young milkweed pods fried until the insides turn as silky as cheese, and moose tartare." She published a memoir in 2019, entitled Burn the Place. The New York Times called it "perhaps the definitive Midwest drunken-lesbian food memoir." In it she describes incidents "before she got sober 10 years ago, ran away from the police in handcuffs, had sex in bar bathrooms and used her car key to administer bumps of cocaine." The New Yorker review cited this Burn the Place as more than just a chef memoir, writing “More rightly, it belongs on a shelf with the great memoirs of addiction, of gender ambivalence and queer coming-of-age..." In January 2023 her second memoir, Fieldwork will be published highlighting her years spent foraging and living in the woods. Recognition In 2008 Chicago Magazine named her pierogi the best in the city. In 2016, Regan was named one of Food & Wine magazine's best new chefs. She was also named to the Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40. David Chang called her one of the best chefs he has ever known. Regan's former restaurant, Elizabeth, earned its Michelin star in January 2020 and has maintained its Michelin status since. Smithsonian named Burn the Place to their list of 2019's ten best books about food. Regan’s book Burn the Place was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2019, the first time in 40 years a book in food had received such recognition since Julia Child in 1979. Burn the Place won the Midland Author’s prize in non-fiction Burn the Place also won the prize in non-fiction from Story Studio Chicago. Personal life Regan is married to Anna Hamlin. They met while Hamlin was working with a wine distributor and managing the Elizabeth account. Currently, they reside at Milkweed Inn with their four dogs. References External links Elizabeth Restaurant 1979 births Living people People from Merrillville, Indiana Columbia College Chicago alumni Indiana University Bloomington alumni Chefs from Chicago American women chefs Head chefs of Michelin starred restaurants Writers from Indiana LGBT people from Indiana 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American memoirists American women memoirists LGBT chefs