Hachette provides comprehensive global distribution services in the following territories:
On Eating
The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Apr 14, 2026
- Page Count
- 256 pages
- Publisher
- Balance
- ISBN-13
- 9780306836336
Price
$30.00Price
$40.00 CADFormat
Format:
- Hardcover $30.00 $40.00 CAD
- ebook $14.99 $19.99 CAD
- Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $24.99
Buy from Other Retailers:
As a girl, I ate like a king.
So begins beloved author, journalist, and influencer Alicia Kennedy’s captivating new book. On Eating is more than a memoir; in true Alicia Kennedy style, it is also on desire, on the roles of women “in the kitchen,” on domesticity, on diaspora, on foodways and food sovereignty, on home and how we find home through food, on how food can help us bring us back to those we love. Beautifully rooted in place—from Long Island (on oysters, on martinis) to San Juan (on plantains, on sugar), On Eating is not only a provocative bildungsroman and a celebration of appetite, it also challenges each of us to consider our own relationship with food, and how our need to eat—to live—impacts the world.
Ultimately, On Eating is a paean food and those who grow and cook it, asking the urgent questions in our world today about what and how we eat.
Genre:
-
“Though not a traditional cookbook in any sense of the word, everyone who loves to cook is excited about No Meat Required, food writer Alicia Kennedy’s contribution to the conversation about plant-based eating. In her signature evocative and thoughtful prose, Kennedy asks the reader to join her in questioning meat’s role in our culture.”Vogue
-
“One of the pleasures of reading this book is that it prompts us to think about nature’s variety and abundance, and about how that abundance can show up on our plates.”The Atlantic
-
“No Meat Required serves up a well-researched look at American veganism and lays the groundwork for plant-based cuisine.”Chicago Review of Books
-
"No Meat Required was always going to be a hugely important book, but it didn’t have to be a total pleasure. This is what happens when a writer as curious, compassionate, and truth-seeking as Kennedy goes all out on a subject that she knows matters deeply, to her and to the world.”Lauren Collins, staff writer, The New Yorker
-
“In a dietary discourse starved for historical and cultural context, Alicia’s work and analysis on the politics of eating meat (or not!) have been enduringly informed and insightful, punctuated by No Meat Required. There’s no one else I’d rather read on the subject!”host of High on the Hog and founder of Whetstone Media, Stephen Satterfield
-
“Everyone, whether vegan, vegetarian, or omnivorous, needs to read this elegantly written, thought-provoking treatise.”Nigella Lawson
-
“An impressively exhaustive look at where vegetable-centered eating comes from and where it might head, and a vital reminder that today’s dominant idea of veganism tells very little of the story.”Tamar Adler, author of An Everlasting Meal
-
On Eating is both a compelling first-person account of a curious and intelligent woman’s life, and a well-researched and engagingly written treatise on the practices of growing, distributing, cooking and eating food, a serious subject that Kennedy nevertheless imbues with wit and charm. I am always better and smarter for having read anything Alicia Kennedy has written.Laurie Woolever, author of Care And Feeding: A Memoir
-
If her book No Meat Required and her laser-sharp writing on her weekly newsletter hadn’t already proved it, On Eating emphatically confirms Alicia Kennedy as one of the food industry’s most thoughtful thinkers. Kennedy’s prose is alive, tactile, and at times heartbreaking, a delicious and evocative exploration of how the food we consume shapes how we view ourselves and the world around us, and vice versa. I devoured every word.Hetty Lui McKinnon, food writer and cookbook author
-
This book moved me with its uncompromising reflections on grief, its elegant and witty chronicles of falling in love, and its gentle challenges to make me think harder about what I eat and why. Alicia Kennedy is great company on the page, and On Eating asserts her as not only one of our finest writers on food but one of our finest writers, period.Mayukh Sen, author of Love, Queenie and The Tastemakers
-
Already a cultural force in food writing and activism, Alicia Kennedy reveals her lyrical and literary gifts to the fullest in this richly personal memoir. Acutely observed, sparklingly intelligent, forging pointed and unexpected connections between the personal and the political—it's a fresh, seductive, unputdownable read.Anya von Bremzen, author of National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home
-
Gorgeous and effortless in her prose, Alicia Kennedy weaves seamlessly through the personal, the historical, and the political. Through evocative and clear-eyed examinations of her appetites, Kennedy inspires readers to reflect on the way food shapes both our inner and outer worlds. On Eating is a remarkable feat of memoir, cultural criticism, and a celebration of both food and one’s own humanity.Ifrah Ahmed, author of Soomaaliya: A Cookbook
You May Also Like
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use