USES FOR OBSESSION by Ben Shewry
SKU: 98472925244

USES FOR OBSESSION by Ben Shewry

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USES FOR OBSESSION by Ben ShewryAn intimate, searing and hopeful memoir meets manifesto that reframes the way we think about restaurants, cooking, hospitality, leadership and humanity from one of the most respected chefs in the world. Chef and restaurateur Ben Shewry knows obsession well. Whether it's crispy edged lasagne, saltwater crocodile ribs or the perfect potato, obsession is what motivates him and what makes him tick. It's also what has propelled his Melbourne restaurant

An intimate, searing and hopeful memoir meets manifesto that reframes the way we think about restaurants, cooking, hospitality, leadership and humanity from one of the most respected chefs in the world.

Chef and restaurateur Ben Shewry knows obsession well. Whether it's crispy-edged lasagne, saltwater crocodile ribs or the perfect potato, obsession is what motivates him and what makes him tick. It's also what has propelled his Melbourne restaurant Attica into the league of the most innovative, acclaimed dining experiences in the world, and one of the most vital in Australian history.

In this absorbing and wide-ranging memoir meets manifesto, Shewry applies his sometimes searing, sometimes comic eye to creative freedom in the kitchen, food journalism, sexism in hospitality, the fraud of the farm-to-table sustainability ethos, the cult of the chef, cooking as muse and the legendary Family Bolognese.

Raised on a farm in a close-knit rural New Zealand family, he shares how a childhood surrounded by nature and a reverence for First People's cultures has influenced his work, the values he lives by, and the meticulous, inventive multi-course menu that is synonymous with Attica. Uses for Obsession also tells the intimate, desperate story of how Attica survived 262 days with an empty dining room. How, during a time of epic hospitality transformation, it morphed into a takeaway food business, a merch shop and a summer camp. He was told it couldn't be done and that doubt both tortured and drove him.

At its heart, this is a positive story, an antidote to the macho chef culture that thrives on old ideas about leadership and success. Shewry prosecutes the compelling case for a new way forward. A bold blueprint for the restaurant - and workplace - of the future. One built on kindness, community, truth and a commitment to never giving up.
Biographical note

Ben Shewry is an internationally renowned chef, restaurateur, husband, father, son, brother, friend and creative obsessive. He tries to be direct, honest, respectful, loving, silly, resilient and real. His CV includes owner of Attica in Melbourne's inner suburban Ripponlea (since 2015), writer of two books (Origin in 2012 and Uses for Obsession in 2024), semi-pro playlist builder, amateur filmmaker, part-time photographer and full-time renovator. He also holds the world record for desperate Covid side hustles.
'Powerful, vulnerable, intense, full of love and some darkness too.'
Matty Matheson, chef, author, producer and actor

Pages: 272
Dimension: 254mm X 153mm

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SKU: 98472925244

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erika
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They are good
They were really good with nice flavor just not sour
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paige alexander
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slimwriter
Birmingham, US
★★★★★ 2
Not sour
Not really sour at all so it’s a pretty disappointing candy.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2026
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Moon Riley
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Mr. Paul A. Ackermann
Boise, US
★★★★★ 5
Dude, it's not just a horror novel
Format: Paperback
This is to the previous reviewer (C. Scanlan). If this is just a horror novel, it failed miserably. It is not exactly a blood ’n gore thriller. Compared to Stephen King, it is pretty tame. What puts the horror in this book is that it is social commentary. Mary Shelly is not just trying to scare us. It is more than just a “Friday the 13th” movie. Mary Shelly is delivering a message. It seems that everyone understands this except this reviewer. There have been several different interpretations of the novel (see [...] for 10 different meanings of the novel). ICE takes the interpretation that Shelly is saying science can go too far. This is a perfectly valid interpretation. One can disagree with this interpretation but let’s not resort to name calling and personal attacks – that those who hold such an interpretation are doing a “low level attempt to cash in on home schooling Christian paranoia and fear of health care” or believe that “AIDS [is] the fruit of sin”. My wife and I are Catholic parents and we sent our children to public schools He mocks the idea of a secular fundamentalist but then demonstrates what that is. A religious fundamentalist sees anyone who disagrees with him as being of the devil. A secular fundamentalist sees anyone who disagrees with him as guilty of “brainwashing” others. In both cases, true dialogue is impossible. Another thing that a fundamentalist does is that he sees things in opposite extremes. If you are warning of the dangers of trusting too much in science then you must be against science. There is no middle ground for the fundamentalist. If you see that science can sometimes go too far then that means you are against health care. But this is a non-sequitur. Nielson writes “Frankenstein’s placing of the creation of life within the scientific method first destroys the unrepeatability and systematically eliminates the other elements [of hope, love, beauty, creativity and sacrifice]”. Nielson is not criticizing the scientific method in total. He is only criticizing it in the creation of life. The reviewer writes “He thereby easily and explicitly condemns the whole process and philosophy of the scientific method”. But Nielson is not condemning the whole process of the scientific method. He is only condemning it in the creation of life. The reviewer then mocks the credentials of the critics in the book - “So who are these essayists superior to Norton's and Oxfords and free of deconstructionist feminist secular fundamentalism, experts so august Ignatius should want them mentioned on their product page yet are nowhere to be seen?” But this game can be played both ways. What are the credentials of this reviewer? Is this reviewer so august as to challenge these essayists? Again, this is merely an ad-hominem attack. I really do not care who has the best credentials. What matters is who makes sense. Sometimes intellectuals can make the dumbest claims. Read Paul Johnson’s book, “Intellectuals” (http://www.amazon.com/Intellectuals-Marx-Tolstoy-Sartre-Chomsky/dp/0061253170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421862888&sr=8-1&keywords=intellectuals). He compares the essayists unfavorably to “good solid Roman Catholic moral theology” from the likes of Richard A. McCormick S.J., who “is the renowned leader of Roman Catholic Moral Theology in the field of bioethics in the USA.” He overlooks the fact that A. McCormick S.J. has dissented from teachings of the Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI over contraception. The “renowned leader” in the Catholic Church in morality is first and foremost the pope. Since Richard A. McCormick has contradicted the popes, he cannot be a good solid Catholic theologian. Mary Shelly lived right after the Enlightenment – man is the measure of all things. She lived at a time when people believed that science will solve all our problems. This is called scientism. ICE contends that Shelly is saying that we may be expecting too much from science. It does not mean that Shelly was saying that we should reject science. And it does not mean that Shelly believes that we should go back to the Catholic faith. In fact, ICE acknowledges that Shelly was an anti-Catholic. But the Church believes that the kernel of truth can be found in others, even in anti-Catholics. This is part of the Catholic tradition. St Augustine learned from Plato and St Aquinas learned from Aristotle. ICE would take that kernel of truth and expound that with the fullness of the Catholic faith. You may disagree with the Catholic faith, or with ICE looking at Shelly’s book from a Catholic perspective. But this is at least as a legitimate an interpretation as any other. In fact, this interpretation seems closer to the truth than the others. This interpretation is the traditional interpretation, which means that it goes back further to Shelly’s time than the modern interpretations, and is therefore less likely to be in error. BTW, the reviewer wrote that “Opus Dei right wing publishing (or reprint) house is selling this novel is to milk the home school market and to support its own bizarre bio-ethical ideology”. This is factually wrong. The company that publishes Opus Dei’s books is Sceptre. But the publisher of ICE is Ignatius Press.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2015

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