After eight years as a struggling artist and waitress, Nancy Ring decided to find a `survival job` that would bring satisfaction as well as survival. Armed with only chutzpah and a love of baking instilled by generations of her family, she answered a newspaper ad seeking an assistant pastry chef. So began a roller coaster ride of apprenticeships in New York's high pressured, ego infested and sometimes rat infested, kitchens. In this culinary memoir, Nancy Ring combines funny and poignant stories of love and work with warm rememberances of a family that celebrates food with gusto and cherishes memories with passion.