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

by Flinn, Kathleen

• ISBN13: 9780670018222
• ISBN10: 0670018228
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-04
• Publisher: Viking Adult

Summary

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 Cryis 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, Lovewill be amused, inspired, and richly rewarded by this seductive tale of romance, Paris, and French food.

Author Biography

Kathleen Flinn has been a writer and journalist for nearly twenty years. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and many other publications.

Table of Contents

Author's Note	p. xiii
Prologue: This Is Not for Pretend	p. 1
Basic Cuisine	p. 5
Life Is Not a Dress Rehearsal	p. 7
Lost in Translation	p. 17
Culinary Boot Camp	p. 25
Taking Stock	p. 35
Memoirs of a Quiche	p. 46
La Vie en Rose	p. 56
No Bones About It	p. 66
Splitting Hares	p. 74
The Souffle Also Rises	p. 83
As the Vegetables Turn	p. 92
Final Exam-Basic	p. 103
Intermediate Cuisine	p. 113
Class Break: Spain	p. 115
C'est la Vie, C'est la Guerre	p. 118
A Week in Provence	p. 128
Rites of Passage	p. 134
The Silence of the Lamb	p. 143
"I Am a Pizza for Kathleen"	p. 150
A Sauce Thicker Than Blood	p. 158
La Catastrophe Americaine	p. 164
Bon Travail	p. 171
Final exam-Intermediate	p. 177
Superior Cuisine	p. 183
Class Break: Normandy, then America	p. 185
Back in Bleu	p. 189
Great Expectations	p. 202
Gods, Monsters, and Slaves	p. 211
La Danse	p. 220
Bye-bye, Lobster	p. 231
I Didn't Always Hate My Job	p. 243
An American Hospital in Paris	p. 249
Final Exam-Superior	p. 259
Epilogue: Thanksgiving in Paris	p. 271
Extra Recipes	p. 275
Acknowledgments	p. 279
Selected Bibliography	p. 281
Index of Recipes	p. 283
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.