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Blood, Bones & Butter
- The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Hamilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
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Blood, Bones & Butter
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Summary
New York Times best seller.
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, and Bookreporter.
"I wanted the lettuce and eggs at room temperature...the butter-and-sugar sandwiches we ate after school for snack...the marrow bones my mother made us eat as kids that I grew to crave as an adult...There would be no "conceptual" or "intellectual" food, just the salty, sweet, starchy, brothy, crispy things that one craves when one is actually hungry. In ecstatic farewell to my years of corporate catering, we would never serve anything but a martini in a martini glass. Preferably gin".
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent 20 fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than 100 friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became as necessary to her as her own skin.
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; the soulless catering factories that helped pay the rent; 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 difficult and prickly marriage that nonetheless yields rich and lasting dividends.
Blood, Bones & Butter is an unflinching and lyrical work. Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion. By turns epic and intimate, it marks the debut of a tremendous literary talent.
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Editor reviews
From the chef of the excellently unpretentious New York restaurant Prune comes this delicious memoir charting her experiences with both feast and famine. Having gone to graduate school for creative writing, Gabrielle Hamilton is entirely able to describe her life story not only as a chef, but as a writer. As a bonus, she narrates the audiobook herself with the deep feeling and attachment one should expect from someone analyzing her own life. Hamilton’s personality really shines through. With each deadpan punchline and every impeccable bit of Italian, it becomes increasingly obvious how Hamilton has managed to not only survive, but actually thrive, in the financially risky and still sadly machismo-dominated food service industry.
Beginning with her youth as a high school dropout abandoned by a hippie father and French mother, Hamilton relied on her experiences in the family kitchen to get hired as a waitress or line cook at a variety of average diners. Later, she travelled the world for a few months more on the strength of her wits than her wallet, learning about world cuisine from anybody willing to teach her. Her highly specific recollection of what it is like to be starving on a cross-county train ride is pure poetry, and the kind of thing one wants to hear directly from the mouth of the person who lived it. As Hamilton finds herself increasingly imbedded in the world of food, she is somewhat startled to realize that it has been her true passion all along.
There is easily something in here for everyone to enjoy. Industry people will appreciate the rant against brunch joints that offer a free mimosa. Aspiring chefs will be relieved to know that some fulfilling work-life balance is indeed possible. Foodies will delight in the comparison of regional Italian cuisine with its woefully inadequate American counterpart. And, of course, scrappy women who always manage to land on their feet will appreciate this unflinching testimony to the importance of having strength of character and a willingness to go your own way. Gabrielle Hamilton’s voice work is excellent because she doesn’t act like the popular girl at the party, regaling everyone with gossipy tales she acquired as toast of the town. Rather, she casually and quietly builds a fierce little empire of wisdom out of the scattered, broken bits of adventure that have been her life so far. This is a genuinely good listen, written and read by a genuine person. Megan Volpert
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Blood, Bones & Butter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- darkfrankhs
- 12-02-15
Great account if a very abrupt ending
Would you listen to Blood, Bones & Butter again? Why?
It is a compelling story with beautiful descriptions. I love the flawedness of the main character for an autobiography. She is endearing but at the same time flawed and human. The ending disappointed me however - I literally did not see it coming. It leaves a lot of things to be concluded - which I often don't mind but it seemed incomplete. Like she ran out of time or someone chopped the last 4 chapters off the book.
What other book might you compare Blood, Bones & Butter to, and why?
It did remind me a bit of Fuchsia Dunlop's Sharks Fin and Sichuan Pepper - but dare I say it - Fuchsia comes across as a lot nicer person.
Have you listened to any of Gabrielle Hamilton’s other performances? How does this one compare?
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Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It did make me laugh on the odd occasion - but there was one family moment/reuniting that was particularly moving and wonderfully done.
Any additional comments?
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Norma Miles
- 02-11-18
Hacksaws, cleavers and giant knives.
This book by the owner of Prune, a restaurant in New York City, is a strange confection of deliciously garnished description and loosely described self pitying grumbles. Little is written about her actual career path, reluctant or otherwise, to chefdom, other than always liking food and helping her stay home mother in the kitchen as she cooked for her family of five children. When her parent's marriage ended in separation when she was just 13, it would seem that she not only turned somewhat wild and bad - drugs, bad language, smoking, usual sort of stuff (though she hadn't been exactly pure before, instead rifling through the bags and coat pockets of her parent's guests for money to steal at the annual lamb roast) but also was totally abandoned, when really she must have still had a home with her dad to continue her schooling. This missing three years is indicative of the whole account. The book is more a collection of short biographical snapshots than a coherent story. More seems left out than explained.
There are some interesting passages and nice descriptions such as her noting that, though most of her childhood local stores are now gone, a couple (the butcher and the dairy farm) were still 'hanging on like grave markers in a sunken and overgrown cemetery' and the pleasure taken in the 'voluptuous blanket of summertime humidity.' Her long lists of foodstuffs, too, can be mouthwatering, if too frequent - if in doubt, list dishes. Sadly, the author manages to portray herself not as someone who can rejoice in her success but as a 'poor me' personality who isn't allowed to have everything she wants and only gives of herself reluctantly, especially in relationships (she refused to live with her husband for over two years after their marriage and was surprised when her honeymoon in Paris was not the close, romantic holiday she'd anticipated) and seemed to indicate that when she, alone, had to deal with feeding, cuddling and dealing with babies whilst looking after the home and working, all on a few hours sleep was something rather unique. In simple terms, she whines.
Compounding this, the author reads her own book. Gabrielle Hamilton has a delicious voice, fairly low and fruity. And she reads with good intonation, but in such a downbeat way, even lighthearted sections tend to have a less than happy feel, emphasizing her underlying self pity and it is difficult to empathize with her perceived difficulties.
So that said, I did enjoy this book, taken in smallish bites, and this is easy to do given the natural divides which separate the chapters. If looking for a real chef type biography, don't bother. But if descriptions of food eaten in an old ItalIan villa amongst close family member reunions, this book is delicious.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- theamazinggem
- 04-12-20
Incredible
Written just so beautifully. Part food but also an amazing story of self discovery and all of that stuff I usually can't read but this is beautiful.
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