The Reach of a Chef: Beyond the Kitchen

Michael Ruhlman has enjoyed a long love affair with cooking and food. His explorations of kitchens and the professionals who call them home led Anthony Bourdain to call him "the greatest living writer on the subject of chefs—and on the business of preparing food." But even his vast experience couldn’t have prepared him for the profound shift that has occurred in the chef’s place in society.

Beginning at Per Se, the newest and most expensive of Manhattan’s four-star restaurants, Ruhlman takes readers into some of America’s most illustrious—and most innovative—kitchens. Throughout his travels, he seeks new trends and phenomena, like Las Vegas’s recent elevation to the country’s food Gomorrah with the addition of Picasso and Aureole to the Strip’s already formidable selection, and returns to legendary haunts like The French Laundry, Le Bernardin, and Café Gray to see what’s changed. A dispatch from a new world where chefs are celebrities and culinary school classes are burgeoning, The Reach of a Chef looks at the state of professional cooking in the post-Child, Food Network era. In the end, an audience who loves to talk about, read about, and dine in the finest restaurants in America gets an in-the-trenches look at the professionals whose very life’s work is to feed us.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Great insight into the world of professional cooking, 2008-10-07
Michael Ruhlman did a great job of giving laymen a peek into the glamorous, precarious, risky and difficult world of professional chefs. He follows all kinds of chefs, ranging from uber celebrities and public figure chefs such as Emeril and Rachael Ray to the more humble and less flashy ones embodied by Masa and Alice Waters. It is fascinating to read about how these successful chefs get their start and develop their craft (or brand) over the years. It is also pretty cool that Ruhlman contrasts this with the trajectory and ambitions of current culinary school students, some of whom have only seen the glitz and glamor of the modern era chef. The book serves as a reminder to chef-wannabes that professional cooking has to start with the passion of an artist with the plate as canvas, not the desire for fame and riches, because that rarely happens to the "average" chef.

Rulhman's style is very approachable and readable; I couldn't wait to turn the page while I was reading the book. However, the organization of the book was a little chaotic in the beginning. Nevertheless, this is a great read and a must-read for chefs-wannabe or those who are considering entrance into the food industry!


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

"I'm not a chef anymore and it breaks my heart.", 2007-11-06
The author's obituary, when eventually written, will start "Michael Ruhlman, whose signature work The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute chronicled his time at the Culinary Institute of America..."

That was a breakthrough book that essentially invented the genre of the 'meticulous examination' (as the 'Booklist' review calls it) of the chef as a profession. 'Reach' is Ruhlman's third in that series. He's really a great writer - as meticulous in his detail-gathering and writing as his chefs are in their cooking. You get to see that guys like Thomas Keller succeed not because of some fluke, but because of years of hard work, talent honed by that work and an obsession about details. Ruhlman's talent, in turn, is that he's able to convey that to his readers. The Newsday blurb on the book gets it right: "I'm sure [Ruhlman is] a pretty good cook himself, but I would urge him not to give up his day job, because he's a terrific writer."

Exactly.

You also get the feeling that chefs trust and open up to this author because he has their respect - he went through the Culinary Institute with the express purpose of writing the book that would become 'The Making of Chef.' Now that's a commitment. The results are some fine moments of introspection - Ruhlman notes that with enterprises the size of Keller's, "(t)he chef had moved out of the kitchen permanently. Or could, if he or she wanted to, and ultimately would have to, even if he or she didn't want to, simply from the physical limitations in a physically grueling job."

Asked to comment on that, Keller wistfully notes "I miss the people. I'm sad. I miss being in the kitchen with them...I'm not a chef anymore and it breaks my heart."

It's revelations like that one - superbly transcribed and framed by the author - that make 'Reach' such a compelling read.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Ruhlman Does It Again, 2007-10-11
I've read everything Ruhlman has authored about Chefs, Kitchens, etc. and this book is definitely "up there"... a good read. I liked The Making Of A Chef as my first choice. Then, The Reach Of A Chef. I know this book was a followup to The Soul Of A Chef, and having read them in order I admit you can't fully appreciate THE REACH OF A CHEF unless you do so... but as an enjoyable read this one is definitely my number two choice. I hope more are to come from this author. Who is this author? Watch the TV show, The Next Iron Chef!


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Engaging, thoughtful and tasty prose, 2007-07-30
Ruhlman does it again! His smart, sensible and timely book deserves readers and a paperback edition. I admire his finesse and his honesty. He writes the way the best chefs cook, with passion, restraint and precision. And he's witty, too. I'll never see Rachael Ray quite the same way again -- he's fair, but he makes the point, which is why I grit my teeth when I see her bouncing around and shouting. At least Martha is calm.
More, please, Mike! His blog is great, BTW.


5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Just can't beat "Soul of a Chef", 2007-03-07
I've become quite a fan of Ruhlman's writing, having first read his "Soul of a Chef" three years ago -- I couldn't put it down, and I continue to read it once a year. Hungry for more, I found "The Making of a Chef" at my local library, which I enjoyed, but the book (his first on the subject) definitely felt like he was still finding his culinary-literary feet. When I learned of "The Reach of a Chef," I was positively giddy and snatched up a copy. It was fun being reintroduced to the world of Keller, learning about the author's experiences with Bourdain and Ripert, and discovering seasonal Maine cooking at Primo, but ultimately I was disappointed: "Reach" doesn't capture the same refined emotion and passion as "Soul" by any means.

But perhaps it's just an accurate reflection of the subject -- how far does a chef's reach extend in America? The vast majority of our cooks aren't fascinating stars like Keller, Symon, Polcyn. They are instead the mediocre, spotlight-seeking Cat Coras and Rachael Rays who slither into our living rooms.

Like the over-commercialized culinary world, "Reach of a Chef" is crowded and a bit confused. Choose Ruhlman's superb earlier works for a more satisfying read.

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