In My Kitchen Wars, Dorothy Lyman portrays food writer Betty Fussell as she dishes out lessons learned, both in and out of the kitchen, during the course of an unusual thirty-year marriage. As Fussell’s culinary skills go from hot dogs to lobster bisque, her marriage to distinguished historian Paul Fussell seems to crumble. Shedding the role of 1950s faculty wife, Fussell emerges as an independent woman in conflict with her husband’s expectation of a wife. Separate roles, love affairs and accomplishments ultimately drive wife and husband to separation.