Good start disappointing fnish This is a difficult book to review. The early portion of the book in which she goes grows up is engaging and promising. She picks up all kinds of different experiences in a disorganized jumble of menial jobs and cash strapped wanderings. Of course all this is obviously building up to the point where she synthesizes all of these discordant colorful life experiences into the makings of a successful restaurant. I was okay with that because I naturally assumed she would apply the same spare lyrical candidly observant and unassuming tone to that part of her life. Unfortunately that is not the case. There is a strange and jarring transition.
Incredible Gorgeous writing that satisfies you deeply. I picked this up and couldn't put it down. I can't wait to fly to New York and eat at Prune.
If you Think you Love Food and Restaurants Gabrielle's story is a colorful delicious and emotional delight. As a chef restaurant manager card carrying foodie and now food purveyor I have spent the past 30 plus years living loving cooking fighting and eating my way on a similar path. Up until now Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential has been my favorite book illustrating the crazy life of one in the food bizbut now Gabrielle tops my list.Perhaps it is her at once lyrical style of writing or maybe it is the manic emotional sensualslightly psychotic outbursts that I could relate to and thoroughly found relatable and most of all honest. Nowadays so many prospective young chefs have a romantic/celebrity notion of what it means to be a chef but not Chef Hamilton. The life of a chef is all consuming gritty nasty artistic and passionate. In one minute you can be on the line finishing the perfect dish you've envisioned in your skull for the past 2 weeks and sending it out to the dining roomthe next minute you are on your knees scrubbing the grime off the stove and finally you might finish your night at 2am racking your brain looking over the schedule trying for the life of you to cover the grill on the next day's lunch shift.Why do we do it? Because we must. We love everything about food and the execution of it. We do it because it is our passion. We do it for the immediate gratification of it when our guests receive the experience they were hoping for in our dining room. Family life and personal life may suffer for our craft but it goes with the territory of those of us committed to it.If you love food if you think you love the restaurant experience read this wonderful book.
Food without Personality Hamilton tries to paint herself as this hardworking bootstrapper who came up from a horrible childhood and really made something of herself through food. Closer to the truth is that she was able to be a successful chef because she never formed a real meaningful relationship with anyone. Even her own sexuality seems to be one of convenience rather than connection or love. The girl that she moved over from the midwest with her to New York doesn't even gets a name. The end of their long term relationship is mentioned in passing also while saying that Hamilton taught her girlfriend how to flip the bird which I'm pretty sure they also do in the midwest. Her friend from camp her friend from when she was in the MFA program her mother her siblings her father they all disappear from her life. This problem might be because She covered too large of a time period which forced her treat most of the events and people rather vaguely.However Hamilton does seem to greatly respect food both the ingredients and the food in cooked form which isb both refreshing and informative. The food descriptions were wonderful from beginning to end the lamb roast party the butcher shop the catering bits etc. There is no doubt that she has a really strong connection with food. This is her strong point and she should have stuck to detailed descriptions of her life in food more closely. Her descriptions of single events centered around food are her strongest points and more of these would have given the memoir a greater sense of a theme a storyline and would have made reading it a much less jarring and detached experience.
Blood Bones and Butter An interesting but sometimes disturbing book. Produced a lot of discussion during a book club review. Makes the reader want to visit the Prune restaurant if ever in New York.
Horrible I found this book to be poorly written and pointless. Our book club read it and not a single person liked it as Hamilton seems completely self absorbed. There's no growth or development in her character or the storyline.
entertaining and colorful This book is not for the faint hearted and I can honestly say there are a 'select' group of friends I would recommend this too but I would love for everyone I know to enjoy the insights humor and delightful word picture paintings that I did. Gabriella is brilliant and I hope she is doing well in her crazy fast paced life my only suggestion is for her to spend more time in Italy.
Biggest disapointment of 2011 I was so completely excited about reading this book! I purchased it on my kindle immediately after seeing a piece about it in Bon Appetit. What a let down. This woman is a whiny pompous arrogant ass. She admits to marrying her husband just to get him citizenship but then is so hurt and surprised that it doesn't work out? She says that women who let their kids cry are heartless and cruel but a short time later she admits to letting her hungry baby wail in the backseat rather than stop at a restaurant that was below her. I rarely rate books here and have never given one only 1 star but I couldn't hold back on this. I could go on and on about it but who wants to read that? Celebrity chef reviews of this book had me looking forward to a story of a rough upbringing that resulted in creating a talented and badass chef. That is most definitely not what I got here.
I tried but I just can't finish it I can't decide if it's the author or the editor who's lacking. I'd finish this if it were better written as it's such a compelling story. But the writing style and a completely unsympathetic main character demand too much. I gave up almost halfway through.
Not the greatest memoir ever. Although this is not the best book ever some parts were worthy of being read. I enjoyed learning about Hamilton's rise in the food industry and her life as the owner of a restaurant. However I have to say that the author's style is tedious too much unnecessary detail. I found myself skipping over passages because I could tell where they were headed and were going to unnecessarily take three pages to get there. The author is selfabsorbed. I know it is a memoir I just can't take it.Let me be clear I love Ruth Reichl and other food writers like her. However this was a different kind of food writing. There were good moments but most of it was boring and too descriptive when it did not need to be.The first half and second half of the book were disconnected. Hamilton was a lesbian at the start of the book then suddenly married to a man. If you had read her bio before reading the book you knew all along that she's no longer married in real life.A good book about chefs that I enjoyed reading about 10 year ago recently rereleased is The Making of a Chef Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America by Michael Ruhlman.
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