Kitchens of the Great Midwest is the debut novel of American author and producer J. Ryan Stradal, published in July 2015 by Viking Press.

The novel centers around Eva, a culinary prodigy born with a “once-in-a-generation palate” to a chef father and a sommelier mother.

[1] Nora Pouillon of The Washington Post wrote that Kitchens of the Great Midwest invokes the "strong interplay among food, family and our most cherished memories.

"[2] Critic Dawn Drzal of The New York Times writes that, as the novel's name would suggest, Kitchens of the Great Midwest ultimately is a "gastronomic portrait" of the American Midwest, "from the rock bottom realities of microwave burritos and Subway 'sandwich artists' through the smelly artisanal tradition of lutefisk, the Scripture-based Resurrection rolls at county fair baking contests and the self-righteous antics of food purists.

In her New York Times review, Drzal called it a "colorful, character-driven story" with "a narrative that keeps readers turning the pages too fast to realize just how ingenious they are.