Today’s world-renowned chef, author, TV personality, and entrepreneur, Erin French, was born in 1981 to Deanna L. Richardson and David J. Richardson. Erin spent her childhood with her parents and little sister Alicia in a small town in Maine. Erin’s journey to becoming a successful personality has not been easy, as she’s seen lots of struggles in her life. Let’s dive into Erin French’s Net Worth and income sources details.
Erin French’s Early Life
The owner of The Lost Kitchen hasn’t had an easy way of becoming a renowned chef. Erin French was born and raised in Freedom by a very loving and supportive family.
She was always fascinated and felt close to her roots while cooking for others, as during her childhood, she would spend most of her time at her father’s diner, The Ridge Top Restaurant.
The family restaurant located at 6 Knox, Maine, has a great influence on her new restaurant as it was her family’s diner that made her fall in love with food; she shared how her favorite memory about her childhood was spending time in the diner and grabbing fresh nutmeg laced donuts.
She wanted to study medicine
Despite Erin’s love for cooking and food, the Culinary world wasn’t her first career choice. She wanted to pursue her career in medicine and hence left to study medicine at Northeastern University in Boston. While Erin was just in the second year of her medical journey, Erin got pregnant by a guy at high school. The teen-to-be mom couldn’t handle the pressure and embarrassment and hence dropped out from her medical journey.
Erin French Got Pregnant with a high school boyfriend
Erin dropped her dream of becoming a doctor right away when she found out about her pregnancy. She had already completed two and half years of studies in Boston and was scared and embarrassed to be a single parent of a child at just 20.
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Hence, she moved back to her hometown to her parents to break the heart-wrenching news with her family. Fortunately, Erin’s family was extremely supportive of her and was happy to welcome a child into the family. French also got the opportunity to start her career as a chef as her mother was forever present to look at her son Jaim.
Found Love again and got married
The single mother had had enough challenges and was seeking a partner who would provide her with the comfort, love, and assurance that she deserved. Around 2011, Erin found love in Todd French, who was much older than her. Todd accepted Jaim as his son, and the couple soon got married and started their new journey as a married couple.
Then Erin French opened the Lost Kitchen in 2012
Erin and her then-husband Todd opened a restaurant in 2012 and named it ‘The Lost Kitchen’ in a restored old bank building in downtown Belfast.
Erin loved calling people over and hosting a food party. She would ensure that the food people enjoyed had health benefits as well. Her cooking style, a fusion of healthy food options and good taste, and beautiful personality quickly became popular, which made the couple accumulate some money, which was invested in a restaurant.
Marital Problem led To addiction the same year:
Everything was going okay, and just when Erin was almost at the height of her career, her marriage started falling apart. “The Lost Kitchen” host got addicted to drugs as she would try numerous pills at once to get relief from the pain she received from the broken relationship.
Erin revealed in her book, which was published in 2017, that she went into severe depression and anxiety due to Todd’s abusive and dominating behavior.
The problems seemed to never end in Erin’s life as she had seen hard days before. She mentioned how Tod made her feel dumb and immature in her memoir, and drugs were the only thing that could keep her sane.
Check herself into Rehab in 2013 and got clean
Erin’s ambition couldn’t let her be a drug addict for long as she soon got herself into rehab to restart her life. She took two weeks of treatment and soon won the battle with drugs. She started taking things positively and had a slight hope that her husband wasn’t really a bad person.
Divorce and son Jaim’s custody Battle.
Not until two weeks into her rehab journey did she get a major reality check from her husband, as her husband had closed her hard-earned restaurant and taken custody of her son Jaim without her approval. She divorced Todd in 2013 and lost her restaurant the same year. Fortunately, French got to keep her biggest wealth with her, her son Jaim, as the court gave her custody. Erin French’s son Jaim is 20 years as of 2024.
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She started the Restaurant again in 2014.
Devastation followed Erin everywhere, but it wasn’t the first time she had faced challenges, and she very well knew ways of tackling them. With nowhere else to be around, Erin French moved to her parent’s house once again and started cooking in a small cabin on her parents’ land.
It was just a restaurant that was taken away from her, but the skill remained. And with the same skills, she was able to open ‘The Lost Kitchen’ once again.
James Beard Award in 2016
Erin’s culinary talent is no mystery, and the James Beard Award is a recognition to all the culinary leaders and the food media industry, which is also considered a prestigious award.
The Lost Kitchen wrote how they’re speechless that Erin has been included in the James Beard list of semi-finalists for Best Chef Northeast and can’t be thankful enough for joy and honor in 2016 via a Facebook post.
French also added that she would just continue to cook the only way she knows-with wicked good ingredients and a hell of a lot of love.
Got her own TV show, “The Lost Kitchen,” in 2021
After the huge success of ‘The Lost Kitchen’ in Maine, it was time for the whole world to witness her culinary skills as Erin was offered her own TV show on Discovery+, which would feature her as a lead character and her Kitchen.
The show first premiered on January 3, 2021, and has already aired its three seasons. The show was basically bringing people from around the world together and preparing locally sourced food while enjoying the process and with love.
Erin French Cook Books:
Aside from being a well-renowned chef and entrepreneur, she is also a wonderful author. She has written several books regarding her journey to becoming a chef, books with recipes, her restaurant, and many more.
You can Buy Erin French’s cookbooks from Amazon or read them online on Kindle or Google Books. The cost of Erin’s book on Amazon and other platforms ranges from $23-$26, whereas you can get the signed hard copy from her website at $45.
The Lost Kitchen: Recipes and a Good Life Found in Freedom, Maine: A Cookbook (2017).
The Lost Kitchen is one of the first books written by Erin in 2017. It is a cookbook that consists of 100 recipes and gives an idea about how it is cooked in four seasons in Maine.
The book provides a pure approach to how one can cook food with local resources, and hence, her food has been referred to as a beautiful combination of simplicity and honesty. This Erin French’s Cookbook is a must-have book for cooking enthusiasts and costs $25 per copy.
Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch (2021)
Finding Freedom in the Lost Kitchen talks about the role of food in her life and the journey of her adopting culinary skills. She explains her childhood, her first high school love, and the struggle of getting pregnant in her teens.
She takes the readers on a roller coaster ride of emotions on how unlucky she’s been in her love life and how she dealt with depression, anxiety, and her rehab journey.
The book is about the power of determination and gaining oneself back as Erin talks about the freedom she gained after ‘The Lost Kitchen’.The signed copy of the book costs $40 per copy.
Big Heart Little Stove: Bringing Home Meals and Moments from The Lost Kitchen(2023)
Big Heart Little Stove is a cookbook that gives exposure to more than 75 signature recipes connected to her roots. Erin French’s cookbook is more than just a cookbook as it explains how one can create joy and connection around the table and how one can make every cooking meaningful.
It provides insights from cooking recipes and presentation ideas to thoughtful gestures. It is definitely a must-read and costs $26 per copy.
How much does it cost to eat in Erin French “The Lost Kitchen”
The real hassle isn’t about the price in The Lost Kitchen as it is about getting a reservation here as the kitchen is a 40 seat restaurant and gets hundreds of reservations every day. As for the price, the quality and authentic food of Lost Kitchen costs approximately $250 per person, which includes tax, gratuity, and beverages. One can enjoy a multi-course dinner for a night with that price.
Erin French Net Worth:
The renowned chef, entrepreneur, author, and TV star has been able to accumulate some net worth from her various income sources.
While Erin’s major source of income is from her Kitchen, her books have also done good in the market as approximately 40,000 copies of her book were sold on Amazon. Even her TV show ‘The Lost Kitchen’ was a massive hit and has 3
seasons already. Keeping all her income sources in mind, Erin French’s net worth is estimated to be $2 million as of 2024 and rising.
The Lost Kitchen is one of the first books written by Erin in 2017. It is a cookbook that consists of 100 recipes and gives an idea about how it is cooked in four seasons in Maine.
The book provides a pure approach to how one can cook food with local resources, and hence, her food has been referred to as a beautiful combination of simplicity and honesty. This is a must-have book for cooking enthusiasts and costs $45 per signed copy.
Reference:
https://findthelostkitchen.com/products/the-lost-kitchen-cookbook-by-erin-french-signed-copy https://people.com/food/the-lost-kitchen-erin-french-memoir-finding-freedom-details-struggle-wi th-addiction/
https://www.today.com/today/amp/tdna213958
https://mentoringmumof2bookreviews.home.blog/2021/06/21/finding-freedom-in-the-lost-kitche n-by-erin-french/