What I Made for Dinner

“A moving and often funny account of how one man provides for his family, What I Made for Dinner feels both quietly radical and deeply comforting. In Krys Malcolm Belc’s hands, the dailiness of parenting and meal-making becomes what it truly is: a ritual of nurturing life, of meeting one another with care and respect. Neurodivergent, queer, and full of love, I missed this book whenever life took me briefly way from its pages.” —Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body

“What I Made for Dinner is a tender, deliciously readable memoir told in intimate vignettes, tracing one family’s life through food during the pandemic. Writing as a transgender man and father on the brink of welcoming his fourth child, the author captures how cooking becomes an act of care, survival, and becoming—of feeding others while finding yourself. I laughed, I cried, I cried again—and I devoured every page.” —Hannah Howard, author of Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family

“What I Made for Dinner is a captivating exploration of domesticity, parenthood, and queer family. With food and the women who make it his lens, Belc examines the complex contours of identity and isolation, masculinity and femininity, race and class, community and care. Both meditative and urgent, funny and profound, this is a deeply human story about the choices we make and the paths we take—of finding joy in the mundane and making meaning in the daily acts of service that build a family and a home. This book made me want to cook—to make Marcella’s Bolognese and pick fresh herbs in Ina’s garden, and invite all my friends to dinner. It also made me want to eat. To be in Belc’s kitchen is not just to watch a perfect roast chicken or chocolate cake come out of the oven, or to imagine the first exquisite bite; ultimately, it’s to feel cared for—like you’re sitting at the table, watching your friend cook, waiting to taste every beautiful thing he’s made.” —Melissa Faliveno, author of Tomboyland and Hemlock