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Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef Audiobook
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Miami Herald • Newsday • The Huffington Post • Financial Times • GQ • Slate • Men’s Journal • Washington Examiner • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus Reviews • National Post • The Toronto Star • BookPage • Bookreporter “I wanted the lettuce and eggs at room temperature . . . the butter-and-sugar sandwiches we ate after school for snack . . . the marrow bones my mother made us eat as kids that I grew to crave as an adult. . . . There would be no ‘conceptual’ or ‘intellectual’ food, just the salty, sweet, starchy, brothy, crispy things that one craves when one is actually hungry. In ecstatic farewell to my years of corporate catering, we would never serve anything but a martini in a martini glass. Preferably gin.” Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than one hundred friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became as necessary to her as her own skin. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; the soulless catering factories that helped pay the rent; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a difficult and prickly marriage that nonetheless yields rich and lasting dividends. Blood, Bones & Butter is an unflinching and lyrical work. Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion. By turns epic and intimate, it marks the debut of a tremendous literary talent.
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"Really great read. Hamilton is a gifted storyteller and really helps the reader experience her story. The challenges of being abandoned by her parents, years of struggling in kitchens (being a chef is not all glamorous), and finally of being a mother and wife and her struggle to feel part of a family. Given her years in 80s NYC and her balance of food as a creative outlet, it felt like I was reading Patti Smith mixed with Anthony Bourdain. Highly recommend."
— Tom (5 out of 5 stars)
Awards
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A New York Times bestseller
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A USA Today bestseller
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An Amazon Best Book of the Month, March 2011
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Selected for the March 2011 Indie Next List
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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Nominated for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award
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One of the 2011 Newsday’s Favorite Books of the Year
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A 2011 Huffington Post Best Book for Nonfiction
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A 2011 Financial Times Best Book of the Year for Nonfiction
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A 2011 Slate Magazine Best Book for Nonfiction
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A 2011 Washington Examiner Best Book of the Year for Nonfiction
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A 2011 Publishers Weekly Best Book for Nonfiction
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One of the 2011 Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books for Nonfiction
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A 2011 BookPage Best Book for Nonfiction
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Winner of the 2012 Indies Choice Book Award for Nonfiction
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A 2011 New York Times Book Review Notable Book
Blood, Bones & Butter Listener Reviews
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" Good memoir. I know the title tried to tie in both Hamilton's path top becoming a chef and her personal life but the transitions between cooking and personal life were clunky and left me with many questions. "
— Jane, 2/10/2014 -
" I feel bad giving this book a rating. How do you rate someone's memoir? I enjoyed reading the book however. And it made me really, really hungry for some really good food :O) "
— Bianca, 2/9/2014 -
" If you are a foodie and have worked in the food industry this is the best book ever. "
— Doreen, 1/29/2014 -
" Not great, not awful. The author was very unlikeable by the end. "
— Sandy, 1/27/2014 -
" Loved this book! Highly recommend it for anyone who loves food... "
— Adriennej, 1/20/2014 -
" I like this less the more I read. "
— Jen, 1/16/2014 -
" I found the first two-thirds of this absorbing, but she kind of lost me with the Butter section. I wasn't all that interested in how she and her husband were incompatible, and far preferred her reflections on how her unusual upbringing (or lack thereof) influenced her career and cooking style. "
— Stevie, 10/28/2013 -
" I really enjoyed this book. Gabrielle, in my estimation, is clearly a narcissistic and deeply flawed person, but she definitely knows how to write and cook! "
— Jane, 10/1/2013 -
" I can't put this book down. Beautifully written memoir about being a chef and running her own restaurant in New York. "
— Carley, 9/29/2013 -
" Excellent. Great story and very well written. Reminded me a lot of Mary Karr's memoir "Cherry." While it might not resonate as much with those who aren't in love with food and/or have worked in restaurants, I thoroughly enjoyed it "
— Maggie, 7/14/2013 -
" Really enjoyed this book in the beginning. but after 70-80% it went down in a negative spiral... "
— Gill, 2/20/2013 -
" Great memoir! You'll want to cook and eat while you read this - Ms. Hamilton really has a way with words, wonderfully descriptive stye. She brings the smallest details to life in your mind, and makes you feel every nuance of emotion. Not jsut about food, but about life. "
— Tama, 1/1/2013 -
" Another whiny cook/author who complains about how difficult their lives have been. Not my favorite. "
— Linnea, 10/24/2012 -
" Very well written. Interesting, until the last part of the book that focused on her marriage and trips to Italy to visit his family. She leaves us hanging at the point where they will be returning to the States from Italy. "
— Pam, 8/16/2012 -
" Really enjoyed this book. Gabrielle Hamilton's life deserves a memoir. "
— Debra, 3/7/2012 -
" Good writing, but narcissistic narrator who was not likable. Really liked Blood section, but it set me up to be very confused as to why she disowned her mother for 20 years. Third section was almost unbearable. Whine, whine, whine. "
— Susan, 2/4/2012 -
" I loved this book so much I hated to finish it. Now all I want to do is cook! "
— Katy, 12/21/2011 -
" I had read the first chapter in the New Yorker and thought it was splendid, both as a culinary piece and as a memoir. The rest of the book turned out to be uneven. Loved heating about Prune, one of my favorite places; not interested in her bad marriage. "
— Ally, 9/30/2011 -
" This is a romp of a read. I loved it, it was real, gritty, smart and engaging the entire way through. "
— Melanie, 5/22/2011 -
" not a role model for my kids but fascinating how she evolved from wild child to chef. "
— Corinna, 5/21/2011 -
" Okay, she's a more than a little cranky and self-centered, but this was a gorgeously written memoir about food, family and figuring out how to live in the world. Fun that she lived in Ann Arbor for graduate school and credits the chef/owner of Zanzibar as one of her mentors. "
— Barbara, 5/21/2011 -
" I got this book from the library after a long wait, but didn't have a chance to finish it before it was due. It was a good fast read which I will pick up again soon. "
— Meredith, 5/19/2011 -
" i really enjoyed the book, the writing style and her kookie life. what a story. a female anthony bourdain and that is very refreshing. "
— siga, 5/17/2011 -
" I have read many memoirs by chefs who aspire to be writers. This is a memoir by a write who aspires to be a chef. An aspiration which she achieved as shown by her having won this years James Beard award <br/> "
— Leighton, 5/16/2011 -
" Chefs' memoirs are always a great read, but this one is special. Every feeling is so honest and clear, and so much more than a cook's gushing description of their love affair with produce and meat. It's about wanting and yearning and trying to find the happy center. Loved it. "
— Mike, 5/16/2011 -
" I finished this book while sitting in the car in the parking lot at work. It's the first time I have done that. <br/> <br/>Gabrielle Hamilton has a great story to tell about her life and food. She tells it in a captivating way. "
— Bethany, 5/15/2011 -
" Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but it didn't hold my interest for long. "
— Megan, 5/14/2011 -
" This was a very interesting and enjoyable read! Not only a great cook, but Hamilton is also a good author!!!!!!!! Culinary and Literary delights! "
— Joanne, 5/14/2011 -
" An amazing memoir of a chef/writer (could I be more jealous??). Wishing I was in NYC and could go and eat at Prune. Sigh. "
— Kate, 5/13/2011
About Gabrielle Hamilton
Gabrielle Hamilton is the chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York’s East Village. She received an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, GQ, Bon Appétit, Saveur, and Food & Wine. Hamilton has also authored the eight-week Chef Column in the New York Times, and her work has been anthologized in six volumes of Best Food Writing. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and the Food Network, among other television programs. She lives in Manhattan with her two sons.