Letters to a Young Chef

Rating:
Summary: Too old for success at age 30?
Review: Chef Boulud indeed has many interesting and important points to teach the new generation of chefs. However, I am sorely disappointed by this passage..."One more requirement--you need youth. Notice these are Letters to a Young Chef, not a new chef. In other words, if you were thirty years old I would not be writing this to you, because the demands of the job and the competition out there require that you start young, as you have, as I did." (p.85) He goes on to state that there is a chef that he knew who started his career in this fifties, "But he is the exception."

How disappointing to hear that from a top chef in the US. As a career changer, I may not have started at age 14. But I do have the focus AND the dedication that is required for success in this field. Stamina and strength also comes with training and time. So to say that your chances for success in the culinary field is limited because one is thirty!--that is a pretty demoralizing and narrow-minded viewpoint.

Thirty is NOT over-the-hill to start your culinary career. Neither is forty, nor fifty. If you had the will and the heart to do it, you can find success.

Rating:
Summary: Too old for success at age 30?
Review: Chef Boulud indeed has many interesting and important points to teach the new generation of chefs. However, I am sorely disappointed by this passage..."One more requirement--you need youth. Notice these are Letters to a Young Chef, not a new chef. In other words, if you were thirty years old I would not be writing this to you, because the demands of the job and the competition out there require that you start young, as you have, as I did." (p.85) He goes on to state that there is a chef that he knew who started his career in this fifties, "But he is the exception."

How disappointing to hear that from a top chef in the US. As a career changer, I may not have started at age 14. But I do have the focus AND the dedication that is required for success in this field. Stamina and strength also comes with training and time. So to say that your chances for success in the culinary field is limited because one is thirty!--that is a pretty demoralizing and narrow-minded viewpoint.

Thirty is NOT over-the-hill to start your culinary career. Neither is forty, nor fifty. If you had the will and the heart to do it, you can find success.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed this book,
Review: Except during the chapter "The Trinity of Heat." While I read it, I though, "I spent money on this book! I can't make it through this junk!" But it was only that one chapter and is only a few pages. The rest is engaging and thoughtfull.

Rating:
Summary: Heart To Heart Talk With A Chef
Review: Let's sit down over a couple of bottles (or half a case) and discuss what I've been through that might assist your career as a blossoming chef.

Boulud is like many, ala Pepin, Childs, Tower who are now documenting their thoughts on chef careers.

This one is not just story telling but boiled down, what I would have one do to make it like me and others in this biz.

Seems to be sage stuff from one who is recognized as a forerunner in this ever blossoming arena. Who would have thought of the variety and popularity of such, a FoodNetwork and cookbook sales over the top?

Fav recipes from his career stops is unbelievable! The trout dish is to kill for. Much insight to be gained here.

Fueled by voracious eaters and wanna be home gourmets, this is remarkable insights into world some of us will never enter and others will consume this wisdom over and over.

Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, lots of name dropping
Review: Letters to a Young Chef has many acorns of truth from which oaks will grow. My own thoughts of cooking, and dining out, have been improved by the book. At the same time, Boulud drops so many names of the famous that he knows and has worked that it can become a tedious read.

Rating:
Summary: Good ideas, lots of name dropping
Review: The renowned Daniel Boulud has provided us with a useful distillation of his knowledge of working in the food service industry. From getting started to working your way up, Daniel explains the basics of what you need to do to succeed in the fast-paced adrenaline-charged world of the commercial kitchen. Even if you're not interested in becoming a chef or a restaurateur, much of the information provided can be useful in your home kitchen. If you are interested in a career in cooking, this a must-read. Like Anthony Bourdain, Daniel doesn't hide or candy-coat the less pleasant aspects of the business. He lays it all out for you, rewards and sacrifices.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Informative
Review: The renowned Daniel Boulud has provided us with a useful distillation of his knowledge of working in the food service industry. From getting started to working your way up, Daniel explains the basics of what you need to do to succeed in the fast-paced adrenaline-charged world of the commercial kitchen. Even if you're not interested in becoming a chef or a restaurateur, much of the information provided can be useful in your home kitchen. If you are interested in a career in cooking, this a must-read. Like Anthony Bourdain, Daniel doesn't hide or candy-coat the less pleasant aspects of the business. He lays it all out for you, rewards and sacrifices.

Rating:
Summary: not only a must read for all future chefs...
Review: this easy to read book is fascinating for all interested in fine cuisine, not only for aspiring chefs.

it gives a description of all the different skills needed to become a successful cook (and maybe restaurant owner), and the author makes clear that being very successful in his profession is not a miracle, but only hard work for many, many years and 100% dedication will lead to it.

this book should be mandatory reading for all future chefs so that they can fully understand what to expect, and not choose a career they later regret.

for patrons of fine restaurants it offers a fascinating insight into the intricacies of such an organization and its staff.

Rating:
Summary: Good Advice for any professional. Pure gold for Chefs
Review: This essay recommends practices which an aspiring chef of haute cuisine should follow in order to succeed in this very demanding profession. Many of Boulud's recommendations are as applicable to a professional in information systems as they are to a culinary professional, but some are distinctly applicable to crafts where one works with ones hands. For example, one of the things which distinguish professional chefs from the home chef or, for that matter, from culinary journalists, is the fact that they have prepared some dishes thousands of times over, so they can judge the doneness of a cooked material by the simplest sound or feel or smell. They are so well practiced at knife skills that many kitchen aids are, for them a waste of time. So, there are some suggestions which may actually be better advice for a carpenter than they are for a statistician.

The recommendations are golden. I find nothing here which runs counter to anything else I have read about the culinary profession. Two of the most distinctive aspects are the importance of mentoring in a culinary education and the need to be prepared to give up a normal life at home. The first aspect repeats the similarity between culinary arts and other manual trades. Carpentry and plumbing still follow mentoring career paths dating back to the middle ages.

Boulud also effectively describes the difference between haute cuisine and bourgoise cuisine, a distinction in French which I have seen in no other cuisine, although I suspect there are some Japanese culinary disciplines which embody the same distinctions with their intensive discipline in knife skills and pasta making. One hallmark of haute cuisine is that it is very common to have two or more ingredients or preparations cooked separately so each is heated to just the right degree of doneness for that material. When I started cooking, this aspect always annoyed me and made me wonder why recipes weren't written more simply. This attitude shows an ignorance of or lack of respect for different ingredients.

The only objection I have to this book is it's price. A list price of $22.50 for 124 small pages is a bit much, even for the high quality of the material within. I subtracted the 35 pages of recipes in the back, as I believe many of them have appeared in some of Boulud's other books.

Otherwise, this is a must read for anyone interested in the culinary arts, especially if you have not already read widely in the literature on the subject.