"The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry" book review

"The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School"

Kathleen Flinn

2007

(image credit: http://kathleenflinn.com/books/sharper/)

I enjoyed this memoir written by journalist Kathleen Flinn. After years working in corporate middle management, she finally gets up the nerve to quit her job, move to Paris, and attend Le Cordon Bleu. The book details the year or so that she spent studying French cuisine- through the Basic classes all the way through the super-competitive Superior course. 

There is a whole genre now of "What I Did in One Year" books out there (followed all the rules in the Old Testament, learned to become happy) and I tend to really enjoy these books. I expected this book to be similar to the wildly popular "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I was pleasantly surprised to find "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry" to be mostly free of emotional angst. 

The author moves to Paris to follow her dream of learning how to become a chef--but she doesn't do so because of heartbreak or to get out of an unhappy relationship. She does it for herself and to be true to her passion for cooking. I really appreciated that facet of the book: her motivations were pretty clear and the reader didn't have to follow a roller coaster ride of emotions to get through the book. Kathleen starts her culinary journey at the beginning of a sweet and loving relationship, and ends her studies married to that same kind and supportive man. How refreshing is that? 

I felt like the lack of emotional drama allowed me to just enjoy the story- her experiences at the competitive Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, her foodie adventures in Paris, and cooking in tiny, romantic sounding, French apartments. At the end of the book, Flinn is proud of her culinary skills, madly in love, and pleased to have followed through with something she had been longing to do for years. 

Flinn's writing was not at all pretentious, in direct contrast to the utterly pretentious food that she cooks. Flinn approaches her education at Le Cordon Bleu with enthusiasm, but doesn't ever adopt the snobbishness that often imbues French cuisine.  I'm not at all compelled by French cooking- too stuffy, meat-heavy, and fatty, however, she makes French cuisine approachable and interesting. (Though you won't find me stuffing veal or cooking with foie gras anytime soon!)

I think this book would make a great light read for a foodie or food-loving francophile. It's full of mouth-watering food adventures and glimpses inside the fascinating world of Le Cordon Bleu. It isn't a life-changing book, but it is an enjoyable read and has some inspiring recipes. It was a great way to start off the literary part of my 2012 Food Challenge!

I'll be cooking something based on a recipe in "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry" sometime in the next week!