Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School Review
Katherine Darling is a young woman living in NYC in the publishing business. One day she decides that she wants to go to culinary school and hone the skills that she was introduced to in her family kitchen. She comes from a family that debates over what pies to make at Thanksgiving. I do not recollect the number but believe that there would be about 4-5 different pies served-although her family was not a fan of turkey.
At Thanksgiving she announces her big plans to her parents and grandparents to see what the reaction would be. Who would not want a chef in their home. I would love one.
Her book chronicles her experience through culinary school, from receiving her set of knives, apron and pants, through the various lesson, making stocks, dicing vegetables, cooking poultry and fish, breads and desserts onto the more sophisticated lessons.
What I truly appreciated about the books were some of the cooking techniques she shares with her readers. Simple little tricks that one may not have an appreciation for. Of course I always welcome a selection of recipes. The recipes she included are all quite simple, just a little heavy on the calories.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys cooking or wants a little insight into the lives of culinary school and the students. One of Darling's colleagues came from Michigan, having worked in the auto industry. As a twenty something year old he leaves his wife and children behind for 6 months to pursue an education in culinary school. I loved the stories of her classmates, students who were willing to try something different and take a chance.
As a first time writer, Darling has given us a true treasure. Her combination of a few recipes, six months of culinary lessons, some tales about the French chef instructors and a wonderful use of the English language has baked up a true culinary read. Readers can hear the accent of her Gallic instructors as they critique and praise the student's progress in the kitchen.
This book will stay on my shelf for the recipes and tips she has included alone.
Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School Overview
A deliciously entertaining memoir about one woman's adventures in the student kitchens of the legendary French Culinary Institute -- flavored with celebrity chefs, eccentric characters, and mouthwatering recipes
To anyone who has ever dreamed of life in a French kitchen, imagining days filled with puff pastry and sips of vintage wine, Katherine Darling serves up a savory dose of reality in this funny, fascinating, and altogether delightful account of her time spent slaving over a hot stove, wrestling with veal calves, and cleaning fish heads at the French Culinary Institute in downtown New York City.
As she goes from clueless amateur to certified chef, Katherine and her quirky fellow students learn the secrets behind the art of French cooking and frequently find themselves the objects of scorn and ridicule as their teachers wage psychological warfare over steaming pots of bisque. The kitchen, they soon discover, is no place for soft-hearted romantics. It's a cutthroat world, and no one ever made a soufflé without breaking a few eggs -- or cracking a few heads together. From the basics to the final exam, Darling reveals everything that goes into the making of a chef.
Filled with delicious food lore and trivia, and including dozens of classic and original French recipes, Under the Table takes readers deep into the trenches of one of the world's most prestigious cooking schools -- and shows what really goes on behind the doors of every great restaurant kitchen.
Available at Amazon Check Price Now!
Related Products
- Spiced: A Pastry Chef's True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen
- Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love and Death in the Kitchen
- The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School
- The Hunger: A Story of Food, Desire, and Ambition
- I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti
Customer Reviews
culinary school memoir ruined by catty, snobbish author - Constance R Anderson -
I bought this book because I love culinary memoirs, but doing so was a big mistake. The author is a snob, is gratuitously catty and nasty to the other women in her class (when a male student pokes her in the butt with a trussing needle, it's treated as a bit of harmless fun, but when another student--gasp!--commits the crime of being a middle-aged housewife, the claws come out and the sarcastic, snotty mockery reach their heights), and is lamentably narcissistic. There wasn't nearly enough about cooking, and there was too much about her narrow-minded prejudices. And after the first description of the female chef assistant as being like a cow having an epileptic seizure, any hopes that the narrator would be likable were out the window. I cannot recommend this book at all: it was a boring memoir by a thoroughly unlikeable person, and I wish someone had been there to warn me off of it.
Just Awful - Penelope - Memphis, TN
As has been noted in other reviews, the author is quite a snob, which becomes increasingly off-putting as the book goes on. Her scathing portrayals of many of the other females (Mimi, Cyndi, Penny, Ricki) makes one wonder if it is legitimate or just more of her competitiveness--it's funny that she seems to be so jealous of Mimi, who has more money, so she attacks her as being "older" and unable to cook, though Mimi ends up as a top student. She seems inconsistent with her background--early on, she is a "double major" in History and English, later she is "pre-med"--probably a Williams first to have a student doubling up on traditional liberal arts pre-reqs plus all the science and math courses required for med school. I just hated this book because in the end I found the author to be so flat out unlikable.
wonderful story - mikemac9 - Los Angeles, CA USA
If you ever wonder what it would be like to be so interested in cooking that you went to professional training school, this is the book for you. Written by a gifted writer this book will transport you to the French Culinary Institute in NYC. You'll meet the varied group of students that take the course, learn to fear the footsteps of the chefs teaching the course, get a sense of the ribald humor in the professional kitchen. I must say that one of the things I found most enjoyable about the book was the writing style; the book combines vivid descriptions, humor, and a story that moves along at a simmering pace (sorry, couldn't resist the pun!) There's even a few recipes thrown in to try on your own, although I quickly realized that my rendition is probably going to bear only a passing resemblance to what a trained cook could do. I hope there are more books in the author's future!
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 13, 2010 17:56:48
No comments:
Post a Comment