Krys Malcolm Belc Publishes New Memoir on Food and Family

Krys Malcolm Belc's second memoir, 'What I Made for Dinner,' explores his relationship with food preparation and family nourishment. Following his 2021 debut 'The Natural Mother of the Child,' which focused on LGBTQ+ family-making, the new book traces Belc's life through cooking, including the early COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with Vogue, Belc discusses celebrating publication day with a banana chocolate-chip cake adapted from Melissa Clark, teaching his four children to cook, and the differences between his two memoirs. He notes feeling calmer the second time, with more targeted support from writer friends. Belc distinguishes cooking as a dopamine-driven accomplishment from writing as a tortured process. On feeding kids, he argues it's fine for young children to have restricted diets, citing his wife Anna's upbringing with limited food access yet an expansive adult palate. Regarding the 'trans memoir' classification, Belc aims to honor predecessors like Jan Morris and Janet Mock by writing a memoir not centered on trans identity, reducing self-explanation in this book.