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Girl Cook

plax

By plax
in Food Media & Arts

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plax

plax

Posted
Posted

I read an excerpt from a new novel called Girl Cook at the Random House website and thought it was something that Egulleteers might be interested in. She has some scathing things to say about Le Cordon Bleu in Paris -- that most of those in the fictional heroine's class were rich South American girls learning to cook for their husbands. Any relation to reality?

Here's the link:

Excerpt from Girl Cook by Hannah McCouch

Author of the Mahu series of mystery novels set in Hawaii.

herbacidal

herbacidal

Posted
Posted
hmmm...sounds like another Bourdain-ette wannabe.

i suppose that's true.

but bourdain drew the new angle.

anybody else who does anything that doesn't say all is well, happy happy joy joy is bound to be compared to him.

which is fine, since he was first he's the barometer.

now people gotta come up with tangents off that new angle,

female POV, etc.

Herb aka "herbacidal"

Tom is not my friend.

runninwithscissors

runninwithscissors

Posted
Posted

Bourdain-ette or not---any female culinary graduate could have written that. Change the city, and that could be right outta my diary. I knew it going in, and I knew it coming out, but still doesn't make the reality any more palatable when it happens to you.

"Oh, you don't really wanna be in all that heat..."

---Okay, then why did you put me next to this 650 degree wood-burning oven to dish out ice cream?????

"But you're really talented plating the salads..."

---Bite me.

"Well, Manuel has three kids to support, and really needs the job..."

---And my two kids don't count???

Not meaning to sound bitter---I'm not. Just predictably annoyed... *L*

In everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures. -- Cicero

KelMH

KelMH

Posted
Posted (edited)

It definately looks like the author read Kitchen Confidential and decided to emulate it...I don't know if Girl Cook is a compliment or an insult.

Edited by KelMH (log)

Kelli

runninwithscissors

runninwithscissors

Posted
Posted
It definately looks like the author read Kitchen Confidential and decided to emulate it...I don't know if Girl Cook is a complement or an insult.

Think I have to agree with you....but sooooo many kitchen stories are the same. Tony, are your ears ringing? Any thoughts?

In everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures. -- Cicero

MatthewB

MatthewB

Posted
Posted

Girl Cook & Kitchen Confidental were compared side-by-side in the new Elle (American edition).

I just glanced at it briefly & didn't buy it as I didn't notice anything by Fat Guy.

Anyway have this? Fill us in?

malachi

malachi

Posted
Posted

I read the Galley version.

I can't really recommend it.

Less "Bourdain" than it is "Sex in the City goes Slumming."

fanatic...

Bux

Bux

Posted
Posted

A separate discussion about the appropriateness of amateur cooks studying in professional culinary acadamies has been moved to it's own thread.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

JasonCampbell

JasonCampbell

Posted
Posted
It definately looks like the author read Kitchen Confidential and decided to emulate it...I don't know if Girl Cook is a complement or an insult.

Think I have to agree with you....but sooooo many kitchen stories are the same. Tony, are your ears ringing? Any thoughts?

I'd have to agree with that, Kitchen Confidential just confirmed what any catering worker already knew. I don't think there's space for a Kitchen Confidential Part 2. At the same time the excerpt reads well enough to me, maybe this type of thing will become the new 'pulp fiction'?

  • 2 weeks later...
herbacidal

herbacidal

Posted
Posted
It definately looks like the author read Kitchen Confidential and decided to emulate it...I don't know if Girl Cook is a complement or an insult.

Think I have to agree with you....but sooooo many kitchen stories are the same. Tony, are your ears ringing? Any thoughts?

I'd have to agree with that, Kitchen Confidential just confirmed what any catering worker already knew. I don't think there's space for a Kitchen Confidential Part 2. At the same time the excerpt reads well enough to me, maybe this type of thing will become the new 'pulp fiction'?

i most definitely think of it as pulp fiction, beach reading, etc.

i read it last night, polished it off at the barnes and noble in about hour and half.

pretty good actually, i like it, b/c it has more of the younger, fighting their way up angle.

as far as revealing about the industry, sure, a little. nothing ground breaking.

Herb aka "herbacidal"

Tom is not my friend.

  • 3 weeks later...
abbeynormal

abbeynormal

Posted
Posted (edited)

The author was interviewed yesterday on WNYC, if anyone would care to listen. From hearing the author I agree that this is not a knock off of KC, but some may find it interesting. Remember kids, this is a novel (roman à clef?) not a memoir.

Edited by abbeynormal (log)
  • 10 months later...
Shannon_Elise

Shannon_Elise

Posted
Posted

Saw this at Barnes and Noble the other day and was wondering if anyone here had actually read it. Looks like pure fluff, but in the summer (in between reading an anthropology and comparative religion textbook) I am not really in the mood for Tolstoy. However, if it just plain sucks I don't want to make a complete waste of time. Thanks,

Shannon

my new blog: http://uninvitedleftovers.blogspot.com

"...but I'm good at being uncomfortable, so I can't stop changing all the time...be kind to me, or treat me mean...I'll make the most of it I'm an extraordinary machine."

-Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine

adoxograph

adoxograph

Posted
Posted

Make of this what you will, I recieved it as a gift, read it, returned it, and bought something else. Something good.

Caveat being I am not a fan of the "chick lit" variety of writing to begin with, and this seemed to be firmly entrenched in that genre.

--adoxograph

jeniac42

jeniac42

Posted
Posted

I read it. It ended up being less about kitchen stuff and more about chick-lit topics. It only took me a few hours to finish so it's not like it wasted too much of my time, and I checked it out of the library so it was free. I wouldn't buy it.

Jennie

mags

mags

Posted
Posted

Nono, I HIGHLY recommend the strategy of reading the book at Barnes & Noble, and then putting it back on the shelf. Don't forget to dog-ear some of the pages and scribble notes in the margins. And while you're at it, why not page through some of their cooking magazines -- hell, maybe rip out a few appealing recipes? :smile:

Have I mentioned that I own an independent bookstore?

Exotic Mushroom

Exotic Mushroom

Posted
Posted

I picked it up in the airport on my way to Aspen Food & Wine last weekend. I saw it and thought, "Hey, I'm a girl cook, why not give it a try?". I was sorely dissapointed. The book was simply not well written. The "protagonist" is whiny, the "plot" is meandering, kind of pointless, and has a terrible happy deus ex machina ending, and she can't do dialogue at all. I wouldn't even say its worth reading without paying for.

Pan

Pan

Posted
Posted
I wouldn't even say its worth reading without paying for.

Yeah, but tell us what you really thought. :shock::laugh::raz:

Michael aka "Pan"

 

tanabutler

tanabutler

Posted
Posted

The book may be merde, especially since it's been resurrected from its crypt a year later.

But just because someone who can't write well sets her book in a restaurant kitchen with profanity oozing off the walls, doesn't mean she's a Bourdain copycat.

I doubt we will ever know what inspired her.

"I know! I'll do Bourdain, but with tits!"

"Fuck those guys! I'm short and I've got tits, but I can, too, cook!"

"I'm short and I've got tits, but I can, too, cook! And if they think they can fuck me in the walk-in, and boost all my coke, they're dead! No, wait. I'll write a book. Then they're really dead!"

Or sadly, it might have been, "I know! I've got tits and I can cook! And if I write a hot book, Bourdain'll fuck ME!"

Her mileage may vary.

Shannon_Elise

Shannon_Elise

Posted
Posted

As I suspected, thanks for saving the money and the time as I am not generally a fan of chick-lit either. Mags, I will have to do what you suggested next time I visit B&N:)

Shannon

my new blog: http://uninvitedleftovers.blogspot.com

"...but I'm good at being uncomfortable, so I can't stop changing all the time...be kind to me, or treat me mean...I'll make the most of it I'm an extraordinary machine."

-Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine

Pickles

Pickles

Posted
Posted
I picked it up in the airport on my way to Aspen Food & Wine last weekend. I saw it and thought, "Hey, I'm a girl cook, why not give it a try?". I was sorely dissapointed. The book was simply not well written. The "protagonist" is whiny, the "plot" is meandering, kind of pointless, and has a terrible happy deus ex machina ending, and she can't do dialogue at all. I wouldn't even say its worth reading without paying for.

I agree with this post. Also, you can't compare it to Kitchen Confidential. One is pure fiction, and the other is pure partial fiction. :cool:

mags

mags

Posted
Posted (edited)
The book may be merde, especially since it's been resurrected from its crypt a year later.

Actually, it was never entombed. The hardcover came out last spring, and it typically takes a year, after the hardcover release, for books to come out in paperback.

And for what it's worth, it's only medium-merde. I read it in hardcover, and it was fairly inoffensive standard chick-lit. Bugged me less than Bridget Jones but essentially instant landfill.

Edited by mags (log)
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