The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry
by Kathleen Flinn
2008 Penguin Books
ISBN 978-0-14-311413-0
290 page $15.00
What person who enjoys cooking hasn't thought of attending a cooking school? An accomplished writer, Flinn was an American living in London when a job came to an end sooner than she had planned. Encouraged by her American boyfriend to take stock and consider following her dreams, she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 2004. The Sharper Your Knife is her memoir of that experience.
Readers will get a peek into the life of a student at the world's most famous cooking school. Attentive readers will learn—at least from afar—some technique without the anxieties of actually facing chef instructors who may not have much patience for dilletantes and enjoy some recipes to apply them. Glimpses of an American expatriate's life in Paris and even some romance (the boyfriend, Mike) is thrown in. Fun. Easy to read, but not lightweight.
--reviewed by Dan Clarke