For those who delight in combing unusual ingredients and preparing delicious meals, a career as a chef can be a great option. This instructive resource offers readers a look at what it's really like to work as part of a team of chefs in a hectic restaurant kitchen, as a private chef in someone's home, and in many other places where chefs can be found. Readers will learn about culinary school, apprenticeships, and other training options. With sidebars on celebrity chefs and profiles of restaurant owners who have capitalized on unique concepts for restaurants, this book is entertaining as well as illuminating.

Daniel Boulud is a pioneer of our contemporary food culture-from the reinvention of French food to the fine dining revolution in America. A modern man with a classical foundation and a lifetime of experience, Boulud speaks with passion about the vocation of creating food. Part memoir, part advice book, part recipe book, this updated edition celebrating of the art of cooking will continue to delight and enlighten all chefs, from passionate amateurs to serious professionals.

"[A] renowned chef ... Barber explores the evolution of American food from the "first plate," or industrially-produced, meat-heavy dishes, to the "second plate" of grass-fed meat and organic greens, and says that both of these approaches are ultimately neither sustainable nor healthy. Instead, Barber proposes Americans should move to the "third plate," a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat"--Provided by publisher.

After twenty-five years of 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine', chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain has decided to tell all. From his first oyster in the Gironde to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny.

Building upon Timothy Ferriss's internationally successful "4-hour" franchise, The 4-Hour Chef transforms the way we cook, eat, and learn. Featuring recipes and cooking tricks from world-renowned chefs, and interspersed with the radically counterintuitive advice Ferriss's fans have come to expect, The 4-Hour Chef is a practical but unusual guide to mastering food and cooking, whether you are a seasoned pro or a blank-slate novice.

Exploring the essence of becoming a chef, this book reveals the elusive, unnameable elements of great cooking.

"What an extraordinary book! Pain, gain, joy, pathos, and the aroma of braised short ribs. It made me want to open (God forbid!) another restaurant. I never thought anyone could capture the magic and mission of being a chef, but theyve done it!" Barbara Tropp, Chef-Owner, China Moon Cafe "An unusually comprehensive book, immensely readable, at once passionate and coherent, probing and well-informed. For anyone interested in the historic coming of age of the professional American kitchen, this is a requisite buy." Michael and Ariane Batterberry, Founding Editors and Associate Publishers of Food Arts "Finally, a book that lets chefs speak for themselves! An insightful look at the complex life of a professional chef in the 90s. Fascinating portraits of the people who have defined American cuisinewho they are and how they got to be where they are today. Anyone who is interested in becoming a chef will find this book invaluablethis is what it takes to make it." Mark Miller, Chef-Owner, Coyote Cafe and Red Sage "After reading this book, I understand that becoming an outstanding leader is not very different from becoming a chef. Both roles require passion, discipline, authenticity, and an experimental attitude. On top of that, organizing a kitchen may be as difficult as organizing any business. Not only will present and future chefs and restaurateurs want to read this book, but anyone with a taste for excellent cooking and excellent leadership will find something of interest on every page." Warren Bennis, Distinguised Professor of Business Administration at the University of Southern California and Author, On Becoming a Leader and Leaders "Becoming a Chef is a marvelous book for the interested home cook as well as the aspiring chef. Like great wines with great food, there are great dishes and a great education here." Robert Mondavi, Founder, Robert Mondavi Winery