Recorded Books Inc. - Dont Try This At Home: Culinary Catastrophes From The Worlds Greatest Chefs

"Take a handful of culinary masters, toss in stories of utter humiliation or heartache, and you wind up with a spicy little essay collection... Lots of fun for foodies both ardent and casual."

Kirkus Reviews

"A reminder thatin real life as in the kitchenguts are as important as genius."

People ****

"A dishy collection of stories... lively additions to the KitchenConfidential genre."

Julie Powell, Food & Wine

"Surely, you think, real chefs aren't bedeviled by these problems. Think again. You can't even imagine the hidden kitchen terrors recounted by professionals in Don't Try This At Home"

Washington Post Book World

"Happily reminds us that even big shots have off days."

Publishers Weekly

"A sometimes comical and always unique glimpse behind the scenes of restaurant kitchens [and] a fantastic collection of personal stories that depict these great chefs as real people."

Library Journal

"As in every other profession, chefs love their war stories. Finally someone had the good sense to collect some of the best."

Los Angeles Times

"Witherspoon and Friedman have gathered memorable stories from some of the best chefs in the world, and it's just plain satisfying to read about their flubs."

New York Sun

"You'll love Don't Try This at Home... It's proof that celeb chefs climb into their checked trousers one leg at a time just like the rest of us."

Oregonian

"For those considering a life in the kitchen, these are cautionary tales, since they suggest that a career in a place replete with sharp tools, open flames and stressed-out lunatics may be fraught with peril. But for true foodies, these comic tales are a delight."

Winston Salem-Journal

"An inspiration for anyone who has been discouraged or shy to return to the kitchen after burning a soup or adding sugar instead of salt to a recipe."

San Antonio Express-News

"What a wonderful idea for a bedside table book... these comic tales are a delight."

Virginian-Pilot

"There's often humor in disaster, especially at the hands and in the kitchens of some of the world's top chefs... You'll smile and remember your own kitchen disasters."

Kansas City Star

Kimberly Witherspoon is a founding partner of Inkwell Management, a literary agency based in Manhattan. She is also the coeditor of the collection How I Learned to Cook and is very proud to represent seven of the chefs in this anthology: Anthony Bourdain, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Gabrielle Hamilton, Fergus Henderson, Pino Luongo, Marcus Samuelsson, and Norman Van Aken. She and her family live in North Salem, New York.

Andrew Friedman has coauthored more than fifteen cookbooks with some of the most successful chefs in the country, including Pino Luongo, Alfred Portale, Jimmy Bradley, and former White House chef Walter Scheib. He is also the coauthor of Breaking Back, the autobiography of American tennis star James Blake. He lives in New York City with his family.

DON'T TRY

THIS AT HOME

Culinary Catastrophes from

the World's Greatest Chefs

Edited by Kimberly Witherspoon

and Andrew Friedman

BLOOMSBURY

To Summer and Paul

K.W.

As always, to Caitlin, and for the first time,

to Declan and Taylor, two great kids

A.F.

Copyright 2005 by Inkwell Management

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers

All papers used by Bloomsbury USA are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

Don't try this at home : culinary catastrophes from the world's greatest chefs / edited by Kimberly Witherspoon and Andrew Friedman.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-1-59691-940-2

1. CooksAnecdotes. 2. CookeryAnecdotes. I. Witherspoon, Kimberly. II. Friedman, Andrew, 1967

TX649.A1D66 2005

641.5dc22

2005017992

Excerpt from "Brick House": Words and music by Lionel Richie, Ronald LaPread, Walter Orange, Milan Williams, Thomas McClary, and William King. 1977 Jobete Music Co., Inc., Libren Music, Cambrae Music, Walter Orange Music, Old Fashion Publishing, Macawrite Music, and Hanna Music. All rights controlled and administered by EMI April Music Inc. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission.

First published in the United States by Bloomsbury in 2005

This paperback edition published in 2007

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh

Printed in the United States of America by Quebecor World Fairfield

CONTENTS

FERRN ADRI
Horror in Gerona

JOS ANDRS
All by Myself

DAN BARBER
Meet David Bouley

MARIO BATALI
The Last Straw

MICHELLE BERNSTEIN
Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

HESTON BLUMENTHAL
Lean Times at the Fat Duck

DANIEL BOULUD
On the Road Again

ANTHONY BOURDAIN
New Year's Meltdown

JIMMY BRADLEY
Ship of Fools

SCOTT BRYAN
If You Can't Stand the Heat

DAVID BURKE
White Lie

SAMUEL CLARK
A Simple Request

TOM COLICCHIO
The Traveling Chef

SCOTT CONANT
This Whole Place Is Slithering

TAMASIN DAY-LEWIS
Euphoria

TOM DOUGLAS
Hope for Snow

WYLIE DUFRESNE
Beastmaster

JONATHAN EISMANN
The Curious Case of Tommy Flynn

CLAUDIA FLEMING
The Blob

GABRIELLE HAMILTON
The Blind Line Cook

FERGUS HENDERSON
Genus Loci

PAUL KAHAN
(Not) Ready for My Close-Up

HUBERT KELLER
Just Add Water

GIORGIO LOCATELLI
An Italian in Paris

MICHAEL LOMONACO
A Night at the Opera

PINO LUONGO
A User's Guide to Opening a Hamptons Restaurant

MARY SUE MILLIKEN SUSAN FENIGER & SUSAN FENIGER
Our Big Brake

SARA MOULTON A
Chef in the Family

TAMARA MURPHY
For the Birds

CINDY PAWLCYN
Chef's Table

NEIL PERRY
Our First Friday

MICHEL RICHARD
Alibi

ERIC RIPERT
You Really Ought to Think About Becoming a Waiter

ALAIN SAILHAC
You're in the Army Now

MARCUS SAMUELSSON
The Big Chill

BILL TELEPAN
Neverland

LAURENT TOURONDEL
Friends and Family

TOM VALENTI
The Trojan Cookie

NORMAN VAN AKEN
Shit Happens

GEOFFREY ZAKARIAN
The Michelin Man

JAMIE OLIVER
The End of Innocence

NEARLY TWO HUNDRED years ago, the legendary French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin observed that "the truly dedicated chef or the true lover of food is a person who has learned to go beyond mere catastrophe and to salvage at least one golden moment from every meal."

In these pages, a selection of the world's finest chefs share, in refreshingly frank detail, the stories of their biggest mishaps, missteps, misfortunes, and misadventures. To our delight, much of what they salvage goes beyond the strictly culinary.