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

by Kathleen Flinn (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 492 ratings
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"...engaging, intelligent, and surprisingly suspenseful." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

The unforgettable New York Times best-selling  journey of self-discovery and finding one's true calling in life

Kathleen Flinn was a thirty-six-year-old middle manager trapped on the corporate ladder - until her boss eliminated her job. Instead of sulking, she took the opportunity to check out of the rat race for good - cashing in her savings, moving to Paris, and landing a spot at the venerable Le Cordon Blue cooking school.

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry is the funny and inspiring account of her struggle in a stew of hot-tempered, chefs, competitive classmates, her own "wretchedly inadequate" French - and how she mastered the basics of French cuisine. Filled with rich, sensual details of her time in the kitchen - the ingredients, cooking techniques, wine, and more than two dozen recipes - and the vibrant sights and sounds of the markets, shops, and avenues of Paris, it is also a journey of self-discovery, transformation, and, ultimately, love.
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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0143114130
  2. Edition
    Reprint
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  5. Publication date
    August 26, 2008
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    641 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Flinn's engaging account of her studies at famed French cooking school Le Cordon Bleu should strike a chord with anyone who has dreamed of leaving the rat race and following a passion for food. The main course, Flinn's narrative of her trials and triumphs as she moves through the three levels of cuisine, is supplemented by plentiful helpings of drama, romance and near-tragedy in her personal life. Cassandra Campbell's reading is superlative: her American accent for Flinn slides gracefully into French, French-accented English and various accents for other international students. Her voice also exactly captures Flinn's shifting emotions, from fear and paralysis when facing the "Gray Chef" and resentment of selfish classmates, to pleasure when she wins praise for a well-prepared sauce and joy when she realizes she is starting to understand French better. Foodies and memoir fans will be enchanted. Each chapter ends with a recipe (which all helpfully appear in PDF on a separate disc). Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (Reviews, June 25).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"I can never get enough of true stories about people who stop in the middle of life's journey to ask, 'What do I really want?' and then have the guts to actually go get it. Kathleen Flinn's tale of chasing her ultimate dream makes for a really lovely book—engaging, intelligent, and surprisingly suspenseful." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"The Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry is an engaging story about a fantasy fulfilled. It's Under the Tuscan Sun goes to cooking school." — Michael Ruhlman, author of The Soul of a Chef

Although I can't cook my way out of a sac de papier, I found this book a joy to read. It's a compelling story about learning to cook and learning to love at the same time, told with humility, humor, and passion." —Bill Radke, hots of NPR's Weekend America

"Kat Flinn's vivid story of her adventures at Le Cordon Bleu Paris just had me smiling page after page. It's about what you should always think about in the pressure behind a hot stove—the pure romance of cooking." —Jerry Traunfeld, author of The Herbfarm Cookbook and The Herbal Kitchen

"A fascinating look inside a famed elite institution..." -- Kirkus Reviews

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001EVQIVY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (August 26, 2008)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 26, 2008
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 641 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 371 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 492 ratings

About the author

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Kathleen Flinn

Kathleen Flinn

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Kathleen Flinn is best known as the author of the New York Times bestseller "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry," a memoir with recipes about leaving her corporate life to study at the venerable Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and falling in love along the way. Her acclaimed follow-up, "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices Into Fearless Home Cooks" (Viking/Penguin 2011) was named a 2012 Book of the Year by the American Society of Journalists & Authors.

Her latest book, "Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good" (August 2014, Viking/Penguin), is a multi-generational culinary memoir that tracks the trials of her Midwest family. That title was named a 2015 Michigan Notable Book, and a finalist in the IACP Cookbook Awards, Goodreads Choice Awards and the Pacific Northwest Book Awards, among others.

Flinn and her books have been featured in dozens of media outlets, including People, Elle, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, CBS This Morning and Bon Appetit. She is at work on two books, one fiction and one-fiction, and teaches both cooking and food writing around the country. She serves on the board of trustees for The Culinary Trust, a national 5013C non-profit co-founded by Julia Child.

She and her husband, Mike, divide their time between Seattle and Anna Maria Island, Fla., their trusty rescue dog, Maddy, in tow.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
492 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kim
5.0 out of 5 stars Recommend
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2024
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Worth the read. Well written and entertaining while still feeling honest and vulnerable- with multiple recipes as bonus
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Jerry Lambert
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Informative
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2009
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I am on a kick right now of reading books that have to do with career change and self discovery. I started with Julie and Julia by Julie Powell and am currently reading The Sauciers Apprentice by Bob Spitz. Kathleen Flinn's book is fun and entertaining and peppered with recipes from her family as well as from her stint at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Kathleen Flinn lost her executive position in London and made the life and career change of clearing out her savings and moving to Paris and going to Cordon Bleu. I love this kind of book because the idea of putting life on hold and running of to Paris is my own personal dream. I love the way she does it and it seems like alot of fun even when things don't go right. The book could use a bit more conflict, I suppose. The whole move to Paris and starting life in a new country doesn't seem much of a challenge. No worries about money or future. She has a fiance who is financially able to drop everything and move to Paris with her and he is Mr. Perfect who I found to be a bit one sided. This is a good book that encapsulates one short year in the authors life without all the messy details of life. I am a hair stylist in Las Vegas, so I'm used to hearing life's messy details, I guess. Well written and enjoyable.
4 people found this helpful
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Elena I. Woontner
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it and spread the word about it
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2023
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This is a book I will not forget. The Paris Cordon Bleu cooking school is a dream for many. Of course it is not a walk in the park and it comes with hard work, heavy critiques by your teacher chefs and self-esteem crises. But you got to know a cast of characters very vividly depicted, with their foibles and kindness hidden under a tough shell. Tales of friendships, love, health issues, hard-won successes. And, of course, recipes - though not for the faint of heart, metaphorically and literally. Cholesterol overload!
2 people found this helpful
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Anne
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story. The characters were well developed. I ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015
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Interesting story. The characters were well developed. I got tired of the recipes that I would never make because they were too complicated and had way too much cream and butter for my blood :-)
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Travel Books and Movies
5.0 out of 5 stars Merci, Chef!
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2019
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I'm one of those people who loves everything about food--buying it, cooking it, eating it, watching shows about it, and, yes, of course, books about it. Add in a dose of self-growth and discovery while traveling in a foreign country and I get extra excited.

So this book covered all of my favorite things and did not disappoint. Kathleen deftly weaves the joys and struggles of learning to cook at one of the most prestigious culinary institutes in the world (probably THE most prestigious) with her life in France, how she got there, the people she meets along the way, a new romance, and, of course--the food. Her descriptions of the food and techniques she sees, tastes, and tries to emulate is almost sensuous, but without trying to hard (a bad habit some food writers have).

I have to add that the narrator contributes greatly to the beauty--her voice is easy to listen to and there is variety to her cadence and tone without being overly-dramatic, she speaks the French phrases easily without sounding pretentious and I even enjoyed listening to her read the recipes! (Though I am excited to see a PDF of the recipes available.)

When I find myself coming up with excuses to listen to an audiobook and choosing it over other entertainment options, I know it's a good one. Merci, chef.
5 people found this helpful
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Angela Risner The Sassy Orange
4.0 out of 5 stars An easy and entertaining read
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2010
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Kathleen Flinn was laid off from her job and decided to use the time to follow a dream: to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. This book is a recounting of that time.

I love the idea of throwing yourself into something like this. She lives, breathes, and sleeps cooking during her tenure at the world's most famous cooking school. She barely knew French, but managed to soldier on through, picking it up as she went along.

You will see Paris and the school through Flinn's eyes. She is a wonderful storyteller and you live each moment of joy and tension with her. I think that she is a much better writer than Julie Powell of Julie and Julia fame.

An easy and entertaining read.
2 people found this helpful
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L. Gasparro
5.0 out of 5 stars From one Alumni to another...
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2009
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While reading this book I had the ultimate thrill of reliving my own amazing experience as a culinary student (and graduate) at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris! Kathleen's story was like reading a Diary I should have written of my experience at this incredible institution. Details such as how overwhelming it is in Basic Cuisine to watch a Chef cook, listen to what he says, listen to the translation, write down every detail and jump between 3 different recipies at the same time was incredibly accurate. I laughed out loud at the Chef's constantly saying 'plus sel' because I thought I was the only one who never put in enought salt! Even though she changed the names of the Chefs, it was quite simple to figure out who they actually were...the handsome Chef was in fact quite the playboy who often went after the young, pretty girls, the singing Chef was always in a good mood and even though he didn't speak much english, made up for it by hugging you and kissing you on the cheek if he liked what you did!

Kathleen's details of fish guts, skinned rabbits, screaming Chef's, furious competition amongst students and drinking after school at the local Brasserie bring you into the 'real world' of the school

I, too, took 3 months off before going thru Superior Cuisine. It was difficult when I returned becaused I did not know anyone and most people already had their 'clicks' from Basic. I did have the pleasure of having Giada DeLaurentis in my class, she was shy, quite and very serious about cooking, but then we all were by that point.

To anyone who reads this book, please know that Kathleen tells the story from her heart, with insight, accuracy and amazing detail. I loved every word of it.
38 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Showbear
5.0 out of 5 stars Attend Le Cordon Bleu without making the trip - excellent
Reviewed in Canada on May 6, 2014
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Kathleen Flinn has done a fine job balancing her story about attending Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. She provides highlights of the lessons of cooking in an informative and memorable way, even including a Cordon Bleu recipe in each chapter. She offers plenty of humor about her failings and the foibles of her sometimes-eccentric chef-teachers and classmates. And she imparts unexpected yet welcome warmth and gentle pathos in writing about her relationship with her partner and living in Paris, just enough to be interesting. (She avoids the over-long syrupy prattle of Eat, Pray, Love.) Her book engages, teaches, and entertains from start to finish.
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Jacqueline Berben
5.0 out of 5 stars Personal Tragedy and Comedy in the Kitchen
Reviewed in France on December 23, 2014
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I had to repurchase this book as borrowers tended to forget to return it. Was it the Cordon Bleu recipes at the ends of the chapters or more the story of a vocation regained--and a man's heart? Having struggled with learning French for some time, like the narrator, adjusting my American cooking habits to classic French language and cooking techniques, and dealing with the heartbreak of having spent a full day only to get a flop at the end, I caught my own glance in Kathleen Flinn's reflections. Yes, it's a double love story, one of a passion for food preparation, the other equally harrowing and happy.

And if you've been hesitating to enroll at the Cordon Bleu school, nowadays there are simultaneous translators to ease you over the hump and the lumps in your sauce.
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S. Murphy
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have ever read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2009
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This book is wonderful for anyone interested in cooking. it is so well written, the book really flows and it is so dissappointing when you finish it!! You really feel you are in Paris and the atmosphere leaps out of the pages at you-A wonderful, wonderful book
3 people found this helpful
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Donna Mae
4.0 out of 5 stars I liked this book because I love to cook too and there were some good recipes and methods that I gleaned from the book.
Reviewed in Canada on May 18, 2014
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I loved the idea, that this girl reported on how it would be to go to The famous cordon Blue School. Her descriptions were entertaining, and sometimes I want a book that makes light of things, and makes me laugh. I never knew what was coming next, and the romance was delightful as well. I thought it was well written and left me wansting a bit more. that is a good sign for me!
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Claire
5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2019
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Great
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