The Seasoning of a Chef

by Douglas Psaltis | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingSqueakyChuwing of Rockville, Maryland USA on 5/16/2019
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This book is in a Controlled Release! This book is in a Controlled Release!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingSqueakyChuwing from Rockville, Maryland USA on Thursday, May 16, 2019
This book was donated to the Little Free Library of Twinbrook (#7720) as a leftover from the yard sale at the Benjamin Banneker Historical Park and Museum - Baltimore County. Thank you!

Journal Entry 2 by wingSqueakyChuwing at LFL - Vandegrift Ave (5811) (#7720) in Rockville, Maryland USA on Sunday, January 26, 2020

Released 4 yrs ago (1/26/2020 UTC) at LFL - Vandegrift Ave (5811) (#7720) in Rockville, Maryland USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I'm releasing this book for...

***The 2020 Clean Start for the New Year Release Challenge hosted by NancyNova. This book's title contains the words SEA and OF.

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Enjoy the book!

Journal Entry 3 by wingSqueakyChuwing at Rockville, Maryland USA on Wednesday, March 4, 2020
No one selected this book. I removed it from the Little Free Library of Twinbrook (#7720) so I can read it at a later date.

Journal Entry 4 by wingSqueakyChuwing at Rockville, Maryland USA on Sunday, June 14, 2020
I enjoyed reading this book very much. I read it during the COVID-19 pandemic when I needed to read something slow and thoughtful, yet a book which I would find absorbing and would not have to remember too many details. I found this the perfect read.

What I liked most about the book was learning about the process of becoming a chef. It sounded absolutely grueling. I came away from this book with a new appreciation for all the work that goes on behind the scenes of restaurants everywhere. I also have a better appreciation of what goes into making the finer restaurants.

I liked that Doug Psaltis had set such high standards for himself and spent his life in a career that has been his passion. I felt sorry for his disappointments and frustrations in the latter half of this book. I would not have expected that, although such is life. We do not know what is ahead of us.

Journal Entry 5 by wingSqueakyChuwing at LFL - Vandegrift Ave (5811) (#7720) in Rockville, Maryland USA on Thursday, November 19, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (11/19/2020 UTC) at LFL - Vandegrift Ave (5811) (#7720) in Rockville, Maryland USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I'm releasing this book for...

***The 2020 E-Less Release Challenge hosted by motherof11.

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Enjoy the book!

Journal Entry 6 by wingSqueakyChuwing at Rockville, Maryland USA on Monday, December 7, 2020
I selected this book from the Little Free Library of Twinbrook (#7720) to release elsewhere.

Journal Entry 7 by wingSqueakyChuwing at Rockville, Maryland USA on Sunday, March 21, 2021

Released 3 yrs ago (3/21/2021 UTC) at Rockville, Maryland USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book is being released to the stewards of the Parkside Little Free Library in Derwood, Maryland, USA.

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Enjoy the book!

Journal Entry 8 by wingSqueakyChuwing at Rockville, Maryland USA on Saturday, July 3, 2021
I selected this book from the tent at Parkside Little Free LIbrary in Derwood, Maryland. No one has selected this book yet, and, as I liked it so much, I thought I'd take it home with me to share with fellow Bookcrossers at our first post-pandemic real life meet-up which will be held later this month at the home of ResQGeek.

Journal Entry 9 by wingSqueakyChuwing at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Saturday, July 17, 2021

Released 2 yrs ago (7/17/2021 UTC) at Alexandria, Virginia USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'm releasing this book at the home of ResQGeek for our first post-pandemic real life meetup.

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Enjoy the book!

Journal Entry 10 by wing6of8wing at Alexandria, Virginia USA on Sunday, July 18, 2021
Yesterday was the first in-person meet-up for our group since the pandemic started. It was great to see people not in little squares on my Zoom screen and hang out and have 4 conversations going at once. There were tons of books there and I came home with more than my fair share. I am not much of a chef, but I like to read food books - and I have a friend who is an excellent chef and reads mostly nonfiction. So I debated this several times and only added it to my bag at the end of the session when it was clear no one else would bring it home.

Journal Entry 11 by wing6of8wing at Silver Spring, Maryland USA on Wednesday, November 15, 2023
After reading the first chapter, I Googled the author to see if he was really anybody in the food world. He is. Not that I have ever heard of any of his restaurants. Then, again, I had not heard of Ducasse, the great French chef named in the title, nor of the other great chefs he named in his book (except Mario Batali, who was mentioned only once in passing). The only restaurant he worked at that was a familiar name for me was French Laundry, mostly because a restaurant named Laundry is memorable. I could not afford to eat at most of the places named, except maybe Gibbs' bagel shop and possibly Panama Hattie's. A lot of the fancy ingredients named were strange to me as well. If you are a dedicated foodie, however, or a reader of cookbooks, and possibly even an amateur experimental cook, this is a book you would enjoy. For me, foie gras and fried veal brains and gourmet butter made from the milk of cow whose name you know don't have any real appeal. I love to eat and to eat yummy things, but I also am fine eating the food of the common person. I have eaten at a few places which featured prix fixe menus -- mostly in Paris -- and enjoyed them, but the most gourmet meal of my life is primarily memorable for the theatrical presentations, the high price, and the stories I can tell about it -- although I do recall the green pea foam on top of the tiny shot glass of some other vegetable as being particularly delicious.

This book was selected because I was due for a nonfiction book in my rotation and the Genreland them of the month is Makes You Hungry. I find myself conflicted about this book. The vast majority of my reading this year has had at least one nugget of wisdom that I can apply to my life somewhere in it. I have enjoyed looking for that in every successive book. I did not find that here, at least not in anything explicitly written. The lesson that I came away with is that I have never and will never want anything in my life as badly as Doug Psaltis wanted to be a really great cook. And I am very glad about that. There is a lot of information here about his work starting at age 10 helping his grandfather at the diner on the weekends through having a chance to be a top dog at the French Laundry and even a hedonistic weekend in Paris going from one Michelin 3 star dining experience to the next. But there is not a lot here about enjoying life. On every day off, he was working a stage (unpaid internship cooking) at some restaurant or another. His first real vacation of his working life was spent working for a few weeks in Monaco for his boss (who did pay for his airfare and lodging) at a very demanding restaurant in a very lowly position. He talked in the first few chapters about a girlfriend, but that relationship fell victim to his endless ambition, with no time to spend anywhere outside of a professional kitchen. The only part of his life that sounded good to me was the view he had of the harbor of Monaco when walking to work from his hotel room just over the French border. He spoke of books he had read -- but they were all cookbooks and he read them for concepts and inspiration -- and places he had eaten -- again for the concepts and inspiration but also for the flavor -- and friends he went to eat with. He did not have any real hobbies. He never found a partner or had a family of his own; he never even had a pet. The things that make life worth living were mostly missing from his life -- only friends (mostly other chefs) and food and a chance to learn, out of all the things I value -- had any importance in his life. That appears to have worked for him. It would never work for me. I knew this when I was not interested in working in a big law firm and climbing that ladder. And I have had the emptiness of the American dream of a successful lucrative career that consumes your life continually impressed on me as I realize how much I value the small things and the small moments. To me that makes my life more delicious than any gastronomic wonder the author will ever create. I suppose that is a piece of wisdom worth holding onto.

Journal Entry 12 by wing6of8wing at Rockville, Maryland USA on Friday, November 17, 2023

Released 4 mos ago (11/18/2023 UTC) at Rockville, Maryland USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Taking the opportunity to share this book while at the November Meet-up at Noodles and Co on Rockville Pike.

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