The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous...

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School | Kathleen Flinn | My Book Club loved this book!!

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The Sharper Your K...

	The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School Kathleen Flinn Viking Adult, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 28 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A delightful true story of food, Paris, and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream

In 2003, Kathleen Flinn, a thirty-six-year-old American living and working in London, returned from vacation to find that her corporate job had been eliminated. Ignoring her mother?s advice that she get another job immediately or ?never get hired anywhere ever again,? Flinn instead cleared out her savings and moved to Paris to pursue a dream?a diploma from the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry is the touching and remarkably funny account of Flinn?s transformation as she moves through the school?s intense program and falls deeply in love along the way. Flinn interweaves more than two dozen recipes with a unique look inside Le Cordon Bleu amid battles with demanding chefs, competitive classmates, and her ?wretchedly inadequate? French. Flinn offers a vibrant portrait of Paris, one in which the sights and sounds of the city?s street markets and purveyors come alive in rich detail. The ultimate wish fulfillment book, her story is a true testament to pursuing a dream. Fans of Julie & Julia, Almost French, and Eat, Pray, Love will be amused, inspired, and richly rewarded by this seductive tale of romance, Paris, and French food.

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Trials and triumphs in the world's most famous cooking school

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry is a riveting memoir of one woman's journey through the hallowed kitchens of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Fresh from a corporate layoff in her London office, Kathleen Flinn chases her childhood dream to attend Le Cordon Bleu, encouraged by then-boyfriend Mike. Kathleen's love for cooking came as a result of necessity: after her father's early death from cancer when Kathleen was a teenager, she took over cooking for her family, eventually exploring the works of Julia Child and other cuisines. As an adult, her job in journalism allowed her to dabble in food writing and to indulge her love of restaurants, cooking, and food around the globe (including a brush with food poisoning from undercooked pig kidneys in China).

Kathleen's witty observations of Cordon Bleu demonstrations and classes are culled from 600 pages of personal notes, 120 hours of audio recordings, and selections from the 300-plus recipes in the Cordon Bleu curriculum, so readers are instantly immersed into the grueling world of elite chefdom, including less appetizing ventures such as gutting fish, removing tendons and glands from chickens and guinea fowl, beheading rabbits, and chopping live lobsters in half (this book is definitely NOT for the squeamish). However, such visions are tempered by sweeter notes, including puff pastry and delicate sauces described in detail.

Kathleen describes her new friends and classmates in detail, along with her continuing explorations of Paris and her struggles to improve her rusty French. One of the book's most touching moments involves a visit from her sister, who had planned on studying at the Sorbonne but gave up her place (and her dreams of studying in France) when their father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Small moments of everyday Parisian life provide a pleasant counterpart to break up the monotony of daily classes. Other domestic affairs include Kathleen's marriage to Mike, a visit from annoying houseguests, and several medical emergencies.

The Sharper Your Knife includes many of the recipes alluded to in the text, and the back of the book thoughtfully includes a recipe index for faster retrieval. Traditional selections include Beef Braised in Red Wine, Chicken Cordon Bleu (which has no affiliation with the school), Rabbit or Chicken with Mustard Sauce, Chocolate Souffle, and Duck With Orange Sauce. Some of the author's personal favorites include Minestrone Soup, Gumbo from Paris, and Banana and Nutella Crepes.

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My Book Club loved this book!!

My book club recently read this book and we unanimously voted it a five star. It's such a good read and the author writes a touching story - sometimes funny and sometimes a little sad but always moving.

We have 17 members in our club and many have purchased the book as gifts for others after we read it.

I am an avid reader and this book kept me enthralled. I was up reading it until 2:00 am once.

I would recommend it to others. You will not be disappointed.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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