If you have ever dreamed of going to culinary school or wondered what it would be like, have I got the book for you. The Making of a Chef takes you to culinary school and walks you though the classes you'll find yourself in, the techniques you'll learn, and the finger condoms you'll have to wear after cutting yourself on your first day in a skills class (just me? No, you'd do it too, you know it).
The Making of a Chef is not just about any culinary school though. Food writer Michael Ruhlman went to the best one in the country, The Culinary Institute of America, also known as the CIA. In between the stories of cutting vegetables and making soup and learning to work on a line, Ruhlman introduces us to a cast of wacky and amazing characters, fellow students and professors, the people who fill the classrooms, hallways, and kitchens of the cooking school.
This incredibly well-rounded non-fiction tale of the journey to being a professional chef just made me hungry for more. More food books. More understanding of the foods I cook and eat. And more from Michael Ruhlman.
I listened to the audiobook on this one, narrated by Jeff Riggenbach. He's very professional, and he does well with the French phrases that litter any tale of working in a kitchen, but he doesn't seem to have passion for food writing. Maybe it's just a detachment that comes from training, but this is a memoir, and I always prefer a memoir read by the author. It's not bad, but I do feel like some of the enthusiasm is lost.
But this book is amazing. I have a whole new appreciation for what professional cooks have to go through on a daily basis, and even what they have to go through to get the job in the first place. Also, I have a new, deep respect for stock. I have been doing it all wrong, and now I know not just how wrong I was but why it was wrong.
Interested in cooking school, chef memoirs, or just want to know everything there is to know about flavor? Then this book is a must read. The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America is filled with techniques that will make you a better cook, emotions that will make you a better restaurant guest, and compassionate stories of fellow humans that will make you a better person.