Knives at Dawn: America's Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition
By: Andrew Friedman / Narrated By: Sean Runnette
Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
PerFECtion!!!!!
Once upon a time, there was a fair lass (Oh, who’m I kidding? Maybe not Fair so much as Somewhat Swarthy) who looooved nothing more than dicing veggies, using the food processor, and concocting the perfect reduction. Little did she know that she would soon grow soooo tired of doing all that crap that yeeeeears later she’d enjoy the heck outta Knives at Dawn all whilst lollygagging around and eating Tofurky straight outta the bag.
I used to be a foodie… Now, I no longer am.
But you do NOT have to be one to truly get a kick out of this audiobook! Written by Andrew Friedman, this book listens like the best of sports writing. Of course, when one considers that Friedman is responsible for working not only on cookbooks but sports books also? Man oh man, it explains how gripping this tale of Americans going for Gold at the Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, France in January of 2009 is.
It starts in 2008 with elite chefs like Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud trying to pick The BEST Chef EVER… over in DisneyWorld. Yeh, go figure. The Bocuse d’Or USA is held to less than thrilled spectators, but the story follows the competition in gripping detail as each contestant and their food is discussed. Finally, after I’d gnawed my nails to to mere nubs, Timothy Hollingsworth and his commis Adina Guest win it all.
Ah, and then we get to the book’s downtime where the months prior to France are covered. One would think that’d be the boring part, right? Turns out that it’s not. Cuz Hollingsworth is kinda an independent type, doesn’t really like to be told how to cook, and he’s got people coming at him left and right to do this or do that, think the d’Or Way. He’s spent years cooking at Keller’s The French Laundry where lines are clean and flavors are fresh, and it’s simple simple simply pure. And now everyone’s telling him he’s gotta go BIGGER.
So he butts heads with a lot of people, namely his coach, the renowned Chef Roland Henin.
Yes, this is a book where there are personalities galore, but it’s the fooooood that makes it all dreamy. Yeh yeh yeh, you’re going to hear a LOT about the science behind cooking, and a LOT about specific techniques involved; the writing cuts it down step by step… and this is an HOURS long audiobook. Somehow, however, I didn’t find it dull at all (Full disclosure? I listened to it twice! in two weeks cuz it’s just that fun!). Besides, I’m kinda dieting right now, and aside from the Activa “meat glue” making me wanna barf, it was suuuuuch a delight to salivate over food I’d never be able to make in a lifetime.
Sean Runnette? Hmm… he’s kinda a hit or miss narrator for me. Sometimes I feel he just kinda reads the text, somewhat lacking in adding a few bells and whistles. And this time? He’s kinda his usual even keel self, but aaaah, then he gets to the people, then he gets to the food. The gazillion and six delectable food items just roll from his tongue, and the accents for the chefs are wonderful. He does a French chef questioning Hollingsworth’s food choices with the PERfect: “Are you sure?” so we know how very GROSS a misstep Hollingsworth is about to commit. Plus, when we get to France and to the competition itself, Runnette makes things absolutely breathtaking as fans go wild, and roe is too frozen to roll, and fingers get cut, and as Hollingsworth discovers that the knife he treated himself to is 2 inches longer than what he's used to (And at that point I shouted at my phone, “You’re kidding me, Timothy! What, did you get it on freaking Amazon?!?”). All in all, not a perfect performance, but one which suited the material quite well.
It’s pretty exhausting to spend over 11 hours on pins and needles. And it caused enough jitters that I didn’t hit Wikipedia or Google until wellllll aaaaafter I’d finished listening and had some time to relax. Usually, I’m in mid-Listen when I hit them. Still, I needed time to breathe before I went over and looked up old articles, checked for spellings, got the skinny on the most recent Bocuse d’Or… and I shall leave it to you to do the same with the latter… it’s grand!
Me? I gotta throw away an empty Tofurky package…
And keep on smiling!
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