The author is the chef of the acclaimed NYC restaurant Prune and a very talented writer. Before she opened Prune, Gabrielle spent 20 some fierce hard-living years working in bars, summer camps, catering companies and restaurants in America, France, Greece, and Turkey. She had an idyllic childhood in upstate New York mostly spent with her French mother in the kitchen, her parents were locally famous for their large food themed parties. This world was destroyed when her parents split and her mother left the family behind. Ms. Hamilton went to college in Michigan where she earned an M.F.A. in writing. She also got her first catering job there.
The book details her life, her family, her prickly marriage with an Italian, motherhood, her restaurant and her restaurant family. She is an honest gritty writer, she is not always likable and I certainly don't agree with all of her choices but she is a great talent both in the kitchen and as a writer. Her work ethic alone is enough to make me lie down and weep. As I got an inadvertent education in yoga and eventually became a reluctant yoga instructor I can relate to the experience of coming into a career through the back door, so to speak.
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