Today's trip to the library

Picked up a bunch of books from the library today:


Culinary Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at The Culinary Institute of America by The Culinary Institute of America and Martha Rose Shulman

Wasn't what I was looking for... but I'd love to do the Boot camp sometime.

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford

Fascinating! The description of line cooking in Mario Batali's restaurant was less macho than in the Bourdain book, but still showed the toughness necessary for a professional to make it. A good look at the kitchen politics and cliques. The sections on learning in Italy were utterly absorbing. I kept asking what about this mans family though? In the later Italy section his wife gets brief mention, but where are his two teenagers? (mentioned on the book flap) . What did they think of this obsession?

I Like You: Hospitality Under The Influence by Amy Sedaris

Not what I was after at ALL... I didn't find it funny, the recipes were unappealing and the nasty 50's ads and styling was off putting in the extreme. Maybe if it had made me laugh...

In Bad Taste?: The Adventures and Science Behind Food Delicacies by Dr. Massimo Marcone

For a professor, what an unworldly, unsophisticated person. For a book that supposedly centers on the science of food there was perhaps a bit much detail and focus on his relationship with G_d, but he did see quite genuine and honest in his beliefs. For someone who seemed so shocked to find vehicles in Africa to be old clunkers and who really didn't seem to have any idea about the world he is extraordinarily kind and generous about the people he meets. I liked that about him a lot. The book would have been much, much better if someone had confiscated his exclamation mark key before he started... two, three or more exclamation points on a page and I start to think the person writing should also be dotting their I's with hearts, like a girl in grade seven.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Wow! A tough look at the tough guys doing the hard sweaty work in the kitchen. Over flowing with testosterone, bluster and ego very much like the author. Still an excellent peek in to what goes on behind those swinging doors your food passes through.

The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones by Anthony Bourdain

Contains the best possible review of his previous book [which I'm going to have to insert here later]. Some really good articles. I have to say, I like his style when it comes to prose, I'd love to find out if the same goes for his food.

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

Fascinating! I'm going to have to get a copy of this for myself.

Why all the books on chefs and professional kitchens?
Last week I came home from work and in my mail box was the course catalogs I'd requested from George Brown College - I've been toying with the idea of going back to school to become a chef and they have one of the best programs in the area. Also I'll be getting (yet another) new manager some time soon, and I always panic and assume things are going to suck... thus the looking around for another option not that I want to leave the hospital (or the 17 years worth of seniority I've got here).
The second thing in the post that day was a catalogue from Ashton Green which has some of the SWEETEST cooking tools around.
Once I got upstairs I checked the messages on my phone. There was a call from Liason College, a cooking school here in Hamilton, letting me know that they are moving, but they've still got my information on file should I want to take some classes with them.
The next day, on my way to work, I noticed a HUGE bright yellow billboard, right across from the hospital advertising George Brown's chef program.
Is the universe trying to tell me something? I'm not sure. Hopefully these books will help me make up my mind; either confirm that, yes, this is the passion I want to follow or scare me enough that I'll put up with what ever torments a new boss might have in store for me.

If that wasn't a big enough load of books, I also grabbed

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs - he writes for Mental Floss magazine which is one of my favourite read-on-the-bus mags.

Many Bloody Returns by Charlaine Harris - a mixed bag of vampire short stories.

Top 100 Unusual Things to See in Ontario by Ron Brown - for my own knowledge and so I can suggest things to visitors to my fair province.

So... do you think I'll be getting the dishes washed this weekend? this week?