Anthony Bourdain once noted, “Whatever Jen Agg says is worth listening to.” Which is why you’ll want to be there when Wordfest presents this late summer experience with Agg celebrating her new memoir, Table Boss: How to Build a Restaurant When Your Life Falls Apart (A Love Story).
If you haven’t been lucky enough to dine at one of Agg’s Michelin-cailbre restaurants, you might have seen her delivering tough love and business-saving solutions as the new co-host of Food Network’s Restaurant Impossible: Last Call.
Wordfest’s conversation will be hosted by Calgary celebrity chefs Connie DeSousa & John Jackson (CHARCUT) and includes an audience Q & A and book signing. Owl’s Nest Books will be serving up Table Boss, along with Agg’s previous bestseller, I Hear She’s a Real Bitch.
Connie DeSousa & John Jackson
Delicious Conversation
Libations Bar, with non-alcoholic options
Audience Q&A
Book Signing
75 minutes. No intermission
Jen Agg is a restaurateur in Toronto, owner of Bar Vendetta, Grey Gardens, Rhum Corner, Le Swan, General Public, and Cocktail Bar. She’s the author of I Hear She’s a Real Bitch. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times, and more.
“Table Boss is a tender memoir of marriage through sickness and health; a meditation on ambition, power and business; a primer on how to conduct oneself as a woman in a man’s world; a super-compelling and very funny book that will keep you reading long past bedtime.” –Laurie Woolever
From the beloved restaurateur behind The Black Hoof, Grey Gardens, and General Public, as well as the bestselling author of I Hear She’s a Real Bitch, comes a hilarious, heartbreaking look at love, success, and, most importantly, good lighting.
Jen Agg had a thriving restaurant group, a beautiful marriage to a handsome artist husband, and extremely good skin. If anyone could give advice on living well in your forties, it was her. Then, disaster struck. As a global pandemic threw the restaurant business into chaos, Agg’s husband, Roland, suffered a catastrophic stroke.
In her new memoir, Agg captures what it felt like to rethink everything just when she thought it was all working out as she’d planned. Table Boss makes you understand what Anthony Bourdain loved about her—her singular combination of wry humour, unflinching honesty, and real depth. Readers will love the book for its painful rendering of what it’s like to care for a loved one through a health nightmare, its witty analysis of restaurant culture, and its insights into building a business on your own terms.
Connie DeSousa & John Jackson
Delicious Conversation
Libations Bar, with non-alcoholic options
Audience Q&A
Book Signing
75 minutes. No intermission
Connie DeSousa & John Jackson are award-winning chefs, restaurateurs, television personalities, and co-founders of CHAR Hospitality Group, one of Canada’s most respected independent restaurant groups. Known for their signature approach to live-fire cooking, whole-animal butchery, and celebrating Alberta’s producers, they are the creative force behind acclaimed concepts including CHARCUT, charbar, Connie & John’s Pizza, and several other hospitality ventures.
Together, they have represented Canada on the international culinary stage, earned numerous national restaurant accolades, and appeared on multiple Food Network series, most recently competing as Team Canada BBQ on Pitmasters. Beyond the kitchen, they are passionate mentors, entrepreneurs, endurance athletes, and advocates for Canadian food culture, inspiring others through their relentless pursuit of excellence, resilience, and community.
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Iyarhe Nakoda Nations, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta District 6, and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.
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