Although this is a very intense, emotional book at times, it was very interesting. Very descriptive writing and overcoming a very difficult life, but finding her love of cooking pulled her through those rough times. The story takes us from her childhood to adulthood. Some parts were very hard to read and may be a trigger for some people. But, all in all I appreciate all the author has accomplished and couldn't help but cheer her on to a well deserved success. A stunning memoir of overcoming difficult times and finding herself.

I was absolutely sucked into this memoir by Erin French, who manages to conjure up an idyllic childhood despite an emotionally distant and alcoholic father, and run a thread of hope through even the most miserable of circumstances, her hardy, stubborn Yankee streak carrying her through to a well-deserved but bittersweet happy ending.

The most inspiring memoir I’ve read in ages, candidly revealing the life of Erin French, founder of The Lost Kitchen, the acclaimed restaurant named a TIME world dining destination.

Potential diners send postcards that if picked, allow them access to a-once-in-a-lifetime meal.

I was dawn to Erin’s honest story through hell then redemption. She details work in her alcoholic dad’s diner, becoming a single mother at 21, suffering addiction and abuse in a marriage to an older man, and finally “finding freedom” in a dilapidated mill she turns into a world-renown restaurant. Kept me turning pages, enrapt in a story of suffering and rebirth I will never forget. Just sent my postcard in — please keep your fingers crossed!

5 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 06 Apr 2021
#FindingFreedomMemoir #NetGalley

Thanks to the author, Celadon Books, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

Do not read or listen to this book while hungry; you will regret it! Although, while reading and listening, I was hungry 90% of the time. The food descriptions are incredible!

Thank you to Celadon Books and Macmillan Audio for the review copies. This new memoir by the famous chef, Erin French, comes out April 6th and if you're a foodie, you'll want to grab a copy!

Erin herself did the narration, and her emotions came through so clearly. This memoir was consumed with so much sadness and hurt, yet it was also filled with endless hope. Her journey was inspiring. Erin is a self-taught cook who started working at her father's diner as a young girl. She moved up to small catering jobs, waitressing, opened a small traveling dinner party, and now owns a full-scale restaurant.

The Lost Kitchen is located in Freedom, Maine, and you're lucky to get a reservation. The restaurant soon was selling out for the entire year on the Spring day when they first opened their reservations for the year. They were quickly overwhelmed with reservation requests and came up with a new system: send a postcard to Freedom, Maine and a random selection will be done for the upcoming season. I thought this was such a cute idea, and it was done to drum up the postal office in the small town of Maine.

I'm off to write my postcard and dream about delicious foods from this book!

Erin French's inspiring story of food, family and love is masterful. She is determine and resourceful as life continues to hand her one challenge after another. With candor and courage she shares the story of her years working in her father's diner which taught her the basics and lit a flame of determination to succeed within her. She finds her tribe along the way as well as learns to forgive and be loved for exactly who she is today. The food descriptions are inspiring and the peaceful, calm surroundings lull the reader into gratitude. This is a top-notch memoir.

“The only way out was through.”

In sometimes difficult and at other times exquisite detail, Erin French spins the details of her life in this memoir. After a childhood filled with moments in which she tried so hard to win the approval of her father, who rarely showed emotions and was even cruel in his comments at times, she ends up getting pregnant at twenty-one and giving up her dreams of finishing college and getting a good job. Falling back on her past experience working in her father’s restaurant and love of food, she picks up jobs in that line of work. Eventually she marries an emotionally abusive man, and gets hooked on pills prescribed by her doctor.

I would love to see this book in the hands of older teenagers or young adults, because this path to addiction seems to be one that is often started because the person is having trouble dealing with the problems that come from life. Erin became addicted to bills prescribed by a doctor for trouble falling asleep, anxiety and depression. That detail was missing in the brief blurb I read about the book.

This was definitely worth reading. Erin’s determination to have a better life shines through the pages and I appreciated all the details she shared.


There is cursing throughout.

I'd never heard of the author nor her world famous restaurant before reading this book. Not being someone who 'lives to eat' I was worried about whether this was the book for me. This memoir turned out to be rather interesting (although I really could have done without the harm to animals descriptively portrayed). The author grew up with a tyrant for a Father which clearly informed her early adult years. A disaster of a marriage to a much older man proves almost fatal, and the subsequent divorce likewise. It is an inspirational book, as long as you do not mind the in-depth and long descriptions of menus, meal planning, and all things food related. The author clearly loves her profession and takes great joy in her work!

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with an ARC copy.

Erin French, a self taught chef who eventually achieved great success by opening a lauded restaurant in Freedom, Maine, retells her early childhood and adulthood which defined her relationship with food. Raised in a family with a terse and tyrannical father who owned a local diner, Erin spent much of her time in the diner where she was initially given minor chores in the kitchen and dining room, but eventually acquired enough skill to fill in as a line cook. Her childhood is filled with food memories, and infused with her relationship with her warm, supportive and loving mother. But food also substituted for fatherly affection, and she was constantly trying to win positive attention from her father. She always felt like a letdown to her father, who had really wanted a son and never got one.

Erin repeats this fatherly relationship when she marries a man much older than she is and her life takes a catastrophic turn. In brutally honest language, the author recounts her failed relationships and the disastrous ways in which she copes. The language when she discusses the relationships with her father and husband is sometimes gritty and vulgar and almost unbearably honest. At times, I felt like speeding past those sections to get to the parts where she writes about food. Her language blossoms into beautiful, flowing, mouth-watering descriptions when she writes about food and the dining experiences she is able to create for her customers. I can picture the scenes she creates in her pop-up dinners, and eventually in her restaurant, The Lost Kitchen. The Lost Kitchen is a beautifully restored old mill, a haven where she brings together the skills of many women, her creative and ever-changing menus and restaurant design to create a beautiful experience for the diner. The book ended on a high note, though there were some long, painful episodes along the way.

I DNFd this book. Trigger warnings for harm to animals, specifically kittens. I cannot read about harm to kittens to demonstrate cruelty or callousness. The first few pages held such promise but as a cat lover I cannot and will not read further for any life lesson this will offer. Awful, terrible and I am absolutely horrified by this retelling.

I received this galley from Celadon Books and my first thoughts were, oh boy, I'm not a foodie, how am I going to get through this and read about recipes and food for almost 300 pages? Well, I was so wrong and devoured (pun intended) this book. From the beginning, I found myself really liking Erin. She is brave, strong, vulnerable, humble, and really raw at times with her honest portrayal of her life, the successes and the devastating blows. I can't help but admire her strength and tenacity and hope to find myself in Freedom, Maine, dining at The Lost Kitchen and a chance to tell Erin in person what a wonderful friend, daughter, mother, and inspiration she is! #findingfreedommemoir #CeladonReads @CeladonBooks #NETGALLEY

Approximately forty-two miles southwest of Bangor, Maine, is the small town of Freedom, home to one of the most desired restaurants in the world: The Lost Kitchen. Reservations at the small restaurant open every year on April 1, and within a couple of days, the entire season is booked. You can’t call; you have to send in a postcard or a letter that is then placed in a lottery. Hopefuls from all the fifty states and twenty-two countries vie for a seat at the table.

The Lost Kitchen is the dream/restaurant of Erin French, a Mainer born and bred. She has not been to culinary school or studied under great chefs. She relies on instinct and simple foods. The menu changes daily and is based on what local foods are available that day.

Erin French didn’t start out to open a world-renown restaurant. Growing up in Freedom, she dreamed of becoming a doctor. Those plans were waylaid when at twenty-one, French found herself pregnant and alone. She left college and went back home. There she worked with her father in his diner and lived with her parents. She discovered that cooking soothed her soul, and she was good at it. Even the sixteen to eighteen hours a day, six days a week, didn’t dampen her enthusiasm.

Eventually she and her son, Jaim, moved to a cottage on her parent’s property. During the off-season (winter), the diner was closed and she found work in other restaurants. Life was hard. French turned to pills to get her up in the morning, keep her calm during the day and to help her sleep at night.

Eventually French met someone and married him. But as soon as the ring went on her finger, her new husband, Tom, began to berate her, control her every move, and, on occasion, threaten her life with physical violence.

French shares her highs and lows with her reader, without pulling any punches. Sometime this book is hard to read as French battles for her life and sanity. From multiple tries in rehab to a custody/divorce battle, French’s story is a classic American tale of grabbing yourself by your bootstraps and picking yourself up, time and time again.

I do wish that French had given us a recipe or two. That would have pushed this book into a 6 star category. However, Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

A rollercoaster of a memoir with a gorgeous cover!

Sharp as a knife, Erin French precisely takes us from her childhood in the small town of Freedom, Maine through her teen years working in her dad’s diner, her college years in Boston, and then back again to Freedom as a single mother.

She shows us how she started over when her dreams of being a doctor were dashed upon having her son. How she found love as a single mom working in bistros and finding comfort in a much older man.

She found the courage to start her own supper club then busy restaurant, only to lose it all again when she became hopelessly addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs as she slowly worked herself to death. After a disastrous trip to rehab where she was just an insurance number in a bed, her husband shuttered her restaurant and assumes sole custody of her son., allowing no contact: Erin was forced once again to start over penniless and heartbroken in Freedom, Maine.

The title Finding Freedom is a nod to her home town, her quest to be free of an overbearing father, freedom from her abusive husband and finally, at last making her dream of farm to table cooking on her own terms come true.

This book was really an interesting read of you are a food lover. I often thought it was impossible to own a restaurant, the physical and emotional cost seems unbearable to me and some of what French went through in her life in the food industry proved just that. However, she also showed me what it was inside of her that would persevere all of her life’s tribulations to beautifully and lovingly use the organic and local produce around her to make good food and nourish others.

The author was not afraid to name names and call out behaviors that contributed to her trauma and mental illness. She roasts her ex-husband, her dad and her sister pretty hard in this book. I was surprised at the level of detail she recounts in parts but I understand that she wanted to lay out her entire truth in this memoir and how she overcame time and time again when life threw her face down in the dirt.

I enjoyed this book. I felt very inspired in the end and I wish I could visit French’s restaurant The Lost Kitchen in Maine, but you literally have to win a lottery to get in there! I’m heartened by her success.

Thank you to @netgalley and @celedon for a free copy of this beautiful book. I give this review of my own accord.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Finding Freedom by Erin French was a pleasant surprise for me. My daughters are fans of Ms. French but I had never heard of her mostly because I am not a good cook. So, when I tell you this is a VERY good book, I do so in complete honesty. This memoir is a stunning revelation that if you want something bad enough and you are blessed with courage mixed with a zeal for hard work...you will succeed. Ms. French’s accomplishments were hard-won and I’m so impressed. To be sure, Erin made some epically bad decisions yet she has come out victorious. I highly recommend this book which will be published on April 6th. I also add that this is one of the most beautiful book covers I have seen. Finally, as the Mom of 3 daughters, we spent tonight around the dinner table talking about this book and their knowledge of Erin’s unique restaurant and Maine-based style of cooking but not her life struggles. They can't want to read this book. I look forward to seeing her on the Magnolia Network. Bravo to @thelostkitchen and Erin French. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC but the review and my thoughts are my own and without bias. #ErinFrench #foodie #FindingFreedomMemoir #CeladonReads #TheLostKitchen @magnolianetwork #partner #April6PublishingDate #maine #addiction #perserverance #ambition #book #books #lindaleereads2021 #bookstagram @annebogel #modernmrsdarcybookclub #januaryreads2021 #bookreviews #read #food #memoir

Erin French’s love for cooking started as a young girl helping out in her dad’s diner. Today, she is a thriving chef and owner of the world renowned restaurant The Lost Kitchen. Her memoir is a story of triumph despite tremendous adversity. She opens up about her strained relationship with her father, an abusive marriage, addiction, and rehab. However, Erin’s immense love for her son and caring for others through food shine brightly through darkness.

The book was slow to start, but Erin’s vulnerability and passion in the later parts got me hooked. I rooted for her success. Reading about how the healthcare system failed her was equally heartbreaking and maddening. I appreciated her raw honesty.

Personally, I didn’t find the food descriptions enticing (not vegan-friendly), but I’m sure many people will. The writing is quite illustrative and overly drawn out at some points. I had to skip the two page description of slaughtering chickens. I generally enjoy vivid detail, but that subject matter was disturbing to me and some passages were wordy (regardless of topic).

I will likely read every chef memoir out this year, and nothing will be this heartbreaking, tender, or inspiring. As someone who diligently sends my postcard to The Lost Kitchen every year, hoping to be selected, this may be the closest I'll come for some time to Erin French's food--but it is warming, stirring, inspiring, and absolutely real and from the earth.

I remember seeing a segment about The Lost Kitchen on CBS Sunday Morning a year or two ago and was fascinated by the concept and its popularity. Enter "Finding Freedom" Erin French's memoir that tells the story not only of the restaurant, but of the real life world of Erin, the talent behind the restaurant.
From working the breakfast line in the family diner as a child, raising a child, addiction and toxic relationships, Erin finds creating good food is the glue that keep her going and gives her hope. Food is a way to demonstrate love.
So happy to have found this book and learn more about this inspiring and courageous woman.
After reading this I added an item to my bucket list-have a meal a The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine
Thank you to Net Galley and Celadon Books for the opportunity to read this book.