A sociologist examines what it takes to succeed in a professional kitchen, one of the rare areas where formal education and social class are poor predictors of who will rise. A professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, Ellen T. Meiser, drawn upon her own work in restaurant kitchens as well as interviews with fifty different culinary pros to get their take–and formulate her own–on just what’s required to make it in a high-pressure and competitive field. This is not a how-to manual. Meiser pays close attention to the experiences of the people she interviewed, setting them against the context of everything from the distribution of Michelin stars amongst US restaurants to wages to the restaurant industry’s constant pressure to adapt and change. And even the definition of success itself is individual, as Meiser learns when interviewing people in a variety of markets, from private chefs and caterers to line cooks and executive chefs. Paperback.
