Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2025

Document Type

Thesis (Access Restricted)

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

English

Committee Chair

Courtney Santo

Committee Member

Eric Schlich

Committee Member

Mark Mayer

Abstract

The Men on the Line is a memoir that explores the intersections of masculinity, labor, and identity through the lens of food and family. Raised in California’s Central Valley by a single mother and a lineage of strong-willed women, the author grows up in a world where men work until they die, and women sustain the household through tradition and food. Without a father to model manhood, he pieces together an identity from the men around him—uncles, kitchen coworkers, and transient father figures—while resisting the path of manual labor that seems inevitable. From watching his great-grandmother command the kitchen with military precision to working back-of-house in a small-town Mexican restaurant as a teenager, he enters the chaotic world of restaurant kitchens—a realm where discipline and destruction coexist. The memoir follows his journey from underpaid line cook to fine-dining kitchens in New Orleans and New York, ultimately confronting the question of whether food is just work or something more. Through vivid storytelling and a deep reverence for the labor of cooking, The Men on the Line examines how class, family, and inheritance shape identity. At its core, it is a meditation on the weight of expectation, the search for belonging, and the tension between the work one is born into and the work one chooses.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

No access

Download

Share

COinS