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Random House Books for Young Readers

Kitchens of the Great Midwest: A Novel

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“A sweet and savory treat.” —People “An impressive feat of narrative jujitsu . . . that keeps readers turning the pages too fast to realize just how ingenious they are.”—The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Pick From the New York Times bestselling author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a novel about a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country’s most coveted dinner reservation. When Lars Thorvald’s wife, Cynthia, falls in love with wine—and a dashing sommelier—he’s left to raise their baby, Eva, on his own. He’s determined to pass on his love of food to his daughter—starting with puréed pork shoulder. As Eva grows, she finds her solace and salvation in the flavors of her native Minnesota. From Scandinavian lutefisk to hydroponic chocolate habaneros, each ingredient represents one part of Eva’s journey as she becomes the star chef behind a legendary and secretive pop-up supper club, culminating in an opulent and emotional feast that’s a testament to her spirit and resilience. Each chapter in J. Ryan Stradal’s startlingly original debut tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother- daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life—its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises. It marks the entry of a brilliant new talent. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books


Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 7, 2016


Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143109413


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 19


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.54 x 5 x 7.7 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #91,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1,204 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction #1,515 in Contemporary Women Fiction #3,035 in Literary Fiction (Books)


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Don’t deny yourself the delight of this book!
Format: Kindle
This book is an absolutely delightful read! The characters are quirky and complex. And I’m going to miss them now that I’m done with the book. I never thought a bar bake-off could make me laugh so hard. One of the delights of the book was a literary technique I’ve never seen before. Generally the “all-knowing” narrator is static throughout the book and doesn’t have his or her own personality. In this book, Stradal changes the narrator in each chapter to take on the personality and often the cluelessness of the primary character in that chapter. So, for example, when Eva’s cousin, Braque, calls her mother a “master choreographer of anxious micromanagement” and says “the menace of her manic perfection made it impossible to relax,” the narrator declares that Braque is nothing like her mother. But we’ve seen Braque’s schedule in the beginning of the chapter. So, we know she’s exactly like her mother, just manifested in different ways. Instead of telling us what the characters are clueless about, we get to know them well enough to know when they are totally in denial since the narrator is speaking from their POV. That is so much more interesting than spelling it out for us. I know some readers didn’t like the ending because it was not a satisfying Hallmark ending, but I loved it! Without giving too much of the plot away, I thought it was perfect that one of the prominent characters did an incredibly selfish act at the beginning of the book, and did a completely selfless act at the end to the same character. It was the perfect bookend to the story. I also loved that Stradal believes in karma, and that the nasty characters generally got what was coming to them. There is one loose end I wished had been tied up. When one of the characters gets stopped for driving drunk at the end of a chapter, I’m still dying to know how it was resolved. In order to sleep at night, I told myself that Eva arranged to have the character stopped so they wouldn’t get away. Do not deny yourself the laughter, tears and delight of this book! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2025 by Janet L. Piraino
    • Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal: A review
Format: Kindle
Fans of reality TV might possibly recognize the name of the author. J. Ryan Stradal is the producer of some of the more popular entries in that genre, shows like "Ice Road Truckers" and "Deadliest Catch," both of which my husband has watched over the years. I'm not a fan of reality TV myself; I prefer my TV shows to be unreal. I am a fan, though, of Stradal's writing. Kitchens of the Great Midwest is his first novel and it is a winner. He shows great originality and a sure touch for the development of characters and a character-driven plot. The structure of this book reminds me very much of another book that I dearly loved, Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. As in Olive, we get to know the main character of Kitchens by seeing her through the eyes of other characters. Plus, the physical descriptions of both Olive and Eva Thorvald, the main character here, are somewhat similar. Both are tall and physically imposing women. We meet Eva first as a baby, just a few months old. Her father is a foodie and she is the apple of his eye (Pun intended!). He looks forward to introducing her to the glorious foods that he loves. Her mother, on the other hand, has come to the realization that she does not want to be a mother and she abandons her daughter and husband, running off to New Zealand with a dashing sommelier. Father and daughter settle into the routine of single parenthood, in this case with assistance from the father's brother and his partner. When the unimaginable happens and the father dies of a heart attack, the uncle and his wife take over as parents. Eva never remembers the birth father who loved her so much. Though she doesn't remember him, she has inherited his love of food, along with a once-in-a-generation palate. She is a food prodigy and as she grows, her gastronomic talents are honed to perfection until, by the time she is in her late twenties, she has gained remarkable renown throughout the Midwest and even farther afield as a chef. Eva's character is developed through eight chapters as we see her first through the eyes of her adoring father and then through a female cousin, a teenage boyfriend, an envious rival, several ancillary characters that she meets during sojourns in the kitchens of various restaurants, and, in the final chapter, through the eyes of that birth mother who abandoned her. In only one chapter do we see things from Eva's point of view, when she is almost eleven and is enduring the taunts of some truly hideous bullies at her school. Throughout the novel, the characters move through several sites in the Midwest, from Minnesota to Iowa to Chicago to Wisconsin and the Dakotas. It's a region that the author seems to know very well and he conveys its zeitgeist perfectly. He also gives us a quirky and often quite amusing perspective on the modern phenomenon of the foodie culture, as well as an insightful view of the role that food plays in the creation of a sense of community and identity. All in all, this is a very sensual reading experience. However, the sensuality of it was not always pleasurable. For me, the word snot is one of the ugliest and most offensive in the English language. I couldn't possibly explain why. It is simply my visceral reaction to the word. Stradal seems to love it. Maybe it has something to do with his experience in reality TV. He lovingly describes snot running down the face of a character, snot collecting on the shirt of a character after it has run down her face and then rubbing onto the shirt of another character when he hugs her. He even describes snot-colored food (lutefisk)! That kind of literary tic - the overuse of a particular word - is the sort of thing that grates on my reading nerve endings and can totally put me off a book. Nevertheless, I persevered and was rewarded with a mostly enjoyable reading experience. Kitchens of the Great Midwest has received much critical acclaim and it is well-deserved. It is a remarkable first novel. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2016 by PlantBirdWoman
    • A Disaster
Format: Paperback
An extremely odd book. Characters come and go—-by chapter! Except for Eva who is frankly unsympathetic, at best. The author does not seem engaged with the “plot”, character development and has a detached relationship with the environments/settings within the book. A mistitled book—-not recommended for folks with even the most basic understanding of Evanston, the state of Minnesota, etc ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2026 by Steven D. Henriksen

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