Publishers Weekly
01/21/2019
Fitfully delectable is the best way to describe this brief French portrait of the artist as a young self-made chef from de Kerangal (The Heart). At age 10, impressionable Mauro becomes fascinated by the family’s Paris kitchen and begins baking cakes. By 13, he is feeding his friends so they won’t have to eat McDonald’s and frozen pizza. While attending university, he gets his first part-time job in a restaurant kitchen and eventually decides to forgo a master’s in economics in favor of a career in cooking. After apprenticing in several Paris restaurants, Mauro, at age 24, is inspired to open up his own restaurant, in partnership with his jack-of-all-trades father, Jacques. La Belle Saison becomes a success, but after four years, Mauro feels burned out. He sells the restaurant and goes to Asia in search of new gastronomic worlds to conquer and “tastes that give him back his capacity for surprise.” Ranging from Paris dining temples to Berlin kebab houses to a 10-diner-only, 10-course restaurant in Bangkok, the author takes readers on a brilliantly realized culinary tour of the world. Though its emotionally distant narrative style and tendency to tell rather than show may turn off some readers, this is a rich novel, particularly for armchair travelers. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"A slim, bountiful, beautifully written (and gorgeously translated) 'Portrait of the Chef as a Young Man.'" —Nancy Klinke, The New York Times Book Review
"Brief but superb . . . An antidote to the bravado of kitchen confidentials and to the rise of celebrity chefs, the book is restrained, private, and careful." —The New Yorker
"This short book, beautifully translated by Sam Taylor, reads like a prose poem . . . de Kerangal’s food writing is incantatory; the accumulation of minutiae hypnotic . . . I was left hungry for more." —Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal
"Narrated with almost documentary-like precision . . . this portrait of self-taught chef Mauro is not just a beautifully delineated character study or inside look at a hard way to make a living but a perceptive meditation on the meaning of work itself . . . All this in just over 100 pages and done brilliantly. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Inventive, delicate, unpretentious . . . As the artist emerges, The Cook intrigues, entices, and ultimately satisfies." —Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture
"Kerangal's concise tale is as engaging for the relatable ordinariness of its characters and events as for its tracking of a chef's professional development. The sparse prose increases the impact of carefully chosen details, and the translation retains the power of the compact novel's original French. Kerangal proves that the best reads can come in small packages." —Stacey Hayman, Booklist
"[The Cook] encompasses more emotional and sensory detail [than The Heart]; it's slim but potent . . . an admirable literary lagniappe." —Kirkus
"Fitfully delectable. . .[de Kerangal] takes readers on a brilliantly realized culinary tour of the world. . .[A] rich novel, particularly for armchair travelers."—Publishers Weekly
AUGUST 2019 - AudioFile
This novel, narrated by Carly Robins, focuses on an accomplished self-taught French chef named Mauro and his early career in Paris and abroad. The story is told by a female friend of Mauro, but Robins’s voice sounds too youthful to have been Mauro’s friend over 15 years of professional challenges. Nonetheless, her perky conversational pace evokes the ambiance of sitting at a sidewalk café. She delivers the vivid prose at a natural pace that allows the listener to enjoy the beautiful phrases of this translation from French. Robins’s delivery of the unnamed narrator’s quiet joy in Mauro’s accomplishments is a calming counterbalance to the chef’s intensity. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
