The Hunger - by John Delucie & Graydon Carter (Paperback)

About the Book

Hot grease, sharp knives, infidelity, and white truffles .The Hunger has all the right ingredients .The best memoir by a chef since Kitchen Confidential. Jay McInerneyThe Hunger is the page-turning memoir from John DeLucie, chef of THE celebrity hot spot restaurant in New York City, The Waverly Inn. With an introduction by Graydon Carter, legendary Editor of Vanity Fair, The Hunger is an unabashed celebration of hard work and the good life that Anthony Bourdain fans will simply eat up a feast for foodies that author Salman Rushdie calls, A delightful book .I recommend it to anyone interested in good food and good stories. "

Book Synopsis

"Hot grease, sharp knives, infidelity, and white truffles....The Hunger has all the right ingredients....The best memoir by a chef since Kitchen Confidential."
--Jay McInerney

The Hunger is the page-turning memoir from John DeLucie, chef of THE celebrity hot spot restaurant in New York City, The Waverly Inn. With an introduction by Graydon Carter, legendary Editor of Vanity Fair, The Hunger is an unabashed celebration of hard work and the good life that Anthony Bourdain fans will simply eat up--a feast for foodies that author Salman Rushdie calls, "A delightful book....I recommend it to anyone interested in good food--and good stories."

From the Back Cover

An inspiring, heartwarming memoir from the unlikely chef of The Waverly Inn

The Hunger is an insider's take on the crazy life that is the restaurant business, as well as an underdog's tale of survival. Dissatisfied with his corporate career, John DeLucie followed his passion for food to a single cooking class at the New School (where he was named Most Likely to Succeed). He launched his first food gig at SoHo's famed Dean & DeLuca, then cooked at several New York-area restaurants.

For fifteen years, DeLucie worked his way through major challenges, while accepting both successes and failures, until finally opening his restaurant The Waverly Inn--the Greenwich Village sensation. He now shares secrets about the behind-the-scenes details from the tiny kitchen, the front of the house, and outside the restaurant, where the paparazzi gather. Also included are the stories behind some of DeLucie's signature recipes.

The Hunger is a story about food and desire and appetite--an intimate window onto a chaotic world.

Review Quotes

"When word gets out that chef John DeLucie is doing some of the best tuna tartare in town (all of that creamy avocado and zingy heat!), plus a hefty and juicy pork chop, a classically blissful Dover sole, an addictive clam chowder, a gorgeous fillet of wild salmon (with those adorable little beluga lentils) and such feloniously fatty short ribs, won't there even be more lemmings tumbling down the steps from Bank Street and through the door?" - Frank Bruni, New York Times
"Hot grease, sharp knives, infidelity, and white truffles. . . . The Hunger has all the right ingredients. John DeLucie has lived the life and now he tells the tale. The Hunger is the best memoir by a chef since Kitchen Confidential." - Jay McInerney
"DeLucie provides an excellent balance of personal details and authentic backstage culinary tales. . . . DeLucie's is a satisfying triumph of hard work and stick-to-it-ness." - Publishers Weekly
John DeLucie has given me so much pleasure at The Waverly Inn, and now he has written this delightful book, as well! I recommend it to anyone interested in good food--and good stories." - Salman Rushdie
"In a bowl, stir gently, one part Hard Work, two cups True Grit, and a dash of Restaurant Glamour, and you get the perfect recipe for Chef John Delucie's everyday life. The Hunger is a firsthand account about what it's like to manage kitchen chaos, dining room politics and, oh yeah . . . .a personal life! I couldn't put it down." - Bobby Flay
"THE HUNGER entertainingly describes one of those wonderfully unlikely bizarro career arcs that can only happen in the restaurant business...A terrific first person tour of the best and worst of the back-of-the-house New York restaurant world with an all-too rare happy ending." - Anthony Bourdain
"In a bowl, stir gently, one part Hard Work, two cups True Grit, and a dash of Restaurant Glamour, and you get the perfect recipe for Chef John Delucie's everyday life... I couldn't put it down." - Bobby Flay
"It was an infatuation with food--infused with The Hunger to succeed--that landed chef John DeLucie at the Waverly Inn & Garden, the most charmingly exclusive hash house in New York. Please enjoy the introductory amusebouche courtesy of co-owner and V.F. editor Graydon Carter." - Vanity Fair
"John DeLucie, partner and executive chef at the trendy A-list restaurant The Waverly Inn, dishes on the most outlandish celeb requests he's heard during his 15 years in the business in his new book, The Hunger. He also shares some of the fun stories behind his signature recipes (like truffle mac 'n' cheese--yum!)." - Star magazine
"It's the rare behind-the-scenes glimpses into the Waverly's clubby quarters that make this book different from other chef memoirs and their typically debauched tales." - New York Post
"This dishy read is an insider's look at what it takes to stay on top of the high-pressure, high-profile culinary world and what really goes on in the kitchen." - Bon Appétit
"John DeLucie captures all of the tangy Dostoyevskian world of food and restaurants in his magnificent and tasty memoir. The Hunger is as funny as Robin Williams, as sharp as a good vinaigrette, and as satisfying as lasagna Bolognese--a must-read for foodies and for fans of the new food culture--and those obsessed with it--as well as the characters who make it." - Mario Batali
"The Hunger is perhaps the most accurate description of the careers of many chefs these days. Delucie was a journeyman until the gods of fortune smiled upon him with a business partner named Graydon Carter, whose Vanity Fair Rolodex ensured a packed and illustrious dining room from Day 1 at their restaurant Waverly Inn." - Los Angeles Times
"His portraits of the unique personalities that inhabit the kitchen are delightful, and his emphasis on the teamwork and leadership required to run a successful restaurant is inspiring. Though there are celebrity-driven anecdotes sprinkled throughout the text, the story never becomes gossipy. . . . A colorful vignette of New York's cutthroat culinary scene by a qualified insider." - Kirkus Reviews