32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line

32 Yolks: From My Mother's Table to Working the Line
By Eric Ripert
Random House, 2016. 256 pages. Biography

World famous chef Eric Ripert recounts his heartbreaking childhood, the early foundations of his love for food, and his path from a trouble-making kid to line chef in one of Paris's most elite restaurants, where surviving the 17-hour work days and intense pressure was a refiner's fire.  Ripert's book unfortunately ends with his emigration to the United States, before he made a name for himself.  This is his coming-of-age story, perhaps, but readers may be left wanting to hear more about his work and success in the United States.  Ripert certainly had a complex childhood and endured many hardships, but the heart of the book was his love of food and his description of how his tastes and beliefs about food developed through the years.  Recommended for foodies.

BHG