On the surface, Jackie Kai Ellis's life was the one that every woman — herself included — wanted. She was in her late 20s and married to a handsome man, she had a successful career as a designer and a home that she shared with her husband. But instead of feeling fulfilled, happy and loved, each morning she'd wake up dreading the day ahead, searching for a way out. Depression clouded every moment, the feelings of inadequacy that had begun in childhood now consumed her and her marriage was slowly transforming into one between two strangers — unfamiliar, childless and empty. In this darkness, she could only find one source of light — the kitchen. It was the place where Jackie escaped, finding peace, comfort and acceptance.

This is the story of how, armed with nothing but a love of food and the words of the great 20th century food writer M.F.K. Fisher, one woman begins a journey — from France to Italy, then the Congo and back again — to find herself. Along the way, she goes to pastry school in Paris, eats the most perfect apricots over the Tuscan hills, watches a family of gorillas grazing deep in the Congolese brush, has her heart broken one last time on a bridge in Lyon and, ultimately, finds a path to life and joy. (From Appetite by Random House)