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How I Learned To Cook: Culinary Educations from the World's Greatest Chefs
enlarge	Authors: Kimberly Witherspoon, Peter Meehan Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Category: Book List Price: ~~$14.95~~ Buy New: $4.92 You Save: $10.03 (67%) New (30) Used (16) from $3.89 Avg. Customer Rating: 6 reviews Sales Rank: 510497 Media: Paperback Number Of Items: 1 Pages: 320 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7 Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 ISBN: 1596913851 Dewey Decimal Number: 920 EAN: 9781596913851 ASIN: 1596913851 Publication Date: October 2, 2007 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Condition: New & Unread Book Not Remainder Marked- May Have Slight Handling Wear From Bookstore Shelf- Instock For Immediate Shipping

Editorial Reviews: Product Description In this indispensable companion to the smash hit Don’t Try This at Home, forty great chefs, including Mario Batali, Eric Ripert, and Fergus Henderson, share pivotal moments of their culinary educations. Before he was a top chef, Tom Colicchio learned to love cooking while he slung burgers at a poolside snack bar. Barbara Lynch tells the story of lying her way into her first chef’s job and then needing to cook her way out of trouble in the galley kitchen of a ship at sea. Stories of mentorship abound: Rick Bayless tells the story of finally working with Julia Child, his childhood hero; Gary Danko of earning the trust of the legendary Madeleine Kamman. How I Learned to Cook is an irresistible treat, a must-have for anyone who loves food and wants a look into the lives the men and women who masterfully prepare it.

Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews... Delicious, Delicious Gossip March 11, 2008 If you love food, insights into the human experience, gossip, or just a good story, this is a delightful light read. It's perfect for reading while commuting by bus or train, indulging in literature over a good meal, soaking up while soaking in the bathtub, or delving into at bedtime. Each story is a delicious little truffle of personal experience. Some will appeal more than others to each reader, but with so many amusing and moving stories, some are bound to resonate with you. There are even useful life lessons such as Anthony Bourdain's discussion of how to pick the right dish to make for a cooking segment on a morning news and talk show (hint: Steak au Poivre is not as good a choice as it may seem on the surface), or the sudden lightbulb moment that taught Mark Bittman how to stop piling stress on himself in order to entertain guests, or (perhaps my favorite) Gabrielle Hamilton's discovery of the difference between being a talented home cook and learning to be a chef. The hardest part for me was the same trouble I've occassionally had with a box of good chocolates: restraining myself from eating it all in one, decadent sitting. For best results, read one or two bites at a time, then let your mind savor them. Good read with a few bumps along the road! October 17, 2007 3 out of 4 found this review helpful This book provides short autobiographical sketches by some of the most well known and award winning chefs of our time. It allows the reader to peek into some of the formative experiences that drew them into the culinary world. A great book for a teenager pondering on career choices and decision making. The inner motivation to go after what you want, the ability to recognize ones own boundaries, the willingness to suffer now to reach a future goal, and other such character building lessons come through clearly. The one thing I found distasteful was the inexplicable need for some of these world class chefs to frequently spew out verbal filth. I just don't understand this. Reading such chapters (thank goodness there are only a few!), I almost think that these chefs believe that the way to prove their superiority is by splashing the pages with trashy words. After reading their chapters I actually have less interest in knowing more about them or their cooking. Wicked funny tales of the dark side of the kitchen September 27, 2007 2 out of 2 found this review helpful Next to eating and cooking, one of my favorite activities is reading about food. And in the last decade or so, there has been a plethora of choices now available to Americans -- cookbooks are one of the biggest selling sectors of the publishing world, the cult of the celebrity chef is booming, and the megamarts are swarming with new and exotic foods from around the world. Along with that, the American palate has been becoming more cosmopolitan and discerning, all of this adding up a nearly insatisable demand for knowledge and interest in the art of cuisine. One aspect that I've really gotten to enjoy about life in the middle of food are the various accounts written by various chefs in the trade. There's something to be learned in these personal stories of culinary discoveries, failures and triumphs. Edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Peter Meehan, this includes more than forty stories, most of which are painfully funny, thoughtful, downright bawdy, and full of insights into what makes a chef. My favorites among the stories were those from: Anthony Bourdain -- about the horrors to be found while shilling his book across the country. Terrificly funny, and downright rude in spots. I thought he was the most foul-mouthed chef around, until I heard Gordon Ramsey in a couple of his television programs. Masaharu Morimoto -- this popular Iron Chef reveals that he had another passion besides food, namely baseball, and very nearly became a professional player in Japan. Talk about having to make choices! Tamara Murphy's tale of an early experiment in baking had me rolling and just to make sure I had indeed read it right, went back and reread it just to make sure. That's just a taste of what is in here. There are stories of irate, tantrum throwing chefs, drunk and/or drugged out line cooks, the mysteries of finally understanding an ingredient or recipe and other delights. Nearly everyone in this book are slighly on the oddball side of life, with just a little touch of craziness for good measure. Most of all, each one is very passionate about what they do, and it shows -- perhaps it is there which separate the merely good from those who make it great. One thing that I've noticed to nearly every contributor in this book is that they have an incredible hunger for knowledge and food. None of them are arrogant enough to claim that that they know it all, nor do they shy away from admitting their mistakes. That takes a lot of courage in our modern world that demands perfection above all else. Another aspect that I found interesting was that nearly all of the chefs in this book had either attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) or had been taught their craft in France in apprenticeship programs. All in all, this is a delightful gift for the foodie that you know, or perhaps the budding chef that you know. None of the stories are very long, and each one reveals an aspect of the cooking world that proves to be interesting. Others are wickedly funny, and will have you guffawing. Recommended. A lot of fun to read July 7, 2007 3 out of 3 found this review helpful I'm actually enjoying this collection of anecdotes more than I did "Don't Try This at Home" -- this is more down-to-earth and not as outrageous as the stories gathered in the first book. An excellent keep-in-the-car book for when you have five or ten minutes to kill, you can knock off a couple more chapters. This would make a great gift for someone who likes to cook or who likes to eat, and who doesn't like to eat?! Lots of Fun and A Great Buy June 22, 2007 This is a fun book. Not interviews with chefs but 5-7 page chapters written by each of them. Not so much "how I learned to cook" (which would probably be boring, anyway after about the 5th one), as "some of my adventures/experiences as a chef". I agree with the other review for the most part, but wanted to post my 5 star response based on different expectations. If you enjoy reading the experiences of some of the best chefs (and food writers) around, and enjoy a mixture of emotions (from Rick Bayless's sweet and heartfelt reflections on how Julia Child affected his life to Tony Bourdain's entertaining experiences trying to demonstrate recipes while hawking books on tv), this is a fun read--with information about food and techniques and "how to get from here to there" somewhat embedded throughout i. \ A fun glimpse into the personalities and experiences of many familiar names (nicely organized alphabetically--Ferran Adria kicks it off). I enjoyed this book very much.

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