Finding Freedom

A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch

By: Erin French

Narrated by: Erin French

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

"[Erin French's] memoir treats listeners to a smooth ride through an anything-but-smooth life. French's engrossing narration delivers polished consistency, and her gentle tone ushers listeners through her story. She speaks with passion and grace, creating a compelling narrative - with plenty of mouthwatering food descriptions." (AudioFile magazine)

New York Times Best Seller

This program is read by the author.

From Erin French, owner of the critically acclaimed The Lost Kitchen, a TIME world dining destination, a life-affirming memoir about survival, renewal, and finding a community to lift her up.

Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad’s diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. This singular memoir - a classic American story - invites listeners to Erin's corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the “girl from Freedom” fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin’s life triumphant.

In Finding Freedom, Erin opens up to the challenges, stumbles, and victories that have led her to the exact place she was ever meant to be, telling stories of multiple rock-bottoms, of darkness and anxiety, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but in the end ripped away her very sense of self. And of the beautiful son who was her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food - as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of bringing goodness into the world. Erin’s experiences with deep loss and abiding hope, told with both honesty and humor, will resonate with women everywhere who are determined to find their voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best-selves despite seemingly impossible odds. Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin reveals the passion and courage needed to invent oneself anew, and the poignant, timeless connections between food and generosity, renewal and freedom.

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books

“This is a beautiful memoir of resilience, creativity, and amazing cooking. I was totally inspired and you will be too!” (Ina Garten)

"Erin French is a talented chef, a successful entrepreneur, a beautiful young woman, and a passionate promoter of living the 'good life.' This book chronicles the incredible ups, and relatable downs, of building a life and a business." (Martha Stewart)

"Erin is an overcomer and a risk-taker. She’s the kind of person who, when faced with a setback, pushes forward and makes beauty out of hardship. Her story is full of passion and courage, and when you read this book, you will walk away feeling inspired and encouraged in your own life.” (Joanna Gaines, Co-Founder, Magnolia)

©2021 Erin French (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Great story

Amazing book. Erin French does an amazing job telling her life story. Very emotional story.

Get Lost in this deeply moving story

How painful it must have been for her to write this book! so honest and raw with emotions. Erin has a magical way of describing the food and surroundings and people and ingredients that make you a part of her world and I will recommend this book to anyone who ask for one.

Great story

Took a bit to get going but about halfway through the grit started to unfold. Left me crying in the end. Highly recommend.

Lasting Impression

I enjoyed this book so much. It has stayed with me and I find myself recommending it to my friends. Courage and grit. One day I hope to meet her in person and taste the food she so gloriously described. I love books about chefs, but this one for me was extra special. Read by the author, true from the heart.

A story of perseverance and the love of food.

This book is riveting. I was invested from the start. I cried, I was shocked, and I was hungry. The performance by the author was heartfelt and authentic. Do not miss out.

Homemade goodness

Beautifully read, woven together with flavors that don’t seem to hold together but then they do. Erin’s honesty, transparency and warrior heart comes through in her voice and in the telling. I didn’t know anything about her, but I couldn’t stop listening. Thank you for hope and courage and the work it took to tell it.

Absolutely loved the story!

I have watched Lost Kitchen and loved the show. I didn't know what to expect from this book but was very pleasantly surprised. A poignant life story of the author narrated by herself held my attention through every chapter.

Inspiration!!!

Words can’t express how I felt this in my bones. I will definitely listen to it again, and again. Thank you….

Enthusiastically!

I was lost for two days in this memoir by Erin French, and I don't regret a single minute that I won't get back. With emotion and condor, French tells the tale of her life in Maine. Mostly through the lens of kitchens, she shares stories about growing up, becoming a young woman & mother, being a wife and then the undoing of all the things she held precious. Her soul-deep love for serving others & finding her place in the kitchen of a greater whole is the thread that stitches all her stories together. The Lost Kitchen is the flourish of roses on a richly, sometimes painfully, embroidered life. There is pain in her story, yes, but there is redemption as well.

Erin, thank you for sharing your story with us.

Just LOVED this book!

I went in a little blind and did not know the full back story when I started this book. I enjoyed all the phases of the book and was left wanting more and more! Narration was wonderful!!!! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful and true story of your life!