Blood, Bones & Butter

The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

De: Gabrielle Hamilton

Narrado por: Gabrielle Hamilton

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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)

This is a book about someone who happens to cook

Unlike most autobiographies or books written by the chef author, this book is more an autobiography and less of a kitchen centric tale like you would find with other books of the genre. If most books are 70/30 kitchen/cooking discussion vs life, this is the opposite.

why did it end?!?

Wonderfully written and expertly preformed. I wish there had been about 10 more chapters! This is an unapologetic look at one's life through the stages we have all encountered. Fiction could not have been more interesting! bone-isimo!

Read it. It’s like nothing else I have read.

This book was recommended to me by a chef friend. I do cook but had never read any books by chefs, but I loved this book and was literally sad when it was finished. I immediately looked for another book by Gabrielle Hamilton on audio, but did not find. I’ll look for a paper version of anything she’s written. I’m hooked; both on the genre and on her. She’s an amazing writer with fearless instincts, and I loved her narrating.

Beautiful: Blood, Bones and Butter

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton is a triumph. Unsatisfactory? Clearly, that person wasn’t listening. Her story resonates with thousands of women coming up in the restaurant industry. She is an amazing person.

Great dive into the mind if a truly talented chef

Love the way she write and is able to describe her life through food and toil.

Un relato cautivador desde el inicio al fin

Una historia cautivadora, honesta, verdadera. El relato sin pretensiones y enjundioso al mismo tiempo lo transforman en una delicia. Bravo Gabrielle Hamilton por atreverte a la literatura y de esta forma. Sin ninguna duda una artista extraordinaria. Espero el próximo 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

My New Audible Favourite

I was gripped by this audio book. Gabrielle has lived a fascinating life and so we are fortunate she can write so beautifully and share her colourful stories so vividly. I am in the camp that was delighted she was the reader. It was interesting how she juxtaposed different events in her life in a non-chronological manner > it kept the surprises coming. Her tone helped round out the words and give an even clearer picture of the woman she is. The book feels, at time, cathartic, and there is no denying that at sometimes I squirmed and other times I wished for nothing more than both she and her husband behave a little differently in the hope they could work things out and have a happy-ever-after-ending. Can you imagine > Hamilton suddenly morphing into romantic fantasy. Hah! Well, no, of course not. I am not sure she ever expected to be liked by her readers, but by the end of the book I wished she was a kick-arse friend of mine.

Entirely encompassing

Wow!!! I didn't mind walking the dog and doing yard work because I needed to continue listening. I am not entirely sure what drew me in, but....

I love that she thrived and is successful despite (or could it even be because of) what she went through.

I am a bit frustrated about not knowing the significance of the name Prune. I want to eat there.

Yummy!

Gabrielle Hamilton's love of food is evident in her story. Her descriptions of cooking and of food in general were my favorite parts of the book. It made me want to go to Italy and cook eggplant in an Itallian villa by the sea...Her prose is descriptive and imaginative. I enjoyed the fact that she is the narrator. I recommend this book to other 'foodies'.

Way too egocentric for my taste

Is there anything you would change about this book?

If you love good writing, you will love this memoir. Hamilton can make a sentence sound as good as the meals she prepares. You will also love this book if you can bear her sense of self-righteousness about how food is prepared, about how people should behave at a farmer’s market, and if you think it is okay to hate another person because of the way they choose their coffee (double espresso, half decaf latte). I came to abhor her self-centeredness, especially at the very end when she holds her family hostage while she has a blood sugar attack but refuses to eat at an ordinary restaurant. Really? A chef who can’t remember to bring a little food with her when travelling with 2 toddlers to avoid a circumstance just like this?

In the first half of the book, Hamilton is generous with her stories and her love of what is important to her; enough to make me want to try some foods I wouldn’t normally consider or adventures that are far riskier than I am used to. I admired the way she envisioned her restaurant and made it happen. (Of course, calling herself a “reluctant” chef feels like a marketing ploy as she seems anything but.) However, once she is married, she can’t seem to get enough of putting down her husband and even having the poor grace to complain about a month in Italy every year. Maybe it’s because I listened to the audio book - which she narrates herself - that I come away with a sense of her total self-absorption disguised as wanting to feed her guests and love her children. I finished this book only so that I could close this chapter of my reading life.