PREORDER SPECIAL: 20% OFF
The discount will show in your Cart and Checkout when you ADD+ TO CART.
Gold Logie-nominated TV personality and food icon Melissa Leong bites down on her demons in this searing memoir, exploring themes of abuse in the hospitality industry, racism, mental health and, for a light palate cleanser, the thrill of mouth-wateringly memorable food. Most of all, she inspires the courage to create a life you really, really want.
From Melissa Leong (aka fooderati) - the first female judge of MasterChef Australia and Dessert Masters, fashion obsessive and self-confessed contrarian - comes an evocative, sharp, darkly funny and often brutal account of what it's like to try, fail and scrape together the confidence to try again. She invites you to consider your own limiting self-beliefs ... and give them the finger.
These stories take place inside kitchens and television studios, on farms and even in an abattoir. Leong shares how her dream of being a concert pianist crumbled due to chronic pain, her struggles with racism and identity as a first-generation Singaporean Chinese woman, how blowing up her life to reset her path was maybe (definitely!) worth it, and why going your own way absolutely is.
Garnished with Leong's favourite recipes, Guts is above all a glorious love letter to food, to choosing the unpredictable path and to believing in yourself even - and especially - when the odds are stacked against you.
No guts, no glory. Hope you're hungry.
By:
Melissa Leong
Imprint: Murdoch Books
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 153mm,
ISBN: 9781922616760
ISBN 10: 1922616761
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 30 September 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Prologue Introduction: Down the hatchet Chapter 1: Will eat anything once Chapter 2: How to eat chicken feet Chapter 3: Blood, bones and butter Chapter 4: Will travel anywhere once Chapter 5: Just-shot deer heart tartare Chapter 6: Salmonella Sunday Chapter 7: Lost in the sauce Chapter 8: Sandpaper and supreme broth Chapter 9: In a conventional oven Chapter 10: Lemon sorbet, a single scoop Chapter 11: Lessons for life Chapter 12: Falling out of love with food Epilogue
Melissa Leong is a Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and personality, freelance food and travel journalist, food media consultant, radio broadcaster, MC and cookbook editor. She lives in Melbourne but is often found elsewhere.
