The Making of a Chef, Michael Ruhlman
The Making of a Chef, Michael Ruhlman
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The Making of a Chef
Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute

Author: Michael Ruhlman

Narrator: Jeff Riggenbach

Unabridged: 12 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/23/2011

Synopsis

In the winter of 1996, writer Michael Ruhlman donned a chef's jacket and entered the Culinary Institute of America, known as the Harvard of cooking schools, to learn the art of cooking. His vivid and eyeopening record of that experience, The Making of a Chef, takes us into the heart of this foodknowledge mecca. Here we meet a coterie of talented chefs, an astonishing and driven breed, and experience the pressure and perfectionism of their job. Ruhlman learns fundamental skills and information about the behavior of food that make cooking anything possible. He propels himself and his readers through a score of kitchens and classrooms, from Asian and American regional cuisines to lunch cookery, in search of the elusive, unnameable elements of great cooking. This book was nominated for a 1998 James Beard Foundation award in the Writing on Food category.

About Michael Ruhlman

Michael Ruhlman is the author of award-winning cookbooks and nonfiction narratives. He is the author of chef Thomas Keller’s seminal The French Laundry Cookbook as well as the highly successful series about the training of chefs: The Making of a Chef, The Soul of a Chef, and The Reach of a Chef. He is also the author of The Elements of Cooking and Ratio. Ruhlman has worked at The New York Times and as a food columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He has attended the Culinary Institute of America and is the author of eighteen books—about food and cooking, and also such wide ranging subjects as a pediatric heart surgeon and building wooden boats. Michael lives with his wife in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David on July 04, 2011

I am not a "foodie" and I'm a lousy cook, but I love cooking shows, the Food Channel, and interesting books about food and cooking. This is not an interesting book about food and cooking. Ruhlman is a writer who went to chef school (at the Culinary Institute of America, America's premiere cooking sch......more

Goodreads review by Julie on February 17, 2015

I remember how impressed I was by this book when it first came out. Rereading it so many years later, I am still impressed. You are pulled inside the Culinary Institute and also that mentality which separates the chefs from the cooks. And, most importantly, it is thoroughly enjoyable although conveyi......more

Goodreads review by Julie on April 13, 2021

Wonderful book about the education at the Culinary Institute of America. The author, Michael Ruhlman, enrolls as a student at the CIA and describes his experience while obtaining his associate degree. My favorite part of the novel was Michael's interviews with the instructors.......more

Goodreads review by Harlan on February 28, 2012

This is a mediocre book about a really great experience. Mr. Ruhlman's writing is inconsistent, and a little hero-worship-y. This said, it is a book about become good at something that he (and the other chefs and students in the book) clearly loves, and the enthusiasm shines through and makes for a......more

Goodreads review by Casey on August 30, 2012

The Making of a Chef is an interesting peek inside the Culinary Institute of America, which is the most important culinary school in the United States. Ruhlman is passionate about food, and writes about it well. Had I read this book in the 90's, I would have given it 4 stars. Many things in the world......more

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