Lessons in Chemistry

Everyone is afraid of Elizabeth Zott. Some fear her intellect, some fear the sharply pointed pencil she keeps in her hair, and some fear the fourteen-inch knife from her purse (after all, every self-respecting cook uses only their own knives). A quirky twist of fate brought her from the Hastings Research Institute, where she dreamed of studying abiogenesis (the theory of life arising from inorganic matter), to television, where she hosts the country's most popular cooking show “Dinner at Six.” “Cooking is chemistry,” she says. “And chemistry is life. It gives us the opportunity to change everything, including ourselves.” Meanwhile, her five-year-old daughter Madeline, growing up under the watchful eye of a mine detection dog named Six-Thirty, is trying to find Nabokov and Norman Mailer in the school library, as well as build a family tree that must include a soon-to-be Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Calvin Evans, a fairy godmother, a grandfather in a striped prison jumpsuit, and a grandmother hiding from the tax police in Brazil...
In the fall of 2023, Apple TV+ released a screen adaptation of the novel. The lead role was played by Brie Larson (“Captain Marvel”), who also served as a producer. The series received ten nominations for the Emmy award (winning in one category) and two nominations for the Golden Globe.