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Excellent Ingredients, Half-Baked
This should have been a great read. The topic is facscinating, the 'follow along with the CIA cirriculum' approach perfect in theory, yet the final result is merely lukewarm. Some chapters, like those on the basic skills class and front of the house service, are playful and interesting, but far too many get lost in undermotivated detail and a lack of meaningful context. The text continually goes off on random tangents into classmates' histories or the author's personal concerns. The ongoing, awestruck coverage of the CIA's President is simply goofy, but further damages the author's credibility. The author makes much of his becoming a real cook, but perhaps needed to focus a little more on becoming an accomplished writer. There is much of interest here for anyone interested in professional cooking, but it's disappointingly haphazard -- with a little more planning and organization this book could have really soared. Absolutely Amazing! I read Soul of a Chef first before I heard about this book. I was so happy to see it in an airport bookstore before boarding my flight cross-country. I got over half way through it by landing and then took it to the beach to finish the rest there. Apparently a buddy of mine saw my copy, started reading, and got hooked too! It is such a great book. Between the two Ruhlman books I have read, I am overjoyed and will buy every book he writes. Well done and very inspiring. Absolutely Delightful Have a dream about being a chef? All right, how about one of those singing-in-the-shower kind of fantasies when you're chopping up the evening vegetables? Whether you're really serious about becoming a culinary professional, or you're just starting to nibble around the edges of the idea of making a career change, or you're just addicted to The Food Network, this is the book for you. Utterly engaging prose, clear and concise reportage and a deep passion for cooking elevate Ruhlman's book to the level of a joyous classic. You'll know what you really want out of cooking when you're finished. Enjoyable read I love cooking and baking, so it was quite interesting to learn more about the ins and outs of the CIA and to hear of a pseudo-student's perspective of the experience. Michael Ruhlman has an easy-to-read, captivating writing style and, especially toward the end, he was quite entertaining (e.g., the Cro-Magnon part). Not only does the author do a great job at depicting the different personalities of his teachers and classmates, he is also skilled at conveying the true passion and dedication of these and other cooks. It would have been even better if he were there as a full-fledged student so he could write (and we could read) about the real thing. Beginning the journey toward perfection In this book and its sequel, "The Soul of a Chef", Michael Ruhlman goes well beyond cooking and into a philosophical, sociological and psychological investigation of the drive to be world class. I'm with Ruhlman in that I find just about any activity fascinating if it's being taken to the highest level. I found myself drawing parallels between the chef/students in these books and the professor/students I hang out with in my academic career. What all the characters in these books share with other world class scholars, artists or craftsmen is their relentless pursuit of knowledge, tied to experimentation. What separates the best from the rest seems to be a liberal dose of creativity and the project management skills to refine it to reality, on top of the necessary analytical skills and hard work. Oh, and don't forget the obsession. The fact that the topic is food simply adds to the pleasure, because the charactes are studying sourdough starters, pale vs. dark roux for brown sauce, clarity in stocks, plating galantines, balancing menus, conserving waste, and other fascinating topics. Along the way, Ruhlman brings you into these discussions with the masters and their students. The book's organization simply follows the CIA's curriculum from introductory culinary math (sounds easy) through basic skills (taxing), bread and pastry (appears cerebral), culminating with service in real restaurants (seems to be back breaking). It's a natural organization, and the build up to real cooking builds some tension. What's even more fun is seeing how Ruhman gets swept away with the challenge of cooking, to the point where he develops his own tough-guy chef mentality. As a sociologist, his methodology might be questionable, but as an author and proponent of the craft of cooking, he's at the top of his game. Although the sequel, "The Soul of a Chef", is subtitled "The Journey toward Perfection", the trip really starts here in this tighter, more focused book. Ruhlman continues this study of the quest for perfection in his latest book, "Wooden Boats". | |
