Food-Related Stories

"Gaby Melian tells so many stories through her relationship with food--about love, about loss, about hard work, and about finding her passion. The pages are dripping with delicious smells and tastes, and will give you a new way to look at both cooking and what it means to have a plan." --Molly Birnbaum, editor in chief, America's Test Kitchen Kids

In this moving, personal account, chef and activist Gaby Melian shares her journey with food and how creating a relationship with food -- however simple or complicated -- is a form of activism in its own right.

Pocket Change Collective was born out of a need for space. Space to think. Space to connect. Space to be yourself. And this is your invitation to join us. This is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists.

"Food rescued me so many other times -- not only because I sold food to survive. I cook to entertain; I cook to be liked; I cook to be loved." In this installment, chef and activist Gaby Melian shares her personal journey with food -- from growing up in Argentina to her time as a Jersey City street vendor and later, as Bon Appetit's test kitchen manager. Powerful and full of heart, here, Melian explores how we can develop a relationship with food that's healthy, sustainable, and thoughtful.

Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Published: 01/18/2022
Pages: 64
Weight: 0.2lbs
Size: 6.40h x 4.40w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9780593223499
Age: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2021
Booklist 10/15/2021 pg. 39
School Library Journal 01/01/2022 pg. 85

About the Author
Gaby Melian is a professional chef with almost twenty years of industry experience and a lifetime of personal knowledge about food and all its many wonderful flavors. She shares her deep love of food and vast kitchen know-how across multiple food media outlets. Her life in food has led her to many roles, including street vendor, culinary instructor, official Food Revolution ambassador, Bon Appétit test kitchen manager, cooking video host--and who knows what's next! Gaby completed her culinary training at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City with degrees in Culinary Management, Culinary Arts, and Pastry Arts. Find her on Instagram @gabymelian.

Ashley Lukashevsky is an illustrator and visual artist born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, currently based in Los Angeles. Ashley uses illustration and art as tools to strengthen social movements against systemic racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant policy. She aims to tear down these systems of oppression through first envisioning and drawing a world without them. Her clients include Refinery29, Broadly, The Washington Post, Planned Parenthood, Girls Who Code, GOOD magazine, Brooklyn magazine, ACLU, Red Bull, Snapchat, Air Jordan, and Logo TV. Ashley is also the illustrator of the best-selling Antiracist Baby, by Ibram X. Kendi.