More than about the author's career as a chef, this book is about her flawed relationship with her parents (especially with her mother) after a sudden divorce, her relationship with her long time girlfriend who she leaves one day out of no where to marry a man with green card problems and basically her troubled relationships with all people.

While there were really enjoyable and interesting parts of this book which I enjoyed, the story was much different than I expected. I had expected more about her career as a chef. It was ironic that the author learned and got her appreciation of food and cooking from her mother. It was sad to read of her and her mother's horrible relationship, I only hope for both of them that they can forgive and move on. The author had to grow-up quickly after her parents divorce and I could admire her determination at that young age just jumping into a job at a kitchen without any prior experience.

Overall, if you're a foodie or someone who equates food with good and bad times of your life you will probably appreciate this book. Though, I believe that that the author doesn't seem to have much success bringing all these topics to a satisfactory conclusion.

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I love reading about food, whether it's a memoir or a cookbook, and I'd been looking forward to reading this one for a long time. Ms. Hamilton has a great reputation as a chef and restaurant owner and writes very well, but the book was a major disappointment. Too much of a rant about her childhood, her mother, her husband and her marriage, and not enough about food.

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This book was rather boring. It felt like the author was a bit too selective in what she chose to share about what got her to be a chef. I have to admit I did not finish reading the book as it was not heading to any revelations any time soon.

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This is a memoir by a chef, rather than primarily a cooking memoir, and I enjoyed it despite a certain unevenness of tone and topic. It starts out describing her oddball upbringing in rural northwestern Pennsylvania, as the youngest of 5 children of a somewhat mismatched pair of parents, and how she largely brought herself up herself from the age of 12 after they divorced, working steadily in restaurants all through high school and beyond. She talks a little about her cooking mentors and her time in a writing program (an interlude between stints cooking), and more about her relationships, with both women and men. My favorite part was the description of the early days of her restaurant, which she called Prune from her mother's old nickname for her, even though by this point she hadn't spoken to her mother in over a decade. I could have done with a bit less about her marriage and eventual divorce from the father of her two sons (especially since her self knowledge about this part of her life seems limited; it may have been too fresh for her to write about well), but all in all, Hamilton is an engaging writer who comes across as smart and prickly but not afraid to show herself warts and all.

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This book is a memoir written by someone who has had too many classes in fiction writing and not enough experience with non-fiction. She kept the themes about family and relationships running throughout the book, and described things in detail, sometimes minutely and excruciatingly. As a writer she is much better suited to fiction than this memoir. It was a really tough read. I did like the last essay added in the back at "A Reader's Guide". If the book was just a series of essays in stead of these long drawn out chapters, it would have worked much better, I think.

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