restaurants, books, and Hell's Kitchen

I don't know what I'll do for next week's edition of Half-Naked Thursday. Women have so many interesting parts that HNT is a natural for them. Men, on the other hand, tend to have mostly hairy or lumpy parts--sometimes both in the same place!--and who wants to look at hairy and lumpy?

Today I ordered 3 books from Amazon and they all follow the theme I established with the book I mentioned two days ago by Ruth Reichl.

The first is The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine, by Rudolph Chelminski. This book is about the famous French chef Bernard Loiseau who took his own life 3 years ago. He was proprietor of La Ca'te d'Or in the provincial Burgundy town of Saulieu, a 3-star restaurant according to Michelin. Loiseau was quite famous in France and his death caused quite a stir. The author was a friend of Loiseau for decades and the book is supposed to be quite good at setting up the mileau of international cuisine and the pressures and pleasures of that life. (on clearance at Amazon for $7.99 in HC)

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany which is by Bill Buford who obviously has a flair for drama--at least in regards to naming his book. The Dante quoting chef referred to in the title is Mario Batali who's a celebrity chef here in the US with a background in Italian cuisine. His public persona is of an exuberant nice guy--but this book paints a very different picture. LOL It should be an interesting read though I suspect that Buford got pretty much what he deserved. Anybody that volunteers (Buford was having a midlife crisis and decided that a new career in food was in the cards for himself but instead he suffered a lot then wrote this book) in a high level restaurant with no experience is going to get some pretty lousy treatment. Duh! And Buford did "research" for this book for 3 years! Batali's kitchen was just the start but what a start that must have been. LOL Working for a prima donna chef would be very close to being in Hell. No wonder there are Dante quotes flying here.

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a little different. While it's about food, it's a more political book. Pollan writes about how our food is grown and produced in this book. The book has three parts. First Pollan talks about industrial farming, the n he moves to organic food, and lastly, how to hunt and gather food for oneself. I became interested in this book after reading an article by Pollan in Smithsonian where he extolled the virtues and crimes of corn production in the country. The current issue of Fortune has a nice article that dovetails with this about how Wal-mart is starting to support organic agriculture and other green industries. Good article. I read it today while waiting for my car's paperwork to be finished at the Hyundai dealership.

Is anyone else watching Hell's Kitchen on FOX? I only saw part of last season because Chef Ramsay got under my skin. He's so domineering and annoying. But this season I've stuck it out to the end (the final episode is next week) and I'm glad I kept watching. It's impressive how much the contestants grow in ability during the course of the season. There must be a great deal of instruction going on that we don't see on the show 'cause the budding chefs would never be able to grow in capability like they have otherwise. Besides, I like both the finalists, Heather and Virginia. They're cute. :-) Heather is the better chef but Virginia might be the better organizer...

That's Heather over there to the left. One gross thing about the contestants--almost every single one smokes! I keep thinking about how that smell will get in the food. Ickers! (sorry, Heather!)