Give a Girl a Knife: A Memoir

ISBN: 0307954919

Author: Thielen, Amy

Condition: New

A beautifully written food memoir chronicling one womans journey from her rural Midwestern hometown to the intoxicating world of New York City fine dining-and back again-in search of her culinary rootsBefore Amy Thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in some of New York Citys finest kitchens-for chefs David Bouley, Daniel Boulud, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten-she grew up in a northern Minnesota town home to the nations largest French fry factory, the headwaters of the fast food nation, with a mother whose generous cooking dripped with tenderness, drama, and an overabundance of butter.Inspired by her grandmothers tales of cooking in the family farmhouse, Thielen moves north with her artist husband to a rustic, off-the-grid cabin deep in the woods. There, standing at the stove three times a day, she finds the seed of a growing food obsession that leads her to the sensory madhouse of New Yorks top haute cuisine brigades. But, like a magnet, the foods of her youth draw her back home, where she comes face to face with her past and a curious truth: that beneath every foie gras sauce lies a rural foundation of potatoes and onions.Amy Thielens coming-of-age story pulses with energy, a cooks eye for intimate detail, and a dose of dry Midwestern humor. Give a Girl a Knife offers a fresh, vivid view into New Yorks high-end restaurants before returning Thielen to her roots, where she realizes that the marrow running through her bones is not demi-glace but gravy-thick with nostalgia and hard to resist.