Blood, Bones & Butter (Paperback)

The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef

By Gabrielle Hamilton

Random House Trade Paperbacks, 9780812980882, 320pp.

Publication Date: January 24, 2012

Other Editions of This Title:
Digital Audiobook (2/28/2011)
Hardcover (3/1/2011)
Compact Disc (3/1/2011)
Hardcover (6/1/2011)
Paperback (3/1/2012)

List Price: 18.00*
* Individual store prices may vary.

Summer 2012 Reading Group

“This isn't your typical chef memoir. Gabrielle Hamilton has come to the stove by sheer force and tenacity, and it comes through on every page of her book. From a rural childhood with her large family hosting a lamb roast for 100 guests to owning one of the most respected restaurants in New York City, Hamilton's journey hasn't always been easy, but it has always been surrounded by good, 'real' food, which is where her passion lies. Hamilton writes so deliciously that your mouth will be watering as you read!”
— Sherri Gallentine, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, CA
View the List

March 2011 Indie Next List

“This isn't your typical chef memoir. Gabrielle Hamilton has come to the stove by sheer force and tenacity, and it comes through on every page of her book. From a rural childhood with her large family hosting a lamb roast for 100 guests to owning one of the most respected restaurants in New York City, Hamilton's journey hasn't always been easy, but always surrounded by good 'real' food, which is where her passion lies. Hamilton writes so deliciously that your mouth will be watering as you read.”
— Sherri Gallentine, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, CA
View the List

Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Miami Herald • Newsday • The Huffington Post • Financial Times • GQ • Slate • Men’s Journal • Washington Examiner • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus Reviews • National Post • The Toronto Star • BookPage • Bookreporter

Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a prickly marriage that nonetheless yields lasting dividends. By turns epic and intimate, Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion.

Features a new essay by Gabrielle Hamilton at the back of the book

Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.



About the Author

Gabrielle Hamilton is the chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York’s East Village. She received an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Bon Appétit, Saveur, and Food & Wine. Hamilton has also authored the 8-week Chef Column in The New York Times, and her work has been anthologized in six volumes of Best Food Writing. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and the Food Network, among other television. She lives in Manhattan with her two sons.


Praise For Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef…

“Dazzling . . . brilliantly written . . . [Hamilton] is as evocative writing about people and places as she is at writing about cooking.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Rhapsodic, profane, wonderful . . . A fabulously talented writer-cook, Gabrielle Hamilton is also a contrarian one, and you never know quite what will come next.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“Hamilton’s writing about food is so vivid it could make you half-crazed with hunger, leaving you in front of the open fridge with a cold chicken leg in one hand and the book in the other.”—The Boston Globe
 
“Luminous . . . [Readers will] marvel at Hamilton’s masterly facility with language.”—The Washington Post
 
“The author/chef is an original—tough, tender, gritty, dreamy. . . . She has written Blood, Bones & Butter with her whole, generous heart.”—The Miami Herald
 
“Magnificent. Simply the best memoir by a chef ever. Ever.”—Anthony Bourdain