The Soul Of A Chef by Michael Ruhlman

This book is basically divided into 3 sections. The first follows a few chefs (I think it was 6) as they try to pass the CIA's Certified Master Chef test. It's 10 straight days of constant cooking, designed to be extremely difficult. It's like Iron Chef every day for 10 days, but the judges are more harsh and have more strict standards. Only one of them passed. The author spends the most time with Brian Polcyn (whom he later collaborated on a cookbook with). Polcyn was taking the test for a second time, and failed again. Ruhlman examines the structure of the test, and discusses what's good about it, and why a lot of world class chefs think the test is completey ******ed.

My opinion of the test is that it could be really good, if it was designed more for real-world situations as opposed to just how perfectly you can make and slice a terrine with a bunch of old dudes breathing down your neck in a laboratory setting.

The second and third parts of the book are profiles of chefs Michael Symon, and Thomas Keller. How they got into cooking, how they're careers progressed to this point, how they think about food, how they conceptualize a new dish, how they run their kitchens, etc.

I'm not sure how much a home cook could get out of it, but it was definitely interesting for an aspiring chef. I particularly like how Keller prefers to cook with a lot of organ meats and parts of animals most people throw away. Not just because they're different, but because they taste good if cooked properly, and out of respect for the animal and the people who worked to raise the animal.

The other part that struck me was how nervous a chef gets when a well-known critic is eating their food. It could make or break them, and if they make any mistakes in those dishes it haunts them for a long time.

Blarg,

Lovecraft? Really? Never understood what made him seem so classic to so many people

Blarg,

I was looking for something quick and juicy, so I reread your review of On Writing. Marvelous review. I wish you would write more reviews like this of the books you have read.

Did you read King's Danse Macabre? If so, what did you think?

His world creating skills are probably the most lasting thing, and he was also very good at atmospherics, which is half of horror. He also does have any number of moments of genuine horror. As Stephen King wrote of a Lovecraft story, "When Lovecraft wrote Pickman's Model, he wasn't kidding!" King also did a rewrite of a Lovecraft story -- I forget if the titles were the same -- called "The Rats in the Walls" that was a top-notch horror story. I think he even rewrote it a second time, it was so good. There are moments from his stories that I've found perfectly memorable -- and sometimes extremely creative -- in detail even decades later. Lovecraft's style is leisurely and ornate, and not the type that is popular anymore, but his imagination is tremendous.

He's also good to read if you just want to know about the horror genre in general, since directly or indirectly he is pretty much the father of American horror writing. He was extraordinarily influential.

That doesn't mean I would call him a great writer or recommend him to many people who weren't keen on the genre. But he is absolutely a great horror writer.

Thanks very much for the good word.

I loved Danse Macabre. It made me search out movies and stories and authors I hadn't known about at the time, and gave some welcome structure to my understanding of horror themes. It's one of my favorite Stephen King books by far.

I read the reviews for it on Amazon recently, and was surprised to see some people talking it down. I read it when it first came out, so I didn't have the feeling of "I've seen this sort of thing before" that some others said they felt when reading it. Back then, books like this were very uncommon and horror was still somewhat disreputable; it hadn't had a lot of Joyce Carol Oates types taking a shot at it or speaking well of it yet. The fact that it was written by the world's premiere horror writer about the genre he knew inside out intrigued me a lot too. I was a big King fan for his first, oh, maybe 6 books and read maybe another six before I felt he had gone too downhill to bother with anymore. To me, Danse Macabre was unlocking the secrets of the masters and was one of his best, and I ate it up like the unexpected treat it was.

I wouldn't mind reading it again sometime, even if it turns out there are other books out there now that do better what Danse Macabre did. Some extra respect is always due the guy who came first.

FWIW I liked it a lot better than On Writing. I could feel a love of the subject coming through that I didn't see in On Writing.

By the way, Busto, the discussion of On Writing continues on the next page or two as well.

Definitely. I've only read pieces of Danse Macabre but was fascinated by it. Don't know why I thought of it now, but your review convinces me it will be one of the next books I read.

I used to own a book that was a collection of quotes from the big horror writers divided into different subjects. No idea when it came out, I only found a copy in a used book store in the nineties but lost it at some point in my teenage years. Some of the interviews came from authors that had retired by the time the book came out. It included a ton of people, including King, Koontz, John Saul, Clive Barker, Richard Matheson (the 1st and the 2nd), Ray Bradbury, and many, many more that I had no clue about at the time and have since forgotten. I wish I could remember the title of it. I think you would get a big kick out of the digested wisdom.

I share your complaint about On Writing that it does not go in depth enough about the actual writing. I wish he had written a separate book as a memoir of his regular life. I enjoy a behind the scenes look into the creation of a great (or awful heh) work of art sometimes more than the actual piece. But I wonder if he is just not given to such reflection on his work, as reflected by his suggestions on how to write in the first place.

Yah I enjoyed the rest of the discussion of On Writing as the pages went on, but sometimes I prefer a standalone piece. The discussions here are often fascinating but they're hardly as organized as your review.

I absolutely adore most of King's non-fiction writing - On Writing, all of his introductions, etc. I go to the bookstore and check to see if any new editions of his books have new intros, and devour them if so. However, I was not the biggest fan of Danse Macabre. I read it several years ago, and it felt dated due to references to old books/movies that are not in the public consciousness anymore. I'm sure I'd like it quite a bit better if he wrote it now, with 25 more/newer years of movies, books, and his own works to talk about.

I thought On writing was a really good read. There are some really good basic rules he outlines, although it seems like he has a very 1 track way of looking at how fiction should be written imo. Kinda preachy. For a beginning writer though, it should be required reading.

Book 10 of The Wheel of Time: Crossroads of Twilight. I definitely recommend the series.

Sounds like it could be a fun read. Let me know if you wind up remembering the title one day.

I remember wondering if his lack of discussion of his own works was to some extent psychologically defensive. It really stood out to me.

I too really like Danse Macabre, for pretty much the reasons Blarg gives. It makes me think of, say Matheson's 'The Shrinking Man' as a literary classic rather than the pulp it probably really is, for example, because of King's commentary and enthusiasm.


Danse Macabre is a book I'd happily read every year for life, and still be entertained and stimulated by each time, I think.


It's references are quite old now tho (for movies and TV especially), so it might not work quite as well for youngins.

He does talk about his own works and approaches to writing his horror in Danse Macabre (once you hear his ideas on the different levels of horror induced in literature, and some of his other ideas like 'phobic pressure points', you won't forget it). Just remember his body of work was a lot smaller when he published DM tho.

Just finished 'a million little pieces' by James Frey. Its a autobiographical account of a crackhead, alcoholic criminal's journey through rehab. I'm normally a bit meh when it comes to 'inspiring' books etc but this really resonated with me. Its brutally honest, tragically sad and at times hilariously funny. Pick it up, you won't regret it. My favourite passage from the book;

'I saw a man cry yesterday, I've seen men cry before, but i usually think it's because they're weak or pathetic. The man who cried yesterday cried because he was strong and I admired his strength. I know people might think I'm strong or tough, but I'm really not. I'm a sheep in wolf's clothing.'

Frey made it up. Hate to break the news to you.

Don't know if King talks about this guy, but here's a link to a story by the writer also known as Saki.

http://www.classicreader.com/book/1673/1/

If you havent read the next one then you're in for a little dissapointment. book 11 didnt answer anything. Sanderson has even said that its pretty much gauranteed that he'll have to do the last book in 2 installments, theres just too much. I just started the series again myself in preperation for the new book.

I stopped reading Wheel of Time at book V. Just waiting for it to conclude before I ever consider picking it up again.

Last I looked the last or second to last book will be done and availible in the fall. they might be pre-releasing the prologue in the summer at Dragon-con.

Ive been reading this story since the mid-90's so to say Im excited for the conclusion would be an understatement. Sanderson is a really good author as well. I believe he will do a very good job on it. If anyone here in into fantasy or WOT, I highly recommend the Mistborn trilogy, you can defiantely tell that he draws some of his style from the WOT books.

If it isn't, it's not for the lack of trying or talent. I believe that the depth of a work can have as much to do with the themes and the emotional truth and resonance of its writing as with the overtly literary nature of its writing or choice of subjects. The lead characters are shrinking and experiencing loss, on more than one level and pretty scared about it, in The Incredible Shrinking Man no more than in Death of a Salesman or The Metamorphosis. There are key psychological structures in the human experience being plumbed and described that are the same, though the vehicles used to explore them are different. Once you get to and then past "mere" good writing(and I believe Matheson capable of handling that task), it seems to me that the clarity and depth of a work's psychology and insight are what counts in making it art, with genre being ultimately irrelevant unless you cannot write past its lowest level.

Some authors can write more deeply and truly about turning into a dung beetle than most others can write about their most deeply felt romance or childhood tragedy. Yet we tend to be automatically dismissive of the former rather than the latter stories, sometimes even apologetic about reading or enjoying them, as if they were a naughty diversion from higher callings or somehow inherently false or invalid. This strikes me as a cultural blindness that is slowly being overcome, but will probably still be with us for a while and will take the new work of a lot of very talented people, as well as the right cultural environment, to change.

But at least now imaginative fiction is slowly being dragged from the shameful darkness at the back of the drawer. There is some progress. But it is difficult to overcome cultural inertia.

Agreed, but I think that while some could relate to it even more if it included more references to newer things like Predator or Japanese horror flicks, that doesn't detract too much from the book's ability to act as both a cultural and genre primer. After all, even the newest things are incapable of being fully understood without a context, and sometimes learning the context of what you already know and feeling your understanding expand as a result can be an enlightening and exciting thing. Danse Macabre does provide solid footing for one's further explorations.

I wouldn't mind at all if he did a sequel. It's impossible for a book like this to ever really be complete except as a snapshot in time.

What livinitup said. Also, if anyone thinks about starting this series: The first five books are great and from then on it just starts to go down the drain. I hope Sanderson wraps it up real nicely.

If you want to read an even better (and shorter) unfinished series, by an authoer who also is approaching old age (and doesn't have as extensive a note system as Jordan had, so when he is gone, the books are gone...) is the Song of Ice and Fire series by GRRM. It's got most of what makes WOT great and on top of that the most amazing characters in fantasy I have ever read. Seriously, pick it up...

I just wish he had kept on going with similar or even greater momentum when it came to discussing his work in On Writing. Instead it feels like he withdrew, even though time must have given him so much more to talk about when it came to his own writing, rather than merely his own life.

That's a fun little bit. It seemed even excruciatingly conventional up until the ending. I was glad for the surprise.

I was about to post the same thing before I got to your post. Looks like book #5, A Dance With Dragons is finally going to be released later this year (9-29-09) after a ******edly long four year wait in between books.

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that HBO comes through with the TV series based on the books.