See the hottest books publishing this Summer

Book Summary and Reviews of Hunger Like a Thirst by Besha Rodell

Hunger Like a Thirst by Besha Rodell

Hunger Like a Thirst

From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table

by Besha Rodell

  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Published:
  • May 2025, 272 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

A witty and lively memoir from food writer and New York Times contributor Besha Rodell, (formerly) one of the world's last anonymous restaurant critics.

When Besha Rodell moved from Australia to the United States with her mother at fourteen, she was a foreigner in a new land, missing her friends, her father, and the food she grew up eating. In the years that followed, Rodell began waitressing and discovered the buzz of the restaurant world, immersing herself in the lifestyle and community while struggling with the industry's shortcomings. As she built a family, Rodell realized her dream, though only a handful of women before her had done it: to make a career as a restaurant critic.

From the streets of Brooklyn to lush Atlanta to sunny Los Angeles to traveling and eating around the world, and, finally, home to Australia, Rodell takes us on a delicious, raw, and fascinating journey through her life and career and explores the history of criticism and dining and the cultural shifts that have turned us all into food obsessives. Hunger Like a Thirst shares stories of the joys and hardships of Rodell's coming-of-age, the amazing (and sometimes terrible) meals she ate along the way, and the dear friends she made in each restaurant, workplace, and home.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"This hearty, heartfelt missive will appeal to anyone who likes to wax poetic about a memorable meal." —Publishers Weekly

"A meld of autobiography and culinary memoir with meat on its bones...It is Rodell's candor, her gift for asking so many savory, enlightening questions, that rewards the reader's palate. Structured like a good meal, or a good review, rendering a superb memoir." —Kirkus Reviews

"Each chapter of this memoir brings the flavor, from comforting memories to spicy encounters and sour experiences, that will make readers hungry for more." —Library Journal

This information about Hunger Like a Thirst was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Besha Rodell

Besha Rodell is a James Beard Award–winning food writer, editor, and restaurant critic who has been obsessed with eating out since she was a child. Born in Australia in a bungalow on a farm her father dubbed Narnia, she moved to the United States as a teenager. She has been writing professionally for more than two decades, and her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Food & Wine, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, PUNCH, Eater, Gravy, and many others. She was the restaurant critic at LA Weekly and was a critic and columnist for The New York Times, where she is still a regular contributor. In 2019 Besha was tapped by Food & Wine to be their global critic, traveling the world solo to pick the best restaurants for an annual list. She is currently the chief restaurant critic at The Age, the daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. Besha moved back to Australia in 2017, and lives in Melbourne with her husband, Ryan; her parrot, Chobi; and a rotating menagerie of foster cats.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more biography/memoir...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Ghostwriter
    by Julie Clark
    From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Erased
    by Anna Malaika Tubbs

    In Erased, Anna Malaika Tubbs recovers all that American patriarchy has tried to destroy.

  • Book Jacket

    Songs of Summer
    by Jane L. Rosen

    A young woman crashes a Fire Island wedding to find her birth mother—and gets more than she bargained for.

Who Said...

Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B a L

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.