Lucy Ridge
Fed Up
Monash University Publishing, 2026
An Australian chef’s odyssey into women in food and farming, where ethical, sustainable produce and care for Country dominate.
Disillusioned chef Lucy Ridge is sick of the barked orders, the long hours, the inappropriate comments in the male-dominated restaurant world. It’s ruining her love for cookery. So she decides to go searching for a more meaningful relationship with food.
Taking inspiration from her first female mentor, she seeks out women across the country to teach her how to grow, make, harvest and live a different kind of life, with ethical food production at the centre.
Her kitchen sojourn leads her across Australia: from harvesting bush foods with an Elder in Broome, shucking oysters near Jervis Bay and distilling gin in Darwin, to making cheese in Orange, carving pasture-raised pork near the Great Dividing Range and stomping grapes outside Hobart. As she develops a new understanding of the land and the women who work it, she is transformed.
Fed Up takes readers on a journey from paddock to plate. It prompts us to appreciate those responsible for our dinner and reminds us that passion and joy are the main ingredients of life.
About the Author
Lucy Ridge is a food writer, former chef and passionate food sustainability advocate living on Ngunnawal/Ngambri country. She has been published widely, including in The Guardian. Fed Up is her debut book.
