3.23.2010

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry

On my flight to Austin for SXSW, I unplugged to read the latest novel to randomly catch my eye in the bookstore: The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School.

Immediately I connected with both the chick lit angst and the cooking aspirations. She's at a cross roads in life - with work, with love, with not wanting to look back and realize she didn't achieve her life's goal... in this case, to graduate from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

My foodie aspirations aren't quite that high, but I connected with the story and the romantic idea of living in Paris, learning to cook and exploring the city while madly in love. My favorite quotes that I dog eared:

"Audrey Hepburn would never have ended up covered in fish guts."

"He gives us a lesson on quizzing stall managers. Vital questions to ask include: Where did it come from? What did it eat? What does the seller know about the people who raised it?... a good chef is not shy about asking such questions."

"... you cannot be a chef without knowing how things taste, even if you don't like them, because often what you are asked to prepare is out of your control."

Julia Child: "... you can never know everything about anything, especially something you love... besides... I started late.

At first glance it's a love story. After reading it, you realize it is a love story but not with just with a man, but with people, a place and with cooking.

I think you'll really like the book... and you can follow the author's blog here: Kathleen Flinn's blog.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I might have to read this.