How to Cook Like a Man: A Memoir of Cookbook Obsession

Daniel Duane

ISBN 10: 1608191028 / ISBN 13: 9781608191024

Published by Bloomsbury USA, 2012

About this Item

Daniel Duane was a good guy, but he wasn't what you might call domestic. Yet when he became a father, this avid outdoorsman was increasingly stuck at home, trying to do his part in the growing household. Inept at so many tasks associated with an infant daughter, he decided to take on dinner duty. He had a few tricks: pasta, soy-sauce-heavy stir-fry. actually, those were his only two tricks. So he cracked open one of Alice Waters's cookbooks, and started diligently cooking his way through it. When he was done with that, there were seven more Waters cookbooks, plus those by Tom Colicchio, Richard Olney, Thomas Keller. and then he was butchering whole animals in his cluttered kitchen. Stated first edition. First printing as indicated by the complete number string 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 on the copyright page. This is a used book. Pages are clean and bright with no markings, notes, or highlighting. DJ shows only minor shelf wear with no rubbing or soiling and is not price clipped. No owner's marks or bookplates, not ex-library. Binding is tight and square with no fading on boards. Corners not bumped. Remainder mark on bottom of text block. An excellent reading copy.

Seller Inventory # M0755

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How to Cook Like a Man: A Memoir of Cookbook Obsession
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1608191028
• ISBN 13: 9781608191024
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

When Daniel Duane became a father, this San Francisco surfer and climber found himself trapped at home with no clue how to contribute. Inept at so many domestic tasks, and less than eager to change diapers, he took on dinner duty. Duane had a few tricks: pasta, stir-fry ... well, actually, those were his only two tricks. But he had a biographical anomaly: Chef Alice Waters had been his preschool teacher. So he cracked one of her Chez Panisse cookbooks and cooked his way through it. And so it went with all seven of her other cookbooks, then on to those of other famous chefs-thousands of recipes in all, amounting to an epic eight-year cooking journey.

Butchering whole lambs at home, teaching himself to make classic veal stock, even hunting pigs in Maui and fishing for salmon in Alaska, Duane so thoroughly immersed himself in the modern food world that he met and cooked with a striking number of his heroes: writing a book with Alice Waters; learning offal cookery hands-on from the great Fergus Henderson; even finagling seven straight hours of one-on-one private lessons from the chef he admires above all others, Thomas Keller.

Duane's inimitable voice carries us through, with humor and panache, even through a pair of personal tragedies. Here is a writer who can make chopping an onion sound fun and fascinating. But there is more at stake in his wonderful memoir: In the end, Duane learns not just how to cook like a man, but how to be one.

About the Author

Daniel Duane was born in 1967 and is the author of Looking for Mo and Lighting Out: A Vision of California and the Mountains. He lives and surfs in Santa Cruz, California.