COMING FALL 2026 · A MEMOIR BY SUSANNE DILLINGHAM

Secret Ingredients

 of Life 

Cover of Secret Ingredients of Life by chef and author Susanne Dillingham.

A Memoir of Identity, Appetite, and the Hunger for Home

INSIDE THE BOOK

a Dream Made Real

Family, Italy, &

Chef Susanne Dillingham at a NASCAR event during her years working as a private chef.
Chef Susanne Dillingham overlooking a harbor in Italy during her culinary travels.
Chef Susanne Dillingham presenting a cake at an outdoor culinary gathering in North Carolina.

Adopted at just three days old, she spent years carrying a hunger she couldn't name — until a kitchen in Florence gave her a language for it. Not in words… in heat, in dough, and in the way a table full of people suddenly feels like home. She returned and built something real from that new foundation: a business, a table, and a life centered on bringing people together in the ways that truly matter.

Secret Ingredients of Life is the story of what it takes to stop searching and start building.

If you've ever felt that hunger — you'll recognize yourself in these pages.

Some people are born knowing where they belong.

Susanne wasn't one of them.

The book is almost here.

Reserve your copy and be first in line.

The Woman Behind the Book

Chef Susanne on her farm in Gold Hill, NC

Susanne Dillingham is a Florence-trained private chef and founder of The Tiny Chef — nearly two decades of cooking for clients who wanted more than a meal, and a brand built on the belief that the best tables hold people in ways words can't.

This is her story.

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WHAT’S WAITING FOR YOU:

  • A free recipe, sent the moment you reserve.

  • A new one every month until the book drops.

  • A seat at our live tiramisu class on September 27.

  • First word on everything — the cover, the countdown, and the moment your copy is ready to order.