Everything Is Under Control

“A fast-paced, heart-smacking memoir” detailing one woman’s life journey as a dancer, pastry chef, and mother (Bon Appétit).

One of Esquire’s Best Cookbooks of 2020 and Washington Post’s Best Food Books of 2020

“What a beautiful, rich, and poetic memoir this is. . . . Like the best chefs, Phyllis Grant knows how to make a masterpiece from a few simple ingredients: truth, taste, poignancy, and love.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat, Pray, Love

Phyllis Grant’s Everything Is Under Control is a story about appetite—as it comes, goes, and refocuses its object of desire. Grant’s revealing memoir follows the sometimes smooth, sometimes jagged, always revealing contours of her life: from her days as a dancer struggling to find her place at Julliard, to her experiences in and out of four-star kitchens in New York City, to falling in love with her future husband and leaving the city after 9/11 for California, where her children are born. All the while, a sense of longing pulses in each stage as she moves through the headspace of a young woman yearning to be sustained by a city into that of a mother now sustaining a family herself.

Written with the transparency of a diarist, Everything Is Under Control is an unputdownable series of vignettes followed by tried-and-true recipes from Grant’s table—a heartrending yet unsentimental portrait of the highs and lows of young adulthood, motherhood, and a life in the kitchen.

“A truly distinct perspective. . . . [A] damn fine writer. . . . Distinguished by her keen attention to the sublime detail and a voice as eviscerating as it is lyrical. . . . Transcendent.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Phyllis Grant has the voice of a poet and the sensuality of a cook. This very brave book makes you want to experience the world with equal intensity. As for the recipes . . . completely irresistible.” —Ruth Reichl, author of Save Me the Plums