Susan Sweeney reads from the memoir of noted chef and James Beard Award-winning essayist Lisa Donovan who helped establish some of the South's most important kitchens. Her pastry work is at the forefront of a resurgence in traditional desserts.. Donovan struggled to make a living in an industry where male chefs built successful careers on the stories, recipes, and culinary heritage passed down from generations of female cooks and cooks of color. Donovan herself had been told at every juncture that she wasn't enough: she came from a struggling southern family that felt ashamed of its own mixed race heritage and whose elders diminished their women. She survived abuse and assault as a young mother. But Donovan's salvations were food, self-reliance, and the network of women in food who stood by her.