Journey across kitchens and cultures without leaving your home with this round up of food memoirs, autobiographies and travelogues by celebrated chefs of MICHELIN restaurants who are as interesting on the page as they are on the plate.
Notes From A Young Black Chef
by Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein
Penguin Random House, 2020
In this inspiring memoir about the intersection of race, fame, and food, the young American behind MICHELIN Plate Kith/Kin in Washington D.C. shares the remarkable story of his culinary coming-of-age, from his childhood in the Bronx and Nigeria, to opening and closing his first restaurant, Shaw Bijou, one of the most talked about restaurants in the country. The recipes within serve to tell the stories of his life: a chicken curry forms the backdrop of his childhood in the Bronx; his Grandma Cassie's shrimp étoufée colours the moment he first felt like a chef; and a chicken consommé with charred vegetables that is a nod to his time at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
Burn the Place
by Iliana Regan
Agate Midway, 2019
At her one MICHELIN star restaurant Elizabeth in Chicago, chef Iliana Regan cooks with instinct, memory and an emotional connection to her ingredients that can’t be taught. But her galvanizing memoir lends insight to how she might have developed this relationship, chronicling her journey from foraging on the family farm to shaping her self-taught, cutting-edge cuisine while running an underground supper club. The raw and vivid prose brings the reader into the world of elite Chicago kitchens, in the shoes of a woman in an industry dominated by men.
32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table To Working The Line
by Eric Ripert
Penguin Random House, 2017
32 Yolks is a brave coming-of-age story of the iconic chef of the equally iconic three-star New York City restaurant Le Bernardin. The book takes us from Eric Ripert’s lonely, broken childhood in the south of France into the demanding kitchens of legendary Parisian chefs as Joël Robuchon and Dominique Bouchet, and the pivotal moment when Ripert made his way to the United States at the age of 24, and found his home in the kitchen.
Yes, Chef
by Marcus Samuelsson
Penguin Random House, 2013
Written with remarkable candour and lyrical style, this New York Times bestseller traces Marcus Samuelsson’s journey as an orphan from Ethiopia and his growing up years in Sweden to life in America where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at MICHELIN-star New York restaurant Aquavit. White House state dinners, career crises and reality show triumphs culminate in the opening of his MICHELIN Plate restaurant Red Rooster in Harlem, where he has created a truly diverse, multiracial dining room for presidents, jazz musicians and bus drivers alike.
Humble Pie
by Gordon Ramsay
Harper Collins, 2008
Of course, the autobiography of the famously potty-mouthed celebrity chef would be peppered with expletives but the real meat of the story is told with insouciant charm and surprising sincerity: It follows his difficult childhood, his brother's heroin addiction and his failed first career as a footballer. Readers are left on edge as they track his early career in MICHELIN-star kitchens in Paris under Albert Roux and through his meteoric rise to celebrity on television.
Blood, Bones And Butter
by Gabrielle Hamilton
Penguin Random House, 2012
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. By turns epic and intimate, the chef-writer tells her story through the many kitchens she has inhabited: the rural kitchen of her childhood, her travels through the kitchens of France, Greece and Turkey, the unexpected challenges of her own kitchen at Prune and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law.
A Taste Of My Life
by Raymond Blanc
Corgi, 2009
In this culinary autobiography, Britain’s best-loved chef shares the fruits of his search for culinary perfection and reveals the secrets of his gastronomy. Born in France, Raymond Blanc arrived in England in 1972, and established the hotel and restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons near Oxford, which was awarded two MICHELIN stars when it opened in 1984. Woven around stories from his years at the sharp end of the food business are his thoughts on the future of food and his passionate appeal for sustainable cuisine.
The Third Plate
by Dan Barber
Penguin Books, 2015
Culinary wunderkind Dan Barber has become a global icon for his sustainability movement, brought to life at two-MICHELIN-star Blue Hill at Stone Barns and one-star Blue Hill in New York. The “third plate” refers to a new form of eating posited by Barber, one in which good food and good farming intersect. Barber offers a radical way of thinking about food beyond the simplistic farm-to-table model popular now by painting a picture of a new food system based on diversity, complexity and a reverence for nature that is essential to our understanding of true sustainability.
Life, On the Line
by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas
Penguin Random House, 2012
In this inspiring chef memoir, Achatz, chef-owner of Chicago's three-MICHELIN-star Alinea relates the story of his triumph over stage IV squamous cell carcinoma-tongue cancer, which left him without his sense of taste. His passion and drive for immaculate food led him to train his chefs to mimic his palate as he learned to cook with his other senses. Life, On The Line is a book about survival, nurturing creativity and profound friendship.
Letters to a Young Chef
by Daniel Boulud
Ingram, 2017
Part memoir, part culinary textbook, part recipe book, this updated edition of Daniel Boulud’s 2006 paperback is an invitation into the kitchen of a revered chef who combines traditional technique and modern sensibility. This short book is written for the young chef and amateur home cook alike, offering intriguing career advice such as where restaurant profits come from (dessert and wine), mentorship, self-management and what the team character of a top-level kitchen is like.
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