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KNIVES AT DAWN

Name: KNIVES AT DAWN
Author: Andrew Friedman
ISBN: 978-1-4391-5307-9

AMERICA’S QUEST FOR CULINARY GLORY AT THE LEGENDARY BOCUSE D’OR COMPETITION

by Andrew Friedman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2009

Edge-of-your-seat food writing of the highest caliber.

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A vibrant portrait of the world’s most significant cooking competition, the Bocuse d’Or, in Lyon, France.

Food and tennis writer Friedman (co-author, with Pino Luongo: Dirty Dishes: A Restaurateur’s Story of Passion, Pain, and Pasta, 2008, etc.) dynamically illustrates the colorful personalities, ego-battering conflicts, career-defining aspirations, politicking, precision planning, naked missteps and the final judges’ decisions regarding the 2009 U.S. team’s shot for the culinary gold medal. “Competition doesn’t form character…Competition reveals character,” says Roland Henin, the U.S. coach, and the characters exposed beneath the stress of the 2009 competition are, in Friedman’s hands, considerable. Henin chose a triumvirate of legendary chefs as his leadership—Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud and Jerome Bocuse, son of Paul Bocuse, founder of the Bocuse d’Or—and trained his team in a stage kitchen mock-up in California. The author follows Keller, Boulud and Bocuse as they assemble and obsessively train the strongest team of American chefs the 22-year-old competition has seen. Timothy Hollingsworth and Adina Guest, both veterans of Keller’s restaurant The French Laundry, prepared painstakingly for what Hollingsworth would later describe as “the hardest thing he’s ever done.” Friedman expertly builds the dramatic tension to the surprising conclusion. Like the raucous Bocuse d’Or itself, the writing is simultaneously athletic and infused with a gastronome’s passion. Snappy, well-timed dialogue keeps the narrative simmering briskly. Precisely rendered portrayals of ingredients, dishes, kitchen jargon, exotic foreign locales and the politics of international cuisine are aptly balanced with plenty of insider detail and mainstream accessibility. The book is infused with the muscular, meticulous gusto of a sportswriter covering the Olympics.

Edge-of-your-seat food writing of the highest caliber.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4391-5307-9

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Free Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2009

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE DISH
by Andrew Friedman

- BOOK REVIEW
CHEFS, DRUGS AND ROCK & ROLL
by Andrew Friedman

- BOOK REVIEW
TO THE BONE
by Paul Liebrandt ; Andrew Friedman photographed by Evan Sung

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.