Watchung Booksellers is pleased to host chefs Peter Hoffman and Kate Lebo in a conversation about cooking, natural science, and memoir.

In “What’s Good? A Memoir in Fourteen Ingredients,” culinary pioneer Peter Hoffman blends memoir with a joyful inquiry into the ingredients he uses. In his highly anticipated first book, Hoffman tells the story of his upbringing, professional education, and evolution as a chef and owner of Savoy and Black Forty restaurants, along with passionately curious explorations into the cultural, historical, and botani­cal backstories of the foods we eat.

In “The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with recipes),” essayist, poet, and pie lady Kate Lebo expertly blends natural, culinary, medical, and personal history into a work of unique invention. What makes a fruit difficult? Its cultivation, its harvest, its preparation, the brevity of its moment for ripeness, its tendency toward rot or poison, the way it might overrun your garden. Here, these fruits will take you on unexpected turns and give sideways insights into relationships, self-care, land stewardship, medical and botanical history, and so much more. Lebo’s unquenchable curiosity promises you will never think of sweetness the same way again.