Blood, Bones & Butter

The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

By: Gabrielle Hamilton

Narrated by: Gabrielle Hamilton

Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller.

A New York Times Notable Book.

Named one of the best books of the year by The Miami Herald, Newsday, The Huffington Post, Financial Times, GQ, Slate, Men’s Journal, Washington Examiner, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, National Post, The Toronto Star, BookPage, and Bookreporter.

"I wanted the lettuce and eggs at room temperature...the butter-and-sugar sandwiches we ate after school for snack...the marrow bones my mother made us eat as kids that I grew to crave as an adult...There would be no "conceptual" or "intellectual" food, just the salty, sweet, starchy, brothy, crispy things that one craves when one is actually hungry. In ecstatic farewell to my years of corporate catering, we would never serve anything but a martini in a martini glass. Preferably gin".

Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent 20 fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than 100 friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became as necessary to her as her own skin.

Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: The rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; the soulless catering factories that helped pay the rent; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family - the result of a difficult and prickly marriage that nonetheless yields rich and lasting dividends.

Blood, Bones & Butter is an unflinching and lyrical work. Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion. By turns epic and intimate, it marks the debut of a tremendous literary talent.

©2011 Gabrielle Hamilton (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Magnificent. Simply the best memoir by a chef ever. Ever. Gabrielle Hamilton packs more heart, soul, and pure power into one beautifully crafted page than I’ve accomplished in my entire writing career. Blood, Bones & Butter is the work of an uncompromising chef and a prodigiously talented writer. I am choked with envy.” (Anthony Bourdain)

“Gabrielle Hamilton has changed the potential and raised the bar for all books about eating and cooking. Her nearly rabid love for all real food experience and her completely vulnerable, unprotected yet pure point of view unveils itself in both truth and inspiration. I will read this book to my children and then burn all the books I have written for pretending to be anything even close to this. After that I will apply for the dishwasher job at Prune to learn from my new queen.” (Mario Batali)

“I have long considered Gabrielle Hamilton a writer in cook’s clothing, and this deliciously complex and intriguing memoir proves the point. Her candor, courage, and craft make for a wonderful read but, even more, for an appreciation of her talent and dedication, which have resulted from her often trying but inspiring experiences. Her writing is every bit as delectable and satisfying as her food.” (Mimi Sheraton, food critic and author of The German Cookbook and Eating My Words)

Loved the subject

The author’s story compelled me to listen, despite the annoying delivery. Totally admiring her dysfunctional upbringing and an amazing family of characters, I embraced her love of cooking. The details of her escapades in the kitchen are my primary reasons for four stars. But a life lived such as hers merits whatever she cares to do! So, bravo Gabrielle

Confusing and unsatisfying

First, I appreciate that the author narrated her own memoir. Although she does it in a flat monotone for the most part, I still prefer that for a personal story.
But it is the strangest memoir I ever read. Very well-written, and starts off promising with lovely detail of the author’s childhood in rural PA. Then it briefly touches on her youthful period of overseas travel, and the French creperie she briefly worked in. I would have liked to have heard a lot more about that time period.
But it then jumps around with long uninteresting stories. Often she begins a story and you have no idea what the outcome might be— but it’s still a boring story, like how she finally gets a sandwich after not eating for over 12 hours as a nursing mother. Making everyone around her suffer due to her lack of self-care. Which she in no way acknowledges, just keeps blaming her fake green-card husband for not being there for her.
In fact, half the book is about this terrible marriage and the two apparently wonderful kids she got out of it, and it’s not well written or interesting at all because she shows no self-reflection and introspection on her choices. Including treating her girlfriends badly, cheating on them, etc.
But she’s apparently writing this memoir over 10 years later than the end of it— looking back on her depressing marriage? We don’t ever know. If it’s been over 10 years since the latest events of the memoir, why doesn’t she have more wisdom about it?
Thrown into the mix are various random vignettes. One which I found very interesting was the time she was invited to the CIA to be part of a panel to inspire young women chefs. She had her assumptions changed about the students; but instead of answering their questions with the very good insights she shares with the reader, she just sulks silently and criticizes the responses of her colleagues. Why? It’s a shame because those students could have used her thoughts at the time. She does describe how exhausted she was from being the chef-owner of her restaurant and having two babies she was basically single-parenting at the time!
I was interested in this author after hearing her on a panel with buddies Eric Ripert and Tony Bourdain, and I think she has amazing experiences and insights as a woman chef-owner.
I just wanted to hear more of her interesting life, and less of her complaints about the man she fake-married not being really compatible with her.

Wonderful story, and you really warm up to Gabrielle as a narrator!

I was immediately enthralled with the story, but at first thought the narration was a bit monotone. Gave it about 20 min and I was hooked. Funny enough, Gabrielle describes a scene at grad school where her classmates read poetry in such a forced way that it makes her cringe. How she wishes they could just read and let’s the word speak for themselves. Well that’s how I felt with this book and with her narration. The story does the trick. Like Kitchen Confidential, but way more personal and relatable.

Excellent!!

Gabrielle’s voice is perfect for telling her story, like sitting talking with a close friend. Clearly the degree in writing was a great choice……..she inspires me to spend more time thinking about the sweet times with my children (now wonderful adults) we’re much younger, stop and smell the roses and be a much more creative, courageous cook!

A sensory feast

As one reviewer on Amazon said, this is one of those books that must be savored in one sitting. Bourdain was most definitely not paying mere lip service when he claimed to be "choked with envy". The story is like one luxurious feast prepared by a chef who does not mince words, and who may strike some (even the new fan that I am) as rather grating at times. But the book would have been better served by a professional reader (w/ the author reading the foreword or a brief intro to the book), although the narration did improve in the second part of the book.

Gets to the meat of things.

Well-written, sharp, wry, sarcastic, genuine, at times heartbreaking, and full of a lifer's experience as a restaraunteur. Gabrielle Hamilton is not to be missed - nor messed with. From the quickly described recipes to climbing the oleander for Mama, Gabrielle poingantly describes her life's journey as a daughter, mother, sister, chef, writer and woman - she'll have you laughing right along with her.

Ingesting 'Blood, Bones and Butter'

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton, is not the typical chef, restaurant or food book. With Hamilton, food is always a metaphor for relationships (usually screwed up).

If you are like me, you probably started with Kitchen Confidential, maybe moved on to Heat, took a detour with Waiter Rant, and now too often find yourself absorbed in food porn on the Food Network.

I'll most likely never eat at Hamilton's NYC restaurant, Prune (her childhood nickname from a now estranged mother). Prune's food sounds delicious, the anti-foodie culture refreshing, but I doubt I'm hip enough or knowledgeable enough about food to appreciate her cooking.

Reading Blood, Bones & Butter is as close as I'll get to Hamilton's cooking, and the sensual experience that I imagine Prune provides. This is a book about how a person with deep relationship issues, issues with roots is a dysfunctional and then broken family, can simultaneously succeed gloriously (in both cooking/restauranteering and writing), and fail spectacularly (at creating a marriage). Hamilton is ballsy enough to provide us something of an unvarnished glimpse into the most brutal and ugly aspects of dining out (particularly catering food), and marriage.

Blood, Bones & Butter will be polarizing. Some readers will love it (I did), some will find Hamilton so unappealing as a personality that the book will leave a bad aftertaste. Some people will feel both at once. Whatever the verdict, I think everyone will agree that Hamilton can flat-out write.

Absolutely gorgeous...

I have been too often disappointed by a poorly-read memoir, but I heartily disagree with those who said this author shouldn't have narrated this book. I don't think anyone could have read it with more truth and with the same honest edge and unpretentious approach that she brings to her kitchen, her table, her book. I enjoyed taking this journey with her, in her words, in her voice. I too am "choked with envy".

Brilliance in the kitchen and in the writing

Loved watching Gabrielle on Mind of a Chef and knew this would be great to listen to. Perfect trio of her story, her writing and reading. Highly recommend.

simply wonderful

I loved her story, this is after all her story. Her unapologetic honesty & courage is incredibly refreshing. Not to mention it is filled with tasty bits for your brain and ears. bellissimo!