Author Talk: Laurie Woolever, "Care and Feeding: A Memoir"

Take a dive into the fast-paced, sometimes unscrupulous restaurant world with author Laurie Woolever, the longtime assistant, collaborator and co-author to the late Anthony Bourdain.

Darien Library and Barrett Bookstore welcome Woolever, who will discuss her new book, Care and Feeding: A Memoir. Laurie will be in conversation with writer, Page Berger.

In this moving, sharp-witted, and insightful memoir, 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. Woolever attempts to carve her own space as a woman in the restaurant world that is, by turns, toxic and intoxicating.  But there’s more to the story than the two bold-faced names on her resume: Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain. Woolever describes how she found herself in the maze of Batali’s power plays and predatory behavior, all while she was being steeped in the red-carpet lifestyle. On the other side of the coin, Woolever, for the first time, goes into detail about what it was like to work so closely with Bourdain and to be mentored by him for so many years, while also seeing how he too had to work to balance fame with personal struggles. 

She quilts together masterfully, and with humor and humility, the complexities she faced in her work life while also wrestling with addiction and the domino effect that had on her romantic life and her identity as a mother. 

Come join us for this exciting and memorable event!

About the Author

Laurie Woolever is a writer and editor. She spent nearly a decade assisting Anthony Bourdain, with whom she coauthored the cookbook Appetites and World Travel. She’s written about food and travel for the New York Times, GQ, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, Saveur, Dissent, Roads & Kingdoms, and others, and has worked as an editor at Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography.

About Page Berger

Page Berger is a freelance ghostwriter and writer who pens the bi-weekly Four Top newsletter. She graduated cum laude from Davidson College and earned master’s degrees from Middlebury's Bread Loaf School of English, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Page held positions at the Robin Hood Foundation and Teach For America and worked for several years as the marketing and event director at Barrett Bookstore. Page’s passion lies in fostering community and connection through conversation and storytelling. Learn more at www.pageberger.com.