This is the first of this author's books that I've picked up, and I will have to read more. This presents three views of what excellence in cooking means, and although the description and praise is a bit much at times, particularly in the last section, I found the overview really interesting. I enjoy cooking, although I never considered it as a career, and I found inspiration in many of the stories told here. ( )

What does it take to be a chef?

Michel Ruhlman explores this question in his book, The Should of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection. He spends a third of his time observing chefs as they try to attain the ultra elusive Certificated Master Chef (CMC) at the Culinary Institute of America. To this day, the total number of CMCs number less than 100. Is this what it means to be a true chef? The next third he spends observing the inner workings of the Lola restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio. Has Michael Symone, the owner of the restaurant, shown what it takes to be the ultimate chef? Lastly, he spends some time at one of the most popular and famous restaurants in the country, French Laundry, in Napa Valley, California. Does the story of failure to success of Thomas Keller exemplify what it means to be a chef? Read and you'll find out.

Ruhlman writes with an easy prose, captivating the reader in and describing in enough detail to get your mouth watering as you try to decide if you want to make the dish yourself. I did find that his narrative did seem to drag on a various points throughout his book, primarily near the end of each of the respective three sections. It really came down to Ruhlman asking himself the questions of what makes a chef a chef. And like most things in life, it really depends on the context of the situation. There's difference ways to measure, and perhaps his observations eventually led to his own self-discovery of what the answer to the question is.

It's a wonderful read, and it did require me to look up a few of the cooking concepts described. He even ends with a few complicated recipes at the end of the book. Perhaps one day if I feel up to the task, then perhaps I will look into these recipes. ( )

How much is technique?
How much is soul?
Poulet Sauté Stanley, p. 342; very good, basic repeatable technique, though scaling down to one chicken makes the sauce awkward. "Serves ten" is closer to twenty. ( )

I started reading this when I wasn't feeling well, so now the idea of finishing it just makes me feel sick again.
Not your fault, Michael Ruhlman! It was pretty interesting when I was reading it.

The three sections are a lot of fun individually, and in retrospect they do hang together, although I wouldn't have said so whilst in the middle of reading. The prose in the Keller section tips over the edge in overblown, and I would have liked more follow-up on the Certified Master Chef participants (did the test change the life of the guy who passed? what about the people who left? what do the people around them think of the whole episode?), and I loved the portraits of the people in the kitchen in the Cleveland chapter. A quite good example of creative nonfiction, all in all. ( )