title: Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
author: Gabrielle Hamilton

publication date:  January 24, 2012
publisher:  Random House Trade Paperbacks

When Blood, Bones & Butter was first released, everyone was raving about the book and the author, Gabrielle Hamilton (who’s the owner of New York-based Prune restaurant). Anthony Bourdain (another food writer I love ) said, “Simply the best memoir by a chef ever. EVER. Gabrielle Hamilton packs more heart, soul, and pure power into one beautifully crafted page than I’ve accomplished in my entire writing career… I am choked with envy.” Naturally, I was curious and added it to my book list, but for some reason, I never picked it up until late last year and didn’t get around to reviewing it until now.

To be fair, out of the 700+ books weighing down my bookshelves, biographies and memoirs rank at the bottom of the subject pile. Except for a few exceptions, I’ve never been interested in reading a whole non-fiction book about one person.

However, if more memoirs were like Blood, Bones & Butter, then I’m sure I would read many more of them. Gabrielle’s writing is top-notch (which is to be expected, considering she received a Creative Writing MFA from the University of Michigan), but it’s more than just her writing ability. This woman has LIVED. Her life reads like an adventure novel – full of laughter, despair, love, loss, joy, anger – and always intertwined with food.

Gabrielle’s headlong rush from one life experience to another left me breathless. From her disjointed childhood to her mind-numbing catering jobs, from her college education to her accidental discovery of the Prune location, from her green-card marriage to the birth of her sons…I couldn’t stop turning the pages and before I knew it, I had reached the end of the book.

Has a memoir ever left me wanting more (in the nicest possible way)? Never. Um…Memoirs can have sequels, right? Please?

My main concern now is that I’m going to compare all future biographies and memoirs to this one and they will all be found lacking. But it was worth it. Even if you’re not a food-obsessed book geek like me, you should get your hands on this book. It’s definitely worth a read.

Click here to purchase Blood, Bones & Butter from The Book Depository (free worldwide shipping) or Amazon.

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