Ali Rosen

“Food is so often used as a lens for men to explore our world, but Plenty subverts the genre and gives us a memoir that dives into the complex feminine humanity of the people who bring us what we eat and drink. Hannah Howard’s winding path to marriage and motherhood is punctuated by glorious women, from the Italian chef who left the machismo of restaurants to create a virtual cooking school to the lesbian barista whose fertility struggles dovetail with her business-building. The beguiling culinary descriptions pull you in, but the true magic of this book is in the way food—and the ragtag, often initially rootless people who make it—can create family. Plenty is both a deeply personal memoir and an inquisitive illumination of other women’s stories, and Hannah’s unflinching vulnerability will have you rooting for her the whole way through.”