What happens at your kitchen table can become the blueprint for everything you are. Did you sit alone or with people you loved? Was it fun or tense? Was someone working hard to stop you noticing someone else's mood?

Did you take it for granted, or know someone had busted their balls to make it happen? Was the food thoughtful and delicious, or bland and functional? Was the plate laid down with love or anger?

It all matters. It all stays with us.

I think about this every single day.

For years, Dawn O’Porter thought that fulfilment lived somewhere glamorous: in success, recognition, and a life turned up to full volume. Somewhere between grieving loss, learning to cook something vaguely nutritious, Hollywood dreams, raising children, writing bestselling fiction – and occasionally eating Wotsits for dinner – Dawn discovered that the real spotlight wasn’t out there. It was actually here, in her kitchen, where daily rhythms and chaos, small disappointments and big wins played out, often erupting into a raucous party. Through the meals that nourished, impressed or perhaps sometimes barely registered, food became her stage, where she made sense of life and discovered her love language.

Hungry Eyes is a memoir of identity, tracing a path through the moments and meals that shape who we become, and the ingredients we use to gradually build a life. Dawn explores the lifelong pressure to ‘bring something to the table’, and how it determines who we think we are.

What happens when we finally take our seat at our own table – and what if the thing you’ve been chasing your whole life was already sitting right there?