Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan

She understands the practical and psychological value of the recipes passed down from these women: “I want that food to be respected and honored in our world from its true origins, not solely from a male chef who has figured out how to build an entire brand around what he learned from our hands as he stood by our strong, life-giving hips watching and wishing to god he had some kind of magic that even came close.” Lisa Donovan makes clear that an industry which relies on the inspiration and innovation of women does not actually allow most women to make a living cooking in a professional kitchen. She writes of the particular truths of the experience of womanhood and the influence of the women before her who provide a foundation for her skill and work ethic in the kitchen. In Donovan’s new memoir, Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger, she touches on all aspects of her identity - daughter, friend, personification of work ethic, intellectual, team player, resilient bad ass, confident risk-taker, professional, mother, wife.as well as further exploring the misogyny in the restaurant industry by way of her own experience. I knew the name Lisa Donovan, I knew she was a renowned pastry chef, but for me, that essay tied it all together and illuminated a woman who had had it with the boys’ club and the pervasive expectation - the given - that women in the restaurant industry are simply there to be, in her words, ‘of use’ to the men. The essay was inspired in the wake of the #MeToo movement - founded by Tarana Burke in 2006 - which came to even greater prominence in 2017 after the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse stories came to light.

Lisa Donovan wrote the James Beard Award winning essay entitled, “Dear Women: Own Your Stories”, for the December 2017 issue of Food and Wine in which she called out the restaurant industry for its inherent misogyny.

Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan