Blood, Bones & Butter
The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
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Blood, Bones & Butter
Narrated by:
Gabrielle Hamilton
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Gabrielle Hamilton
About this listen
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Miami Herald • Newsday • The Huffington Post • Financial Times • GQ • Slate • Men’s Journal • Washington Examiner • Publishers Weekly • Kirkus Reviews • National Post • The Toronto Star • BookPage • Bookreporter
“I wanted the lettuce and eggs at room temperature . . . the butter-and-sugar sandwiches we ate after school for snack . . . the marrow bones my mother made us eat as kids that I grew to crave as an adult. . . . There would be no ‘conceptual’ or ‘intellectual’ food, just the salty, sweet, starchy, brothy, crispy things that one craves when one is actually hungry. In ecstatic farewell to my years of corporate catering, we would never serve anything but a martini in a martini glass. Preferably gin.”
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than one hundred friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became as necessary to her as her own skin.
Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; the soulless catering factories that helped pay the rent; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a difficult and prickly marriage that nonetheless yields rich and lasting dividends.
Blood, Bones & Butter is an unflinching and lyrical work. Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion. By turns epic and intimate, it marks the debut of a tremendous literary talent.
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Critic reviews
“Magnificent. Simply the best memoir by a chef ever. Ever. Gabrielle Hamilton packs more heart, soul, and pure power into one beautifully crafted page than I’ve accomplished in my entire writing career. Blood, Bones & Butter is the work of an uncompromising chef and a prodigiously talented writer. I am choked with envy.”—Anthony Bourdain
“Gabrielle Hamilton has changed the potential and raised the bar for all books about eating and cooking. Her nearly rabid love for all real food experience and her completely vulnerable, unprotected yet pure point of view unveils itself in both truth and inspiration. I will read this book to my children and then burn all the books I have written for pretending to be anything even close to this. After that I will apply for the dishwasher job at Prune to learn from my new queen.”—Mario Batali
“I have long considered Gabrielle Hamilton a writer in cook’s clothing, and this deliciously complex and intriguing memoir proves the point. Her candor, courage, and craft make for a wonderful read but, even more, for an appreciation of her talent and dedication, which have resulted from her often trying but inspiring experiences. Her writing is every bit as delectable and satisfying as her food.”—Mimi Sheraton, food critic and author of The German Cookbook and Eating My Words
"[A] lusty, rollicking, engaging-from-page-one memoir of the chef-owner of Prune restaurant in New York’s East Village. Hamilton opened her eating establishment without any prior experience in cheffing, but the life experiences she did have before that bold move, told here in honest detail, obviously made up for any deficiencies in heading up a restaurant and also provide material for an electric story that is interesting even if the author hadn’t become the chef-owner of a successful restaurant. An idyllic childhood turned sour when her parents divorced; her adolescence and young womanhood encompassed drugs, menial jobs, and lack of direction and initiative when it came to continued education. All’s well that ends well, however, and her story does indeed do that. Add this to the shelf of chef memoirs but also recommend it to readers with a penchant for forthright, well-written memoirs in general." – Booklist
“Gabrielle Hamilton has changed the potential and raised the bar for all books about eating and cooking. Her nearly rabid love for all real food experience and her completely vulnerable, unprotected yet pure point of view unveils itself in both truth and inspiration. I will read this book to my children and then burn all the books I have written for pretending to be anything even close to this. After that I will apply for the dishwasher job at Prune to learn from my new queen.”—Mario Batali
“I have long considered Gabrielle Hamilton a writer in cook’s clothing, and this deliciously complex and intriguing memoir proves the point. Her candor, courage, and craft make for a wonderful read but, even more, for an appreciation of her talent and dedication, which have resulted from her often trying but inspiring experiences. Her writing is every bit as delectable and satisfying as her food.”—Mimi Sheraton, food critic and author of The German Cookbook and Eating My Words
"[A] lusty, rollicking, engaging-from-page-one memoir of the chef-owner of Prune restaurant in New York’s East Village. Hamilton opened her eating establishment without any prior experience in cheffing, but the life experiences she did have before that bold move, told here in honest detail, obviously made up for any deficiencies in heading up a restaurant and also provide material for an electric story that is interesting even if the author hadn’t become the chef-owner of a successful restaurant. An idyllic childhood turned sour when her parents divorced; her adolescence and young womanhood encompassed drugs, menial jobs, and lack of direction and initiative when it came to continued education. All’s well that ends well, however, and her story does indeed do that. Add this to the shelf of chef memoirs but also recommend it to readers with a penchant for forthright, well-written memoirs in general." – Booklist
Incredible
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Would you listen to Blood, Bones & Butter again? Why?
It is a compelling story with beautiful descriptions. I love the flawedness of the main character for an autobiography. She is endearing but at the same time flawed and human. The ending disappointed me however - I literally did not see it coming. It leaves a lot of things to be concluded - which I often don't mind but it seemed incomplete. Like she ran out of time or someone chopped the last 4 chapters off the book.What other book might you compare Blood, Bones & Butter to, and why?
It did remind me a bit of Fuchsia Dunlop's Sharks Fin and Sichuan Pepper - but dare I say it - Fuchsia comes across as a lot nicer person.Have you listened to any of Gabrielle Hamilton’s other performances? How does this one compare?
n/aDid you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It did make me laugh on the odd occasion - but there was one family moment/reuniting that was particularly moving and wonderfully done.Any additional comments?
n/aGreat account if a very abrupt ending
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There are some interesting passages and nice descriptions such as her noting that, though most of her childhood local stores are now gone, a couple (the butcher and the dairy farm) were still 'hanging on like grave markers in a sunken and overgrown cemetery' and the pleasure taken in the 'voluptuous blanket of summertime humidity.' Her long lists of foodstuffs, too, can be mouthwatering, if too frequent - if in doubt, list dishes. Sadly, the author manages to portray herself not as someone who can rejoice in her success but as a 'poor me' personality who isn't allowed to have everything she wants and only gives of herself reluctantly, especially in relationships (she refused to live with her husband for over two years after their marriage and was surprised when her honeymoon in Paris was not the close, romantic holiday she'd anticipated) and seemed to indicate that when she, alone, had to deal with feeding, cuddling and dealing with babies whilst looking after the home and working, all on a few hours sleep was something rather unique. In simple terms, she whines.
Compounding this, the author reads her own book. Gabrielle Hamilton has a delicious voice, fairly low and fruity. And she reads with good intonation, but in such a downbeat way, even lighthearted sections tend to have a less than happy feel, emphasizing her underlying self pity and it is difficult to empathize with her perceived difficulties.
So that said, I did enjoy this book, taken in smallish bites, and this is easy to do given the natural divides which separate the chapters. If looking for a real chef type biography, don't bother. But if descriptions of food eaten in an old ItalIan villa amongst close family member reunions, this book is delicious.
Hacksaws, cleavers and giant knives.
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