Daria Lavelle, the Ukrainian-born, New York-raised author behind the acclaimed debut novel Aftertaste, joined Table Talk this week to discuss her journey as a writer, the intersections of food and grief in fiction, and her lifelong fascination with the uncanny.
Lavelle’s literary career is quickly gaining momentum, with her short stories previously appearing in publications such as The Deadlands and Dread Machine. In her first novel, she explores themes of identity, memory, and cultural inheritance, weaving elements of magical realism into a narrative rooted in culinary tradition.
In conversation with host Olivia Potts, Lavelle reflected on her early years in Kyiv and her family’s move to the United States. She shared an amusing anecdote about her inexplicable childhood obsession with olives—a curiosity that now seems almost prophetic, given her novel’s central preoccupation with food as metaphor.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but food has always been a way I made sense of the world,” Lavelle said. “In Aftertaste, I wanted to explore how what we eat—or don’t eat—can become a language for grief, for desire, even for fear.”
Lavelle also spoke candidly about the challenges of establishing a writing career in New York, balancing part-time jobs while submitting stories to literary magazines. The conversation turned toward the craft of food writing, with Lavelle noting the difficulty of portraying meals and ingredients without falling into cliché.
“It’s easy for food writing to feel indulgent or overly sentimental,” she said. “But if you treat food as an emotional register, as something that holds tension or reveals character, it becomes much more layered.”
The full interview is available to stream now. Lavelle’s novel Aftertaste is out in bookstores nationwide.
