Care and Feeding

A Memoir

By: Laurie Woolever

Narrated by: 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

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.

The raw honesty

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

Painfully honest.

I really respect the fact that she took ownership of her own addiction and the painful consequences both she and her family experienced.

Depressing

Self indulgent and depressing book about addiction. I would recommend avoiding this book unless you suffer from the self destructive behavior of the author.

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.

Well crafted memoir, slow narration

Honesty, clarity, and efficiency are all things I look for in a memoir. Carr and feeding has all of those things. My only criticism is the absolute snails pace of the narration. I’m not sure why the publisher didn’t compress this a bit to make it flow a bit better but I had to listen on 1.6, and I could have gone much faster. Bad post production, but I still enjoyed it.

A slice of life I knew well

This is an honest, accurate story about famous F&B chefs, the restaurants they own in NYC and the insane lifestyle that it encourages. I lived this life for 10 years while working as an actor. A lot about what she writes could have been my own life. I loved this book so much.

No saving grace in this memoir

I listened to hear her tales of working with Batali, Bourdain and her own story. Her pace in speaking is slow with little inflection. Written like essays which is fine; could have used more editing. Joan should have had her license taken away. She should have done better with her patient or referred her out to someone who could really help her. Sadly, I kept waiting for Laurie to have some sort of saving grace but that really never happened, which I am sure is true. Unfortunately, Laurie had so little growth over such a long time that negatively affected her son and husband, I had a hard time screwing up empathy for her. This was a difficult, depressing listen. I felt she had so little growth and remorse. Author may have been remorseful, but she didn’t write it that way. I cheered for her all the way, I kept hoping she would turn her life around, and in the end, she disappointed. Laurie, like all active addicts, are liars. She never convinced me she was no longer a liar. Learning about the underbelly of the restaurant/food world was fascinating. She is an excellent writer, seemingly a natural.

Tale of Self-Destruction

First and foremost, I respect the author's honesty. She puts every bad decision/action out there (they are countless), painting herself as a selfish, self-destructive, damaged person. This is a story of addiction -- alcohol, drugs, and sex. It's also a story of recovery, a journey that the author has begun.

The insight into the restaurant industry was interesting but wasn't the main focus of this story. Most of us have read about creepy, misogynistic, narcissistic chefs, so there was nothing new in that regard. Well written, the book moves along at a good clip.

The author should have passed on narrating the book. She sounded bored and affected at times.

I had no sympathy for her, but that wasn't her intention. However, I listened to the entire book---it was like watching a train wreck.

Rioting well told life story with a happy ending

Became fond of deliberate calm narration through so much trauma. The author kept her voice quietly strong. I lived the book.