Rating: 
Summary: Layla Mitchner is a wimp.
Review: As a cook in a three star restaurant, I consider Layla Mitchner an afront to women cooks everywhere. Any woman entering the culinary field knows that it has been dominated by men since Escoffier. Layla just takes this in stride as the way it is instead of sticking up for herself and showing that women, too, belong in the professional kitchen.Her penchant for bad relationships and alcohol and dreams of the ideal career and love are the only realism that kept this reader's attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch Layla...
Review: complain about her job. Watch Layla drink more champagne. Watch Layla constantly put herself down. Watch Layla binge eat. Watch Layla blame her parents. Watch Layla date losers. Watch Layla wonder why her life [is not good]. Ugh. This book paints a truely embarrasing portrait of women, and especially women in the food industry. There was not one positive woman role model (or man really) in this whole book. Who at Villard books decided this should be published? What does this book say about the author?
Rating:
Summary: What's the point?
Review: I cannot figure out what this book is about. I assumed the content would be about a female cook in a male-dominated profession. Layla (the main character) imbibed in one immature relationship after another. She drank and smoked and complained about everyone and everything but did little real cooking along the way. I just don't get it.
Rating:
Summary: Not impressed
Review: I forced myself to finish this book though I found the voice of the protagonist annoying and the writing surprisingly callow in places (the author has an MFA!?). There are certainly better books in this genre to choose from.
Rating: 
Summary: Girl Cook, Good Book
Review: I found more reality in this book than most other people, it appears. I am currently a student at Le Cordon Bleu. This is the reason I bought the book. I feel very much like Layla. Unsure of myself at times, trying to play it cool, wanting a job in the restaurant industry. Certainly it was odd how Layla continuously ran into Dick Davenport and practically began a relationship with him before they even had a first date. The book does end abrubptly but it leaves readers with a smile (or scowl); the future for Layla can be as happily-ever-after as readers decide. Women can relate to Layla, at least I did. I may have bought the book because of the fact that the author, main character, and myself have all attended Le Cordon Bleu, but I read it because Layla is a real woman I can indentify with - her ability to continue soldiering on gave me motivation to do the same. Hannah McCouch wrote this book in a manner in which it's entirely believable. She may not be an A-list author, but I'm not sure that matters. A lot of A-list authors aren't there because they write well but rather because they're marketed to be best-sellers. The book is too short and Layla can make you feel fat - she's 5'7" and 140 lbs., a perfectly respectable weight and yet she thinks she's a hippo. I got past those two dislikes easily enough; this is a book I won't be selling on Amazon marketplace.
Rating: 
Summary: Layla's my girl
Review: I found more reality in this book than most other people, it appears. I am currently a student at Le Cordon Bleu. This is the reason I bought the book. I feel very much like Layla. Unsure of myself at times, trying to play it cool, wanting a job in the restaurant industry. Certainly it was odd how Layla continuously ran into Dick Davenport and practically began a relationship with him before they even had a first date. The book does end abrubptly but it leaves readers with a smile (or scowl); the future for Layla can be as happily-ever-after as readers decide. Women can relate to Layla, at least I did. I may have bought the book because of the fact that the author, main character, and myself have all attended Le Cordon Bleu, but I read it because Layla is a real woman I can indentify with - her ability to continue soldiering on gave me motivation to do the same. Hannah McCouch wrote this book in a manner in which it's entirely believable. She may not be an A-list author, but I'm not sure that matters. A lot of A-list authors aren't there because they write well but rather because they're marketed to be best-sellers. The book is too short and Layla can make you feel fat - she's 5'7" and 140 lbs., a perfectly respectable weight and yet she thinks she's a hippo. I got past those two dislikes easily enough; this is a book I won't be selling on Amazon marketplace.
Rating:
Summary: This book is insulting (too both women and men)
Review: In the same vein of Anthony Bourdain, Hannah McCouch's semiautobiographical work relies on gimmicks, stereotypes, and gross out factor to get attention. She is a mediocre writer at best, and this is just another shameless attempt to cash in on the current intrest and popularity of the restaurant industry (Don't even get me started on Rocco's The Restaurant). I too have attended culinary school and I too have worked in the cutthroat New York restaurant industry and I must tell you that there is a reason a person like Layla will never be promoted to head chef, and none of it has to do with what she has in her pants. I have worked with a few "girl cooks", including one of the top women chef's in New York City (probably the world). I have a world of respect for these women, because they never get hung up on chauvinism, glass ceilings, complain about making "skyscraper salads" or vinegar in their cuts; it is this attitude which makes me lose my sympathy for Layla. The "girls" I have work with can cook, and they cook circles around some of the men on the line. I don't want to turn this into a sexual discussion because I have worked with good as well as bad cooks of both sexes. It is a shame that nobody is willing to be honest and cut through the fake glamour of cooking, telling it like it is. But I guess nobody wants to hear about the 14 hour days, ... pay, poor benefits or the depressing and demoralizing work conditions, never being able to spend your holidays with your family etc. I guess nobody wants to watch a TV show about the 4-6 hours of cutting, prepping & cleaning that goes on before service (which makes up a good 80% of your workday). Yes cooking is a true art, full of suffering and pain, a labor of love. Too many people go into this field for the wrong reasons, that is why they never get promoted and that is why they quit the industry. At its best "Girl Cook" is Kitchen Confidential meets Bridget Jones Diary, and it seems that McCouch has very little to add to either genres. If you decide to read this book, do so with a grain of salt (no pun indented), I would hate to have people thinking the restaurant industry is full of chauvinistic men who think women should be barefoot and pregnant, or thinks that just because somebody washes dishes, doesn't mean they snort coke or that they can't out cook a culinary school graduate (in fact I've seen a dishwasher work the line better than the sous chef). Like the reader from San Francisco says, there are better books in this genre. But if you like reading about an egocentric, glorified salad maker that thinks she can sauté just because she did it in school, then you might enjoy Girl Cook. By the way almost everybody has to start off on Garde-Manger (unless the kitchen is desperate). It is also requires the most preparation and is one of the more meticulous stations in the kitchen. If you want to watch a show with more realism than the quasi documentary "The Restaurant" check out a BBC comedy called "Chef".
Rating: 
Summary: A cutesy summer read...
Review: Layla Mitchner dreams of becoming a chef and of true love. Instead, she works as a lowly salad tosser under the watch of a seemingly misogynistic boss. Under increased pressure from her semi-famous actress mother and her friends, she finally quits. Best bud Billy tries to hook her up with Dick Davenport, but Layla thinks he might be a little too uptight for her. (He wears shoes with tassels for goodness sakes!) She then meets a broody mysterious musician named Frank, but everything isn't always what it seems with him. Layla continues to try and get back on track with her career, while constantly finding herself running into Mr. Davenport, whom she seems to be unable to get out of her head. While some parts are a tad predictable, I really enjoyed Layla's cast of friends, which besides flamboyant Billy, include Austrian cook Gustav and bartender Dina.
Rating:
Summary: Girl Cook, but not Girl Chef
Review: This book is full of many laughs and many unbelieveable situations! It shows that men still feel they dominate the world and woman are still struggling to break through the glass ceiling. This book is also enjoyable for anyone who loves being in the kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: Occasionally entertaining but forgettable
Review: This book is not altogether unpleasant, but the narrator lacked the redeeming qualities necessary to hold my sympathy for an entire novel. The book also seemed to take more than a few ideas from Helen Fielding's "Bridget Jones' Diary," but Helen Fielding does it much, much better.
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