Life at Le Cordon Bleu

The days of Clarissa are winding down. I think I might actually miss it...
I finally finished my latest read last night, so let's talk about it. Here are the stats for The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry.
Author: Kathleen Flinn
Publisher: Penguin
Date: 2007
My start date: 2/12/10
My finish date: 2/17/10

Another one of those fun memoirs of someone deciding to change their life and jump free of the boring track, this is a story that will make you simultaneously hungry and travel-happy. After Flinn is laid off from a corporate job she didn't like, she decides not to mourn the loss and heads off to Paris to pursue her dream of learning to cook the French way. This is another one of those motivational books that will make you want to follow suit. However, in the fairness of full disclosure, there were some things I wanted to note. Most of us imagine these stories involving people like most of us, people who travel little (at least not anymore) and who spend their days in a boring cubicle job making just enough to pay bills. We have little or no exposure to the hobby we dream of pursuing. So running off to Paris would be a huge leap for the average person. I think it is only fair to point out that Flinn was already working in London when she was laid off from this job and that as a journalist, she had already spent a good amount of time in places throughout Europe and Asia. Further, her early career started as a line cook in a restaurant and she had once upon a time been a restaurant reviewer. So, this wasn't a huge jump out of her comfort zone. But the important thing to remember here, is that this is something she had dreamed of since childhood and something that she had the courage to go for, despite the financial burden. It doesn't matter if your dream is not that far out of your comfort zone, you need to just do it! And it doesn't hurt that her dream just happened to make a great read!

If you like or have ever liked food, you must read this. If you like or have ever liked Paris, you must read this. Flinn takes you through the three levels of certification at Le Cordon Bleu, interweaving her experiences in the kitchen, some hilarious, some touching, some flat out horrifying, with the lessons she is learning about herself at the same time. Again, this might not have been a huge leap for her, but pursuing this dream did allow her to learn some good stuff about herself. And her talent for juxtaposing food with people is great! The anecdotes can be quite funny!

One very small thing to keep in mind, however, is that some background knowledge in the world of all things culinary might be helpful. For a start, you should at least know that Le Cordon Bleu is one of the most famous, if not the most famous, cooking schools in the world and that Julia Child trained there. However, perhaps even a little more knowledge really might be assumed. I should confess that I am a HORRIBLE chef and actually shunned from our kitchen for fear that I might ruin another of my husband's expensive pots as I did previously by putting water on to boil (with salt) and then accidently falling asleep while waiting. No joke. I should not ever enter a kitchen. However, my husband was a professional chef and did study culinary arts at one point in time, so I had vicariously learned some of the things that seemed presumed knowledge in this book. For example, George Escoffier is mentioned, but not explained. If I wasn't married to a chef, I wouldn't have known that Escoffier is basically the father of French cuisine. I don't think it would have totally ruined the book for me had I not known that, but it certainly didn't hurt either. When in doubt, don't be afraid to wikipedia it. And I just love that wikipedia has somehow become a verb, don't you?

As mentioned, I am not culinarily inclined, but nonetheless, by the end of this book I was literally looking up prices to attend myself. (NOT cheap, by the way) I would not want to pursue Flinn's same course, as stuffing varying process meats and organs into various fatty wrappings is really not my taste, but they do have a tempting patisserie program that involves chocolate making... I wonder how much damage I could do with melted chocolate in a pot?

One last note. In my ongoing effort to recommend "if you like this book, you might like this book" type things, I was often reminded in reading this book of the self discovery and dream pursuing tales of Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love. Might be fun too. Of course, you might not want to read both back to back, because I can not be held responsible if you suddenly quit life and head off for the exotic to eat and think about life.

Happy reading!
Sarah