An all-access history of the rise of the restaurant chef and the culinary culture of the 1970s and ’80s: “Fast, fun, and furious.” —The Wall Street Journal
Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll transports us back in time to witness the remarkable evolution of the American restaurant chef. Taking a rare coast-to-coast perspective, Andrew Friedman goes inside Chez Panisse and other Bay Area restaurants to show how the politically charged backdrop of Berkeley helped draw new talent to the profession; into the historically underrated community of Los Angeles chefs, including a young Wolfgang Puck and future stars such as Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken, and Nancy Silverton; and into the clash of cultures between established French chefs in New York City and the American game changers behind The Quilted Giraffe, The River Cafe, and other East Coast establishments. We also meet young cooks of the time, such as Tom Colicchio and Emeril Lagasse, who went on to become household names in their own right. Along the way, the chefs, their struggles, their cliques, and, of course, their restaurants are brought to life in vivid detail. As the ‘80s unspool, we see the profession and the culinary scene evolve—all as the industry-altering Food Network shimmers on the horizon.
Told largely in the words of the people who lived it, captured in over two hundred interviews with writers like Ruth Reichl and legends like Jeremiah Tower, Alice Waters, Jonathan Waxman, and Barry Wine, Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll offers an unparalleled 360-degree re-creation of the business and the times through the perspectives not only of the groundbreaking chefs but also of line cooks, front-of-house personnel, investors, and critics who had ringside seats to this extraordinary transformation.
“Friedman’s passion for the subject infuses every anecdote, detail, and interview, making this culinary narrative an engrossing experience.” —Publishers Weekly
“A lively, anecdotal romp through the rise of modern American cuisine from the early 1970s to the early ’90s.” —New York Post
Andrew Friedman is the author of Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll: How Food Lovers, Free Spirits, Misfits and Wanderers Created a New American Profession (2018), and producer and host of the independent podcast Andrew Talks to Chefs, currently in its sixth year. He is also the author of Knives at Dawn: America’s Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d’Or Competition (2009), co-editor of the internationally popular anthology Don’t Try This at Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World’s Greatest Chefs, and co-author of more than twenty-five cookbooks, memoirs, and other projects with some of the United States’ finest and most well-known chefs. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor within the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at the Culinary Institute of America. An avid tennis player, he co- authored American tennis star James Blake’s New York Times bestselling memoir Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life (2007), and was for several years a TENNIS magazine editor-at-large. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
