We’re happy to welcome New York Times bestselling author Laurie Woolever to the show! Laurie joins us to talk about her latest book, Care and Feeding. What’s it like to be the right hand to two of the most iconic and complicated chefs of our time? Laurie Woolever dishes on life behind the scenes with Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali, revealing the chaos, contradictions, and quiet moments that shaped her memoir Care and Feeding.
From a small town in upstate New York to the kitchens and offices of culinary giants, Woolever’s journey is raw, riveting, and deeply personal. She opens up about toxic kitchens, battling addiction in a booze-soaked industry, and the long road to sobriety and self-worth.
This isn’t just a peek behind the celebrity chef curtain; it’s a powerful story of resilience, reinvention, and claiming your own spotlight.
Tune in to Meet Laurie Woolever as we discuss:
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Her years working for Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain
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The hidden toll of addiction and depression
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Her journey to sobriety and self-discovery
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What she learned traveling the world and surviving it
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Why she finally felt ready to tell her story
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And the New Jersey chapter that shaped part of her path
Listen / Watch
Transcript
Lost in Jersey Interview with Laurie Woolever Transcript
**Janette (00:05):**
Hi Rachel, we just had the interview with Laurie Woolever! The book is *Care and Feeding*, and we talked to her about it. She used to be the assistant to Anthony Bourdain and… who else?
**Lost in Jersey Podcast (00:06):**
Hey Janette — and Mario Batali.
**Janette (00:17):**
Right, Batali. Laurie’s book isn’t necessarily about them, but in a way, it is.
**Lost in Jersey Podcast (00:23):**
It’s a memoir — it’s about her — but she also goes in-depth about what it was like working with them and being in that environment. The book really brings the reader along on her journey through the food industry — as a writer, chef, cookbook editor — and touches on her marriage and motherhood. She’s very vulnerable on the page.
**Janette (00:47):**
Yeah, it’s a revealing look at her life — the struggles she had with substance abuse and how she navigated working in such a chaotic industry like food and restaurants.
**Lost in Jersey Podcast (01:04):**
Hmm.
**Janette (01:06):**
And it’s a fascinating read. She’s an excellent writer. There’s something in it for everyone.
**Janette (01:13):**
Laurie, welcome to *Lost in Jersey*.
**Laurie Woolever (01:15):**
Thank you! Very excited to be here.
**Janette (01:17):**
We like to start by sharing how we came across your work. I was skimming the *New York Times* new releases and saw your book — I think it debuted at number eight — and I just decided to read it. I got into it right away.
**Laurie (01:40):**
Great! I love hearing that.
**Rachel (01:41):**
Yeah, Janette was totally into it and said, “You’ve got to read this, Rachel.” So I did — and here we are!
**Janette (01:45):**
I have it too. And funny enough, as I was reading, I kept wondering, “There’s gotta be a New Jersey connection,” and — there it was!
**Laurie (01:50):**
Yes, there are definitely some Jersey moments in the book. I’m actually from a small village called Chittenango, outside Syracuse. Population under 5,000. I went to Cornell in Ithaca, then moved to NYC in 1996 after graduation. But my parents lived in New Jersey for five years after that.
Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain Google Talks
Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain Google Talks
Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, N.Y. CNN/Ecco
Laurie Woolever and Anthony Bourdain at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, N.Y. CNN/Ecco
About "Care and Feeding" by Laurie Woolever
An Instant New York Times Bestseller!
A candid, funny, and occasionally devastating memoir of a woman making her way through the food world, navigating addiction, a cultural reckoning, and an unexpected tragedy.
In this moving, hilarious, and insightful bestselling memoir, Laurie Woolever traces her path from a small-town childhood to working at revered restaurants and food publications, alternately bolstered and overshadowed by two of the most powerful men in the business. But there’s more to the story than the two bold-faced names on her resume: Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain.
Behind the scenes, Laurie’s life is frequently chaotic, an often pleasurable buffet of bad decisions at which she frequently overstays her welcome. Acerbic and wryly self-deprecating, Laurie attempts to carve her own space as a woman in this world that is by turns toxic and intoxicating. Laurie seeks to try it all—from a seedy Atlantic City strip club to the Park Hyatt Tokyo, from a hippie vegetarian co-op to the legendary El Bulli—while balancing her consuming work with her sometimes ambivalent relationship to marriage and motherhood.
As the food world careens toward an overdue reckoning and Laurie’s mentors face their own high-profile descents, she is confronted with the questions of where she belongs and how to hold on to the parts of her life’s work that she truly values: care and feeding.
About Laurie Woolever
Laurie Woolever is a New York Times bestselling writer and editor who worked closely with Anthony Bourdain for nearly a decade, co-authoring World Travel: An Irreverent Guide and producing Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Wired, Food & Wine, and many others. She brings humor, heart, and a unique perspective to everything she writes.
