By Peter Veunnasack

If you’re a fan of Dan Ahdoot’s standup, a fan of any of the characters he’s played, or a fan of his podcast, you owe it to yourself to pick up his newest book Undercooked: How I Let Food Become My Life Navigator and How Maybe That’s a Dumb Way to Live.

I listened to the entire book, which is narrated by Dan himself, within an entire work shift the day it came out. He name drops everyone from a former chef on Iron Chef America to Matthew McConaughey, and references things in pop culture from Care Bears to the K-pop band BTS.

Dan takes us on an incredible journey to different points in his life and gives us an insight on his relationship with food and the impact it made during these moments. Dan paints such a vivid picture with his words and listening to him speak in different character voices and accents makes it even more fun. He holds nothing back. He opens up about past relationships, share stories about hunting, visiting prestigious restaurants and beautiful locales. He really lets the readers into his world.

Like his podcast, there’s some history lesson in the culinary arts, and the endless mentions of fancy dishes and cuisines left my mouth watering and wanting to try it all. Dan gets so personable that you can’t help but laugh at stories like the one about hillside, or the one about the risotto. And sometimes maybe against him. *cough cough Katie*.

He wasn’t setting out to make us like him more or like him less. He wanted to tell us how much food meant to him. And it’s his stories that made me respect the man even more. Can I get this in movie form??

To hear more insight in the making of this book, tune in to Dan’s latest episode of his podcast Green Eggs and Dan where he’s his own guest.