With The Soul of a Chef, Ruhlman lays bare the vigorous competition
necessary to become a Certified Master Chef at the CIA, a process in
which the chef spends ten consecutive sixteen-hour days cooking in
styles ranging from contemporary Asian to classical French, under
relentless scrutiny. This intense, almost bizarre cooking test -
ultimately an attempt to define an objective truth of great cooking -
begins Ruhlman's journey into the dark heart of the profession and soul
of a chef." "Ruhlman observes, cooks with, and writes about three
distinctive chefs of different stripes - Brian Polcyn of the Five Lakes
Grill in Milford, Michigan; Michael Symon, a rising star at Cleveland's
Lola Bistro; and Thomas Keller, proprietor of Napa Valley's the French
Laundry, and, the author argues, one of the best American chefs working
today." "Ruhlman attempts to understand what makes one chef, and
restaurant, successful and another not; when cooking rises to the level
of art; why one should cook in the first place; and what, in the end, is
the source of America's ravenous hunger for knowledge about food and
cooking.
