Blood, Bones & Butter : The Inadvertent Education Of A Reluctant Chef
by Gabrielle Hamilton

No, this is NOT the best memoir by a chef, ever, as Anthony Bourdain writes on both the front and back covers of the book. It's actually one of the worst. I could barely get to the fifth chapter.
The first chapter was wonderful with Gabrielle Hamilton talking about growing up as one of five children (the youngest) in her bohemian family with a French mother and a father who was a set designer all living in Lambertville, Pennsylvania eating fresh, homemade food and not having a care in the world. When her parents split and then divorced, everything fell apart and Hamilton was pretty much left on her own. The book deteriorated from this point on. She became a drug addict and worked, underage, at a club in New York. Cooking was not even in the picture and wouldn't surface for a while.
It's very hard to read about someone who is so self-absorbed, sort of like Bourdain. (No wonder he LOVED this book). The two of them have similiar personalities.
Hamilton writes with endless run-on sentences and way too many metaphors. She has an MFA in fiction writing and that is what she should continue doing or just forget about writing and concentrate on her restaurant instead.
Not recommended.