Saturday, June 22, 2019

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School 
by Kathleen Flinn
Viking Adult, 2007. 285 pages. Nonfiction

Kat Flinn, age 36, is an American working and living in London. When she is informed, very politely, that she no longer has a job, she decides to cash in her savings and move to France to study at Le Cordon Bleu. What follows is an insider view of the famous cooking school. Flinn documents her struggles to earn a diploma with her barely adequate French. She also describes her journey into love with her best friend. She ends each chapter with the recipes she learned to make while in the program.

This book reminded be so much of My Life in France by Julia Child. Both Flinn and Child came late to their careers in cooking. Both of them fell in love in France and with France while cooking at Le Cordon Bleu. This book also reminded me of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is a book about finding your way, and taking the leap of faith, and figuring out who you are. The descriptions of the food are mouthwatering and the characterization of all the people she met while at school is fantastic. You really feel like you are there with her and can smell the butter sizzling in the hot pan.

 AGP

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