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Summary
Summary
With the wit and pace of Anthony Bourdain, Italian chef and anthropologist Leonardo Lucarelli sketches the exhilarating life behind the closed doors of restaurants, and the unlikely work ethics of the kitchen.
In Italy, five-star restaurants and celebrity chefs may seem, on the surface, a part of the landscape. In reality, the restaurant industry is as tough, cutthroat, and unforgiving as anywhere else in the world--sometimes even colluding with the shady world of organized crime. The powerful voice of Leonardo Lucarelli takes us through the underbelly of Italy's restaurant world. Lucarelli is a professional chef who for almost two decades has been roaming Italy opening restaurants, training underpaid, sometimes hopelessly incompetent sous-chefs, courting waitresses, working long hours, riding high on drugs, and cursing a culinary passion he inherited as a teenager from his hippie father. In his debut, Mincemeat: The Education of an Italian Chef , Lucarelli teaches us that even among rogues and misfits, there is a moral code in the kitchen that must, above all else, always be upheld.
Author Notes
Leonardo Lucarelli was born in India and has since resided in regions all across Italy, including Rome, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Veneta, Trentino, and Tuscany. He entered the culinary world while a college student, and after completing a degree in anthropology, he became a chef. He has worked in the kitchens of fifteen restaurants--some Michelin-starred, and seven of which he served as chef. Lucarelli currently lives in L'Aquila, where he consults for several restaurants in Rome.
Lorena Rossi Gori , who was born in Scotland and raised in Australia, came to Italy on a family holiday and never left. An avid traveler and opera fan, she works as a conference interpreter and translator.
Danielle Rossi was born in Melbourne, Australia, and lived and studied in Hobart, Florence, Lucca, and Milan before eventually resettling in Melbourne, where she teaches Italian and translating at Monash University. Danielle and Lorena come from a long line of hoteliers and restaurateurs and know a thing or two about demented knife-hurling chefs.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Italian chef and consultant Lucarelli has worked in kitchens ranging from holes in the wall to chic Michelin-starred eateries. Though he doesn't revisit all of them, he gives readers a glimpse at the day-to-day lives of those working the line under harsh conditions. It's a story that's been told, and told better, many times before. Lucarelli's tale includes lots of drugs, cops, lurid sex, busy nights, short fuses, and high stakes. He offers insight into what it really takes to not only become a chef but sustain a career, in addition to moments of solipsistic reflection. The urge to compare the book to Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential is inevitable, and under that scrutiny Lucarelli's work falls far short. His themes are similar to Bourdain's, but his book is a lesser version of the same story. Lucarelli, though a talented writer, doesn't have the same bravado and chutzpah. Those in the restaurant and hospitality industry will likely recognize themselves in some of the book's vignettes. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Not all chefs spring from the world's culinary academies. Some stumble into the profession through accident or good fortune and then discover that they have a talent not only for putting good food on customers' plates but also for succeeding in the daunting, chaotic world of the restaurant kitchen. Such has been the career of Lucarelli, who debuted in Rome as a waiter solely to garner a few euros. Or so he thought. He soon found himself in the kitchen and started cooking, learning fast from chefs who put up with his high jinks, his drug use, and his womanizing. He gained enough experience to sign on to cook in a restaurant that's in fact a boat anchored in the Tiber. Despite catastrophes as he learned to deal with impossible demands of both chefs and patrons, Lucarelli discovered he actually enjoyed the chef's life. Translated from the Italian, Lucarelli's culinary autobiography moves at breakneck speed, just like his kitchen.--Knoblauch, Mark Copyright 2016 Booklist