Elegy For An Appetite

Author and chef Shaina Loew-Banayan (Cafe Mutton) in conversation with author Tamar Adler (An Everlasting Meal; Something Old, Something New; The Everlasting Meal Cookbook). Followed by a book signing and reception.

Elegy for an Appetite (PANK Books, 2022) is the story of a young cook’s tumultuous relationship with their body and eating. This short, poetic memoir, which mostly takes place in a series of professional kitchens, follows the author’s journey from voracious childhood to starving teen years and then to challenging early adulthood. The book explores the author’s search for identity, validity, and healing through a series of both dark and ridiculous kitchen tales. Through these experiences, Loew-Banayan is forced to question the intentions of existing systems and cultures in the restaurant world and beyond. Elegy for an Appetite turns an unblinking eye toward survival in a world where certain forms of physical embodiment can imply hardship, but it also forces us to consider what can happen when we abandon the ideologies we’ve held as true for far too long.