Santa says reading is cool – and considering the time of year, you don’t want to get on his bad list. Be sure to pick up a book at the Concord Public Library. For more information, visit concordpubliclibrary.net.
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry
Kathleen Flinn
2008, 290 pages
Nonfiction
When she loses her executive job at a software company, Kathleen Flinn takes a leap of faith and decides to pursue her dream to go to the world famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. Her boyfriend Mike encourages her, and soon Kathleen is struggling with her inadequate French, searching for an apartment and trying to convince the demanding chefs that she is not wasting her time at the cooking school.
As a little girl, Kathleen played restaurant instead of house, setting up tables with tablecloths and plastic flowers, and writing up menus in crayon. She took up cooking at the age of 13. Her father had just died of cancer. To help out her mother, Kathleen started doing the cooking. One afternoon she made boeuf bourguignon, the next day it was trout almondine, and Kathleen was on her way.
On her journey at Le Cordon Bleu Kathleen writes about how she deals with irascible chefs, odd classmates and cooking catastrophes, as well as some triumphs. Her descriptions of daily life in Paris are wonderful, and each chapter in the book includes recipes. What does the title mean? I’m not telling. You’ll have to read this interesting book to find out!
