Rottenkid: A Succulent Story of Survival

by Brigit Binns

Overview

A memoir sauteed in Hollywood stories, world travel, and always, the need to belong

Prolific cookbook author Brigit Binns’ coming-of-age memoir—co-starring her alcoholic actor father Edward Binns and glamorous but viciously smart narcissistic mother—reveals how simultaneous privilege and profound neglect lead Brigit to seek comfort in the kitchen, eventually allowing her to find some sense of self-worth. 

In the old Hollywood of her childhood, Brigit seems to live in an elite world. But when her parents eventually divorce—her father flees and her mother sends her off to boarding school so she can more easily conduct her decades-long romance with a married California governor—Brigit racks up seven schools and a host of bad decisions before the age of 16. 

Marriage to an Englishman takes her across the pond and to professional cooking school. But when that life comes crashing down, she returns heartbroken and alone to Los Angeles eighteen years after vowing never to return. Here she thrives, cold pitching herself to top chefs as co author for their cookbooks. Peppered with humor and seasoned with optimism, Brigit’s story is an entertaining tribute to female resilience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781960573995
Publisher:	Sibylline Press
Publication date:	03/05/2024
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	454,406
Product dimensions:	5.32(w) x 8.46(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

About Brigit Binns: Brigit’s cookbook Eating up the West Coast was her 29th. A prolific cookbook author, her titles have sold over 100,000 copies. In addition, she’s helped some of the U.S.A.’s most respected chefs, like New York’s Michael Psilakis and Los Angeles’ Joachim Splichal, turn their cookbook dreams into reality. During the 10 years she lived in Europe, Brigit graduated from England’s Tante Marie cooking school, lived and catered in Spain, and edited the Costa del Sol’s English-language magazine. Brigit and her dishes have been featured on The Today Show multiple times. She now lives full-time in California’s Central Coast wine country with her dog and fabulous husband, Casey, (aka the Wine Spectator-award-winning Paso Wine Man). 

Editorial Reviews

"Brigit Binns may have had a hard-drinking actor for a father and a mother of dangerous exuberance, but she is the star of her life story. This child of Hollywood writes with an observant honesty, telling of hard times and harrowing psychological troubles with surprising humor and heart. You will come away from this book with great admiration for her spirit and great affection for her." —Rick Kogan, Legendary Chicago Tribune columnist, radio personality, and noted author

"Binns offers a memoir about reckoning with the legacy of difficult parents. The author grew up in Los Angeles in the 1960s, the daughter of actor Edward Binns and his second wife, Marcia Legere Binns, described as the 'ultimate sophisticate.' Binns’ self-aware and wry writing will interest readers who grew up with angry, self-involved parents. A grounded remembrance of an outwardly glittering Hollywood upbringing." —Kirkus Reviews

"Definitely not the usual culinary memoir, this is a moving, tell-all story of survival, resilience—and the healing power of food.” —Barbara Fairchild, Editor, Bon Appétit Magazine

"A brave, delicious, and often darkly funny tale of growing up in the Hollywood of the 60’s and 70's, Rottenkid is Brigit’s story of breaking free from parental disapproval and finding herself. I loved reading this deftly crafted, insightful memoir by my childhood friend.” —Cecilia Peck, Emmy-nominated filmmaker; daughter of Gregory Peck

“Brigit Binns has written a powerful memoir of a childhood of Hollywood privilege among the offspring of other household names in competition with her father’s bottle and a wicked mother right out of Disney. 'Born with a silver spoon in my mouth and a knife in my back,' somehow her precocious, painful, and randy youth led her to a life of sophistication as she waded through ill-fitting men and learned how to cook. She has gone on to author numerous cookbooks that I count as indispensable. What a tasty read.” —“Meathead” Goldwyn, Hedonism Evangelist and BBQ Whisperer and author of NY Times bestseller Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling, and proprietor of the world’s most popular BBQ and grilling website, AmazingRibs.com

"A zippy, engaging, and sometimes infuriating story about growing up in Hollywood with neglectful parents. Binns includes dishy bits about stars and politicians, and I am still picturing a certain celebrity’s toupee floating in the family swimming pool. But this memoir is also about becoming an adult, and how the author made her way by trial and error, without role models. If you’re into food, you’ll find plenty of mouthwatering descriptions of what the author cooked with aplomb in London and on the Spanish coast, for dinner parties and eventually as a caterer and cookbook author.” —Dianne Jacob, author of Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and More

"There’s no shortage of childhood trauma on display in Brigit Binns’ disarmingly honest Rottenkid. But with the knowledge that the author scripted, of all things, a Hollywood ending for herself, we’re able to enjoy the gallows humor and novelist’s eye for telling detail that enliven every page. For all its celebrity cameos (Henry Fonda! Fred Astaire!) and privileged settings (including a memorable stretch at boarding school), at its core, this is the story of a search for self amid the ruins of a lavishly dysfunctional family. You don’t have to be a Coppola to relate.” —Andrew Friedman, author The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food, and Chefs, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: How Food Lovers, Free Spirits, Misfits and Wanderers Created a New American Profession

“A brutally honest and sometimes painful look at growing up in a truly dysfunctional family that will have you crying one moment and laughing the next. Celebrated cookbook author and 'rottenkid' Brigit Binns has the courage to bare her soul while conjuring up enticing recipes in a memoir peppered with Hollywood stars, politicians, boarding schools, and travel abroad that are simmered together in a pressure cooker to create a real page turner.” —Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen, The World Wine Guys; Authors of Red Wine, Gourmand International’s Best Wine Book in the World 

"Brigit’s delicious, darkly humorous memoir is written with such tangible introspection and self-awareness I was swept along with her on the journey. Always fearless and accountable, my friend has manifested self-confidence in life with such grace. The notion that this 'Rottenkid' would never make it is probably the biggest irony for the disapproving mother who held that opinion. Out of a wildly dysfunctional family, this memoir is a triumph of spirit, generously served." —June Lockhart-Triolo, freelance photographer, graphic artist, daughter of June Lockhart (Lassie’s “mom”)

Praise for The Relaxed Kitchen: How To Entertain with Casual Elegance and Never Lose Your Mind, Incinerate the Souffle, or Murder the Guests

“It’s a trip around the world. It’s a trip through life. Not only will The Relaxed Kitchen alter the way you cook, it may just alter the way you think—about food and about you. Don’t miss this one!” —Linda Ellerbee, author of Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table

“The Relaxed Kitchen opens with a promise, and then keeps it: Using this cookbook, you will enjoy your kitchen and culinary life with friends a lot more, and so will they!” —Jeremiah Tower, author of California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution

From the Publisher

2024-01-02
Binns offers a memoir about reckoning with the legacy of difficult parents.

The author grew up in Los Angeles in the 1960s, the daughter of actor Edward Binns and his second wife, Marcia Legere Binns, described as the “ultimate sophisticate.” Childhood summers were spent on the ranches and beaches of the local Hollister family, descendants of early white California settlers; her schoolmates and playmates were children of Hollywood stars. After her parents’ marriage disintegrated when she was 13, her father returned to the East Coast, leaving her with her mother, who, according to the author, “always had to have someone to hate, and it was my turn.” Binns includes letters and transcripts of clandestinely recorded phone calls that show her mother as being full of vitriol and self-importance. The author rebelled: “At home I will be feral; elsewhere, I’ll be jocular and engaging.” In 1972, she was sent to the progressive Verde Valley boarding school in Sedona, Arizona. The school’s emphasis on cultural understanding and immersion in the natural world taught her important lessons about how persistence can help to overcome limitations. This wisdom paid off in her college years, in her world travels, and the 1980s world of Wall Street, where she worked for Morgan Stanley. Her wealthy way of life as the wife of a British Morgan Stanley trader collapsed when he lost his job; she returned to Los Angeles to build an independent existence based on her love of food and prose, resulting in a satisfying career as a culinary writer. Binns’ self-aware and wry writing will interest readers who grew up with angry, self-involved parents, but she also keenly explores the difficult childhoods of both Edward and Marcia in order to better understand them. Through therapy, she managed to find a sense of peace, which she expresses engagingly: “It was this hard work, over months, that finally allowed me to cast aside my mother’s scathing opinions of me and emerge with a growing smidgeon of self-esteem. The elephant that had been squatting on my shoulders for decades had disappeared.”

A grounded remembrance of an outwardly glittering Hollywood upbringing.

Kirkus Reviews