Alison Riley: Recipe for Disaster
Part cookbook, part candid confessions, this compelling collection is unlike anything else out there. Tuck into 40 stories and recipes from an all-star cast of contributors, assembled by Brooklyn-based writer and creative director Alison Riley. These are tales of finding comfort in food, surviving everything from flat tires to breakups to unbearable loses, and living to tell about both. Can you name a low point, of any size and shape, and the food memory you associate with surviving it? When Riley asked this question, the responses she received were diverse in every way–each of them unexpected and all of them comforting, both in substance and sustenance. Samantha Irby tells a story of getting dumped that led to Rejection Chicken. Sarah Silverman shares how the humble Pinwheel cookie got her through bouts of crippling childhood depression. Alice Waters reflects on the salad that has carried her and her loved ones through loneliness and uncertainty. Contributors also include: Bowen Yang, Gabrielle Hamilton, Simon Doonan, Thundercat, Chelsea Peretti, Bob Power … and many more.
Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, and highly relatable, with recipes that commemorate the good food of bad times, this collection reminds readers that even our low points offer something worth sharing: food, stories, and the welcome reminder that we’ve all been there.
Alison Riley is a writer and creative director based in Brooklyn and Hudson, NY. She is also the founder of the paper and text studio Set Editions. Originally from Cambridge, MA, she moved to New York City to study creative writing at Barnard College and has spent the last twenty-five years working inside brands and businesses and as consigliere to creators of all kinds, from musicians to art directors, and writers to fashion designers. This is her first book.
