THE SHARPER YOUR KNIFE, THE LESS YOU CRY by Kathleen Flinn

Hi everyone!

As many of you know, I have hundreds and hundreds of cookbooks that I have avidly collected over the years, so although I like to review new cookbooks as they come out, sometimes I review my all time favorites.

I was drawn back to this book again the other day. I started reading one page, and just couldn't put it down.

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn is one of the best written culinary books I have ever read. It is the story of Flinn tossing her corporate job in America for a spot at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. It is a love story. It is a story about finding your passion in life. And it has recipes! What more could you want?!

She writes so beautifully that you feel as if you are right there with her, learning how to cook from some of France's toughest cooking instructors. Her triumphs and her failures, her love affair with food as well as with Paris pulls you in and keeps you wanting to read more. I even loved reading about her apartment and what she and her friends ate when they went out into the Paris night. And her boyfriend! Yes, there is the love story to follow as well.

"Today we are studying Auvergne, the coldest region of France, says the Gray Chef, with the oldest mountains in Europe. Those mountains were once active volcanoes, and as a result this is an area of high yet especially fertile plateaus loaded with volcanic soil. The hearty people of Auvergne eat a whole lot of pork and stick to the ribs food."

If you can't take the cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, you can take them by reading this book! Flinn literally spends a part of each chapter telling you exactly what she learned in class and how her dishes turned out.

"How many tears did I cry because I didn't know what I wanted?" "The sharper your knife," as Chef Savard had said,"the less you cry." "For me, it also means to cut those things that get in the way of your passion and of living your life the way it's meant to be lived."

Exactly.

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn