremy Salamon reconnects with his Hungarian Jewish heritage and the charming childhood created by his grandmother
• Chef Harry Posner takes advantage of the short window for green almonds

Here are all the SoCal James Beard finalists. And don't forget to sign up for the weekly Good Food newsletter!

Explore the spiritual side of food and modern Ghanaian recipes.

• Jody Eddy spent two years visiting sacred spaces and meeting the people who cook in them
• Inspired by childhood visits to Ghana, Eric Adjepong debuts his first collection of recipes
• Andrea Nguyen questions the accuracy of those Prop 65 warning labels on many foods
• Evan Rail plays detective, looking back on an absinthe enthusiast who became a con artist
• Restaurant critic Tom Sietsema blows his cover in the CIA dining room

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A Black chef and cookbook author finally gets her due!

• Deb Freeman traces the life of Edna Lewis, author of "The Taste of Country Cooking," in a new documentary.
• While some people spent the pandemic starting sourdough, Jesse Valenciana got busy perfecting his birria.
• Memo Torres visits an Inglewood backyard, where three generations of the Sandoval family make birria using an abuela's recipe.
• Carolyn Kormann shares alarming facts about how microplastics have made their way into our bodies.
• Chef Caroline Leff of Stir Crazy turns up at the farmers market for a favorite root vegetable.

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