What do fine art, storytelling, cooking, profanities and a $10,000 hamburger have in common? They’re all passions, qualities or experiences of Rob Chirico of Greenfield. In Chirico’s world, all of the above are grist for his mill as a self-described raconteur and foodie; author of cookbooks, mystery novels, non-fiction books about cocktails and swear words; and the one-time winner of a $10,000 prize for “building a better burger” in the Sutter Home Build a Better Burger contest. The burger in question is a lamb burger served in pita bread and smothered with chutney, which is chock-full of mint, cilantro, jalapenos, ginger and other tasty goodies.

Spoiler alert! You will not get that recipe today. For that, you will have to go to Chirico’s latest cookbook, “Not My Mother’s Kitchen: Rediscovering Italian-American Cooking Through Stories and Recipes.” The book is a charming, humorous cookbook-as-memoir of growing up Italian in a home where his mother, now in her 90s, hated cooking and believed that Italian restaurants were where you got Italian food, and home was where you got TV dinners.