Thursday, February 24, 2011

Doctor Who: The Jade Pyramid by Martin Day

This was an incredibly short story yet I'm counting it as a book! I've only recently learned of and fell for Doctor Who and discovered the books out there as well. I grabbed this one as a first try.

Read by the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith, I think this went fast because the good Doctor was hyped up on something. He seriously talks FAST. Nonetheless, excellent little story about Doctor and Amy landing in medieval Japan in response to a faint distress signal. The come across a pretty kind and trusting man who shows them the Jade Pyramid kept at a shrine.

Chaos ensues, as it always seems to, with ninjas and samurai and robotic monsters. That 11th Doctor is certainly enthusiastic, eh?

Off to find more Doctor Who stories....

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

As an audiobook read by Bourdain, he really puts some feeling into this. Which, makes sense since this book is ALL about naming names of the restaurant industry. While it doesn't seem that he holds back at all, sometimes it felt like he crossed over from edgy and provocative to douchebag (of which he has a chapter on who he considers douchebags).

He redeems himself some by following up on some of the anger and spitefulness from Kitchen Confidential by admitting his anger was misplaced or unexplainable. Although he still doesn't like Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee (no argument from me there).

Some chapters got a little tedious. I'm sure David Chang is awesome but I didn't care to know that much about him. I did really like the chapter on the fish butcher from Eric Ripert's restaurant having just read Ripert's book on his restaurant.

Even though I was making the universal "hurry up" sign through some of the book, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who already likes Bourdain.

Monday, February 14, 2011

On The Line by Eric Ripert

This book is a fairytale type of book for someone like me. I would love to one day travel to New York and eat at Le Bernardin. Will that ever happen? Unlikely. But in the meantime, I have this book. Filled with gorgeous photos of food and recipes that I could probably never recreate (although I am going to try the sweet corn sorbet in the summer), this book takes you behind the scenes of an incredibly successful Michelin restaurant.

We get the details of the kitchen, including all the positions, the stations, how each station works and each person who is the key to that station. We meet the executive pastry chef, the Chef de Cuisine (second in command to Ripert - the Executive Chef), and everyone who makes up Le Bernardin, including the waiters and maitre de. Everyone in the restaurant is clearly important to the success and Ripert gives everyone equal credit.

All of the details of the costs of running the restaurant, the charity work, everything is touched on in this book. Did I mention the gorgeous pictures of the food??