Books by Cooks...er, Chefs

There are certain things one’s obsessed about being good at while growing up. Things like being able to fly a plane, dive cleanly, jump a motorbike and so on. Two things I was (and am still) obsessed about was being able to drive trucks and being a good shot. Though I haven’t been able to indulge in these obsessions I am still optimistic I will be able to do them someday. But of late another obsession has taken hold of me, that of being able to cook.

I had even made it a new year’s resolution to learn to cook though I am not much of a foodie. But unfortunately I have not been able to progress beyond learning to light up the gas stove in the kitchen. However, I am reading up on cooking related themes especially books written by cooks, er..chefs who tell about how they ended up being chefs.

Last week I had picked up Michael Ruhlman’s ‘The Soul of a Chef’, a hardcover, second hand but almost brand-new book at a second hand store for just a hundred and twenty rupees. On flipping through it and reading about it on the net I learnt it is a sort of sequel to his first book, ‘The Making of a Chef’ which sounds more like what I should be reading before trying to learn to cook. I have to be on the look out for ‘The Making of a Chef.’

Years ago, I had picked up two books by another celebrity chef whose writing style I have come to enjoy a lot- Anthony Bourdain. I have both his books (he’s written three, the third one is a novel, Gone Bamboo) on his adventures all over the world. ‘A Cook’s Tour’ was the first book I found and also read a long back. I was hooked to his style since then. For some reason I had cut and kept Binoo John’s review of Bourdain’s most popular book, 'Kitchen Confidential’ in my file for a long time. Sometime last year I found the book, needless to say, at a second hand store in Nampally. I haven’t read it but plan to read it at the same time as ‘The Soul of a Chef.’

When I’ve finally learnt to cook, maybe I too would write a book about it!