Watermark Books and Cafe

In a culture where the celebrity-chef-memoir's popularity is rivaling that of the Big Mac, "Mission Street Foods: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant" is a genuinely good story. Told via first person narration by founding chef Anthony Myint and his wife, Karen Leibowitz, the saga of MSF's twenty month stint in a kitchen they shared with a full service Chinese restaurant is both vulnerably idealistic and brutally real. The authors relate the history of MSF and its daily operations, they offer profiles of their guest chefs, their dedicated community and themselves. Maybe most importantly, Myint and Leibowitz explain what they call a "Benevolent Business" model.  

The stated goal of Mission Street Foods was to "offer unpredictable eating experiences that make no profit, lose no money, and require a substantial amount of work." Myint planned to achieve his goals by "serving a different menu every night, making it impossible to achieve any economies of scale or regular routines, resulting in food waste and short tempers." And he was successful. In addition, he and Leibowitz raised $35,000 in donations for food pantries in the San Francisco area, and spearheaded a movement that has resulted in other businesses being similarly benevolent.  

In a book that includes personal photographs, gritty food porn, a graphic novel and an homage to fried chicken, Myint and Leibowitz perpetuate the principles that made MSF a success: "willfulness, naïveté, resourcefulness, altruism, moral flexibility, putative insanity and a compulsion to use food efficiently." 

Review by Holly Nickel

Mission Street Food: Recipes and Ideas from an Improbable Restaurant (Hardcover)

By Anthony Myint, Karen Leibowitz

$30.00

ISBN-13: 9781936365159
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: McSweeney's, 8/2011

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