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Monday, July 4, 2011

Beaten, Seared, and Sauced

When searching for a new book I turned to Good Reads.  They suggested Beaten, Seared and Sauced; On Becoming a Chef at the Culinary Institute of America, by Jonathan Dixon.  Low and behold the same day the book was handed to me.


I will read anything food related and decided to give it a go.  It was a quick read and I finished it in two days.  However, the book hardly held my attention.

The author Jonathan Dixon was a janitor, messenger, nanny, teacher and writer for Martha Stewart Living before taking the leap to enroll at the CIA.  It took him until age 38 to make this decision.  This book follows his studies at the prestigious institute.  Beaten, Seared and Sauced contains his description of each course and the complaining that went with them.

Dixon seems to be a lost soul who even after completing his time at the CIA is still unsure of what to do with himself.  He complains he is too old for most of the book.  His girlfriend supports him during his education and honestly if I were her I would have been unable to deal with his indecisiveness and lack of direction.

This book is written like Scott Turow's One L, which describes life as a first year law student.  Turow makes you understand how it feels.  This book left me wanting more of that feeling.  I wanted more passion for the food and the art of preparing it.

This book left me wanting and basically just wanting to say Meh!