Readers vote "Didn't You Used To Be Queenie B?" as the new book for Club Calvi!
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Author Terri-Lynne DeFino cooks up a new read for Club Calvi with "Didn't You Used To Be Queenie B?"
Club Calvi has a new book! You voted "Didn't You Used To Be Queenie B?" by Terri-Lynne DeFino as the Readers' Choice.
In a video to readers, DeFino described her book as a recipe for redemption.
"Take a celebrity chef hiding out in New Haven, Connecticut," she said. "Add a talented line cook struggling with addiction. Fold in a pinch of regret, a generous dash of penance, and a tablespoon of hope. Then whisk it all together into a cooking competition offering them both a second chance."
You can read an excerpt below, and get your copy of the book to read along with Club Calvi over the next four weeks. Please join our Facebook group to participate in our discussions.
The CBS New York Book Club focuses on books connected to the Tri-State Area in their plots and/or authors. The books may contain adult themes.
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"Didn't You Use to Be Queenie B?" by Terri-Lynne DeFino
From the publisher: Regina Benuzzi is Queenie B—a culinary goddess with Michelin Star restaurants, a bestselling cookbook empire, and multimillion-dollar TV deals. It doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous and curvaceous, with cascading black hair and signature red lips.
She had it all. Until she didn't.
After an epic fall from grace, Queenie B vanishes from the public eye, giving up everything: her husband, her son, and the fame that she'd fought to achieve. Her shows are in rerun, her restaurants still popular, but her disappearance remains a mystery to her legions of fans.
Local line cook Gale Carmichael also knows a thing or two about disaster. Newly sober and struggling, Gale's future dreams don't hold space for culinary stardom; only earning enough to get by. Broke at the end of the week, he finds himself at a local soup kitchen in one of the roughest parts of New Haven, Connecticut. But Gale quickly realizes that the food coming out of the kitchen is not your standard free meal—it is delicious and prepared with gourmet flair.
Gale doesn't recognize Regina, the soup kitchen's cranky proprietor, whose famous black mane is now streaked with gray. It's been more than ten years since Queenie B vanished into her careful new existence. But she sees Gale's talent and recognizes a brokenness in him that she knows all too well. The culinary genius in hiding takes him under her wing.
Teaching Gale, Regina's passion to create is reignited, and they both glimpse a shot at the redemption that had always seemed out of reach. When Gale is chosen to compete on the hit cooking show, Cut!, it's a turning point for them both.
It's Gale's time to shine. And that means Queenie B might just have to come out of hiding…
Terri-Lynne DeFino lives in Connecticut.
"Didn't You Used To Be Queenie B?" by Terri-Lynne DeFino (ThriftBooks) $23
Excerpt: "Didn't You Used To Be Queenie B?" by Terri-Lynne DeFino
Osvaldo is an a******. She's done as he asked; not a drink or a snort or a pill all week. This week, of all weeks! Just so he and Julian would be at her side in her triumph. Didn't that count for anything? It was only three shots. Maybe four. If he can't cut her a small break, then f*** him. How the hell is she supposed to cope when every moment, from opening ceremony to the awards, rides on her shoulders. She has to be witty and sage and beautiful, all at the same time. Everyone wants a piece of her, and she has to give it to them or fade away like every other has-been in this business. This festival is everything. Everything! A new, more dignified stage of her career. The great Queenie B is back on her game. With the success of the festival, after last year's horror, she can slow down, maybe even let go of one of her shows. PBS has been trying to make changes she is unhappy with, anyway. Co-host? No way.
Osvaldo doesn't have to take Julian and go, her beautiful boy crying, arms outstretched, right there in front of everyone. But he does, just to spite her. To punish her. Their friends, colleagues, all those wannabees pretending to be thrilled at seeing the two of them together again are now snickering as she stands on the steps of the stage. Waiting for her cue. No Oz. No Julian. Just Queenie B.
She doesn't make a scene. Queenie blows a kiss, as if Osvaldo is only taking their over-tired, special needs child out of a stressful situation. He'll go along with the story, once he hears it. He doesn't want the bad publicity any more than she does. But he won't let her see Julian again, damn him. As if he has the right to keep her from her child.
Which he does, according to the court orders.
"Queenie?"
She shakes herself out of it, shoulders back and chin up. Her heels are high, the steps are wobbly, and she's not exactly sober, but she nods to the kid wearing the headset and holding the clipboard. He points to the woman on the stage. Linda? No, Lydia. The woman PBS wants as her co-host. Lydia steps closer to the microphone.
"Few of us in the culinary world are recognized outside of it. We are big fish in small ponds, but!" She raises a finger. "Our pond is getting bigger." Laughter. A few whoops. Applause. Lydia waits. She knows how to work an audience, Queenie will give her that. "We all owe a huge debt to our keynote speaker. Not only a brilliant chef, but a charismatic woman who has been instrumental in elevating our art to celebrity status. The two-thousands will usher in amazing things for the culinary world, for all of us. And we owe it in great part to our own, our magnificent, Queenie B!"
The applause. It is dizzying. Queenie climbs the steps, the headset-kid giving her a hand. She looks amazing in her Zac Posen gown; her long hair drapes like an accessory. Her signature smile, the one made into a logo for both her shows, on cookbooks, menus, and personal stationary, sparkles in the spotlights more brilliantly than diamonds. It feeds her, this adulation. It proves them all wrong. Every relative and foster family who gave her back. Every smack and kick and curse aimed to break her. This moment validates everything. Almost everything.
Queenie takes her place center stage, waiting. Basking. A pair of attractive, young men approach from the left. Unfolding the crisp, black chef coat they carry between them, they wait on either side of her. To slip her arms into the sleeves. To cover the designer gown with the one item of clothing worn by every chef, from the prep cooks to Queenie B herself.
Arms raised over her head, she listens to the roar. Then she lowers her arms, lowers her head, and takes the bow they're all waiting for. The bow she has f****** earned.
From DIDN'T YOU USE TO BE QUEENIE B? by Terri-Lynne DeFino. Copyright © 2025 by Terri-Lynne DeFino. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
