No Experience Necessary is Chef Norman Van Aken' s joyride of a memoir. In it he spans twenty-plus years and nearly as many jobs-- including the fateful job advertisement in the local paper for a short-order cook with " no experience necessary." Long considered a culinary renegade and a pioneering chef, Van Aken is an American original who chopped and charred, sweated and seared his way to cooking stardom with no formal training, but with extra helpings of energy, creativity, and faith. After landing on the deceptively breezy shores of Key West, Van Aken faced hurricanes, economic downturns, and mercurial moneymen during the decades when a restaurant could open and close faster than you can type haute cuisine. From a graveyard shift grunt at an all-night barbeque joint to a James Beard- award finalist for best restaurant in America, Van Aken put his trusting heart, poetic soul, natural talent, and ever-expanding experience into every venture-- and helped transform the American culinary landscape along the way. In the irreverent tradition of Anthony Bourdain' s Kitchen Confidential, and populated by a rogues' gallery of colorful characters-- including movie stars, legendary musicians, and culinary giants Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, and Charlie Trotter-- No Experience Necessary offers a uniquely personal, highly-entertaining under-the-tablecloth view of the high-stakes world of American cuisine told with wit, insight, and great affection by a natural storyteller.
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“Not only is Norman Van Aken’s culinary career astonishing, but his personal journey is perhaps even more amazing. He is completely self-taught as a chef, and he is perhaps the most literary-focused culinarian in America. This wonderful book brilliantly documents his extraordinary odyssey.”
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Charlie Trotter, James Beard Award–winning chef