For anyone who has ever wanted to know what happens behind the swinging doors of a restaurant's kitchen, Michael Gibney's Sous Chef is a must read. The crisp, mouthwatering details in Gibney's second-person narration place the reader smack dab in the heart of the culinary experience, from the semi-leisurely hours of prep to the frenetic moments of a busy Friday night when more than 300 orders are cooked and served.
Gibney's prose is a feast of culinary terms and food descriptions, leavened with people he's had the pleasure to work with as he checks the kitchen's inventories, sets up his mise en place and plates the day's specials. He reveals the delicate balance and camaraderie found in any restaurant kitchen between the chef and the line cooks, prep cooks, servers and dishwashers as he chops, purees and sautés his way toward that moment when the doors open for service. As Gibney writes, "Every day, when the clock strikes five, excitement takes you. It's a feeling in your belly that tickles you and jumps around; the awareness that something significant is about to happen, the upshot of which is only marginally predictable."
It's this excitement and anticipation, the fine edge between control and chaos, that Gibney portrays so well, providing readers with the emotional and physical rush of a typical upscale kitchen where each dish has to be the best dish, whether it's the first item plated or the last. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer