Book Review - Tough Cookies - Simon Wright
Tough Cookies - Simon Wright (Profile Books, £16.99)
Having cut my culinary teeth as a nervous young commis chef in a top restaurant, I know just what a hard, thankless job it can be.
Professional kitchens are tough playgrounds - hot, sweaty places, sometimes run by bullying bosses paying as little as possible for chefs to work as many hours as they can.
As a former editor of the AA's Restaurant Guide, Simon Wright may have spent more time filling his belly than working in the kitchen, but he knows how much it takes for young chefs to get to the top of their profession.
His book, Tough Cookies, consists of extended interviews with four of Britain's top chefs: Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal, Shaun Hill and Marcus Wareing.
What quickly emerges from the interviews is that while each of the chefs may be very different characters, they share an obsessive and unwavering passion for cooking, and for achieving their goals at whatever cost.
The book charts the rise and rise of Gordon Ramsay, from his curtailed footballing career, through his inspired time with Marco Pierre White at Harveys and the events that have made him Britain's biggest celebrity chef and restaurateur.
The account of Ramsay's early days as a banqueting chef at the London Mayfair Intercontinental are absorbing. One night, when he'd already worked a triple shift of breakfast, lunch and dinner, the night chef didn't turn up and he stayed on. "I'll never forget it, ever. I worked throughout the night … At 4am I was completely f***ed, shattered."
There are similar tales for the other chefs, including the time Heston Blumenthal was so tired he tried to light the blowtorch under a tap. "Some strange logic said it had to be the hot tap," he says.
This engrossing tale of dreams, determination, achievement and sheer hard graft is a must-read for any young chefs aiming for the top of their profession.
