The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School
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The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Co...
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3.51 of 5 stars
In 2003, Kathleen Flinn, a thirty-six-year-old American living and working in London, returned from vacation to find that her corporate job had bee... read full description

reviews

Sep 07, 2010
Hessa rated it: 1 of 5 stars
Already unmoved by it. I am currently attending this said school and i must say there is more drama and "vivre" in the classroom than her writing. its flat. nothing simmers or boils from the pages. i expected it to be transcendent, with language far more flowery and humorous than this. although it is quite accurate in detailing the events of the school,however the plot is vague. I'd recommend it if you really want to know what its like being a culinary student in Paris. Otherwise, pick More...
1 comment like (3 people liked it)
Sep 07, 2010
Christine rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Gosh, it's been a long time since I've read a book I didn't like. Unfortunately, I read this upon returning from France, and so perhaps I had too high expectations for it, but Flinn's narrative is just sort of lame. I got about halfway through the book before deciding that life was too short to waste it on a mediocre read, and I moved on. The recipes and the descriptions of the inner workings of Le Cordon Bleu are really interesting, but Flinn herself is a little annoying. Sometimes you feel More...
0 comments like (5 people liked it)
Jul 11, 2008
Genene rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Sometimes there's more to a story than what's printed on its pages. For example, my copy is stained with wine and chicken stock. And I suspect that's what Flinn intended: to give an experience. Reading the first chapter, I knew that this would sit on my kitchen counter and not in my shelves.

And if the vicarious experience of living in France and falling in love--with cooking and a guy named Mike--isn't enough, consider the discovery between recipes and insider accounts of what happe More...
0 comments like (6 people liked it)
Feb 18, 2009
Julia rated it: 4 of 5 stars
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, is a lovely read. No stranger to stories about food, I found this particular piece interesting because it ventures beyond the personal associations we all have with food and channels the deep seeded desire we all have to drop everything and pursue the one thing we love, in this case cooking. The author's voice is clear, while she discusses her daily successes and failures in the kitchen, she leads the reader through a tour of culinary paris, and a trip More...
0 comments like (6 people liked it)
Feb 01, 2008
Alexa rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I sat down and read this book in an evening because I love food and I love the idea that people go do these crazy, rigorous courses in other countries to learn how to cook incredible food, every time. And they talk about tasty, tasty food a lot. There is a recipe at the end of every chapter and most have some relation to what Kathleen is cooking as part of Le Cordon Bleu's course so most of it is very classic and meaty, which sounds great but isn't really what I cook. Don't read the book for More...
0 comments like (5 people liked it)
Feb 22, 2009
minervasowl rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Amazing (as indicated by a five-star rating on this site) might be a bit strong, but it is a wonderful book, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Flinn's account of her Le Cordon Bleu adventure is in many ways what I had hoped that How to Cook a Dragon would be.

There is a lovely combination of romance and reality of living in Paris and attending the legendary cooking school.

The food and experiences and stories and characters are skillfully interwoven, and the result is More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Dec 26, 2007
Donny rated it: 3 of 5 stars
With her journalist background, Flinn is a better reporter than writer. Her prose is sometimes lacking (and sometimes downright embarrassing, especially when she reaches for insight), but her story (a woman in her 30's who's laid off so she uses all her savings to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris) is still interesting. Just hearing how the famous school works, with its difficult teachers, competitive students and crazy assignments (so much meat stuffed with meat stuffed with meat!) is good enough More...
1 comment like (4 people liked it)
Jan 06, 2009
April rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Not exceptionally insightful or moving, but a pleasant ride nonetheless. The little conclusions at the end of each chapter, in which she tries to tie in her cooking lessons with life lessons, are a bit cheesy and contrived. Otherwise, it was fun to live vicariously through her as she experienced something I'd love to do myself.
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Oct 19, 2008
Rozanne rated it: 2 of 5 stars
The parts about what it's like to be at cooking school were really interesting. The parts about what it's like to be Kathleen Flinn were not.
1 comment like (5 people liked it)
Feb 04, 2009
Catherine rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I want to preface this review by saying I would give 3.5 stars if I could. It was a pretty fun read, but I expected more focus.

I loved reading about Le Cordon Bleu, and I'm excited to try the recipes in the book. It was fun reading about life in Paris, too. I think it's awesome she actually made her dream a reality because so many people never do that.

I got a little tired of the love story. I'm glad she found love, and it was nice to hear about a little personal stuff More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Sep 07, 2011
nicole rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I suspect I am a secret Francophile. I took high school French. I like pastries. And I always seem to be reading stories that lead a person to Paris. Actually, I came to this book after reading a list of the best cooking memoirs in Flavorwire and discovering how lovely and quiet that particular section of the stacks is at my local library.

If Shortcomings served as a palate cleanser after our Catskills vacation, this book was the blanket I hid under for the rest of the week. I spent a More...
2 comments like
Apr 27, 2011
Vikki rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this cooking memoir! Kathleen Flinn is a journalist. She went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and graduated. She took and passed all three classes-Basic, Intermediate, and Superior. It was so interesting to hear how it all worked. She is a great writer and very funny.
Flinn had met Julia Child on two separate occasions. She had gone to a cooking workshop at a fancy resort before she (Flinn) went to Le Cordon Bleu. A woman came in late and sat next to her saying the salmon at More...
1 comment like (3 people liked it)
Mar 29, 2011
Lynn rated it: 5 of 5 stars
It’s not the first time such an experience is recorded and published. Michael Ruhlman shared his journey in the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), the Harvard of cooking schools in The Making of a Chef. Katherine Darling gave us a glimpse of her life in New York City’s famed French Culinary Institute in her memoir – Under the Table and Dalia Jurgensen showed us the real kitchen scene through her writing in Spiced: A Pastry Chef’s True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits and What Re More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jun 30, 2010
Kristine rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Having recently read a few other accounts of the trials at Le Cordon Bleu, I'm starting to get the general picture:
You cry some
Fail some
Hopefully have some wonderful moments of inspiration in the kitchen
And, randomly, long distance relationships (or just relationships you never thought could work) magically do when you are living in Paris attending the most famous cooking school in the world.
It gets a girl thinking you know.

Anyhow, this narrative des More...
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Jan 25, 2010
Nicole rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Kathleen Flinn's memoir of her time at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris made me really happy, really inspired to do things I've always wanted to do, and really hungry. Of course, the book is filled with various recipes that feature prominently in the various chapters, and most of them are adapted or at least something that could reasonably be achieved by the home cook.
Flinn's story is really heartfelt; just like a good meal, it is obvious that the author's heart and soul went into More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jul 22, 2009
Kate rated it: 2 of 5 stars
Thoroughly disappointing as a culinary memoir.

I second what one reader said before in that there's absolutely no conflict at the heart of the story. Kathleen begins this novel as a chef and ends it as a chef, albeit one who can now add puff pastry to her repertoire. Even when Mike is in the hospital, or Kathleen experiences a terrifying kidney infection, her carefree voice and sparse prose treat is as a minor annoyance, along the lines of a clogged toilet.

Tra la la, tra More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jan 28, 2008
Grillables rated it: 2 of 5 stars
It was probably a mistake to read this so soon after _My Life in France_, as it suffered in comparison. This is the story of a corporate type who gets laid off and decides to pursue a lifelong dream of taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu. Not a bad story, but definitely rather superficial. For those more interested in the actual cooking/classes, try Michael Ruhlman's _The Making of a Chef_; for Francophile enthusiasm, try _My Life in France_.
1 comment like (1 person liked it)
Aug 06, 2009
Erin rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Awhile ago, I took a trip to the bookstore just for fun, and found a ton of books in the general cooking section that we just *needed* to have at work for the culinary program. So being the dork I am, I started a list of them all in my tiny carry-all notebook, of which this was a title. Guiltily, my husband found me half an hour later, reproaching "Are you doing *work*?" Yes, of course, because I'm a complete dork. So finally, this book came in from Baker & Taylor, so I just got to rea More...
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Jul 29, 2010
Joëlle rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I give it 5 stars, but a warning. If you're a vegetarian, with a strong constitution, then 4 stars. If you're a squeamish veggie, then 3 or maybe you should skip it altogether.

I liked the writing though and the way it was put together and even though I'm a bit of a squeamish vegetarian, I managed to get through all right. I enjoyed it enough to live with that aspect of it. My favourite chapter is actually the epilogue, but it wouldn't do you any good to skip to it because you have t More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Apr 30, 2009
Colin rated it: 3 of 5 stars
One of the more interesting things I've noticed in reading several nonfiction narratives about food is that narratives by women tend to include information about their personal lives in addition to their culinary lives. This book is a good example: we get not only the story of Flinn at Le Cordon Bleu, but also the story of her wedding and honeymoon. Bill Buford doesn't do this in Heat, but Julie Powell and Phoebe Damrosch do similar moves in their books. I realize that four books aren't enoug More...
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Mar 14, 2011
Diane rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Synopsis from Publishers Weekly: 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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This book seems to get a lo More...
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Jan 20, 2011
Kase! rated it: 2 of 5 stars
one line review!

alternate title: eat, complain about your non-existent white people problems, love

more lines review!

I’ve been lugging Kathleen Flinn’s “The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry” from undersized East Coast apartment to undersized East Coast apartment for at least three years. Each time I nestled the press galley copy I snagged from a sophomore year internship onto the shelf, I’d consider reading it, then take a nap. (Actually, let’s not kid ours More...
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Jan 01, 2010
Ricardo rated it: 4 of 5 stars
We listened to this as a family on a series of highway trips and really enjoyed it. The author decides to attend Le Cordon Bleu, the famous Paris culinary school, after getting laid off from a high-powered job in London. She tells a double story, that of her studies at the school and that of her romance with the man who encourages her to go to Paris, joins her there, and eventually becomes her husband. Highlights include her anecdotes about apartment life in Paris, and her often fraught relat More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Mar 12, 2009
Terry rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Once you get past the whole privilege part of this book (as in, people [ Flinn :] who have tens of thousands of dollars to spare in their savings; as in, people [ Flinn's boyfriend :] who have made "smart investments" and can afford to live in Paris for an indeterminate amount of time simply as a support system for someone else; little things like that) it's a reasonably charming example of the genre (American Francophiles in Paris). Flinn is self-aware enough to acknowledge that she's More...
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Dec 02, 2008
Scargosun rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I always enjoy a good food memoir and Kathleen Flinn did not dissapoint. I really enjoyed the way that she wrote and felt, as she went along, her growing as a person and as a cook. I think it was a very brave thing for her to take her passion and learn more about it. Many people miss the opportunity, being to scared that possibly their passion will fall flat when faced with obstacles. To then write about it is a whole different story.
I loved her descriptions not only of the food she wo More...
2 comments like
Jan 12, 2010
AmandaNicole rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I love reading anything to do with Paris and with cooking, so this was a natural pick for me. I enjoyed the author's personal journey and revelled in the inner workings of student life at Le Cordon Bleu, but overall it felt more like a long magazine article than a novel. This is naturally due to the fact that the author is a journalist, but I guess I'm used to more spikes and pitfalls in my novels. You know? Also, many of the recipes that punctuate the end of each chapter seemed a little tacked More...
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Apr 17, 2009
Kathy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book is not for the squeamish! I thought it would be interesting to see what it's like for students attending Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and it was...but I had no idea that when they prepare any sort of meat or fish, the creature has not been anywhere near a butcher. The students ARE the butchers. Don't even ask me to explain how they get the eyes out of a dead fish or what it's like to behead small furry creatures that are pets in America. An eerie fascination took over and More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Sep 13, 2011
Monica rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to give this 3 or 4 stars. On the one hand, I did enjoy it, and I looked forward to continuing the story and seeing it through. On the other hand, there was nothing terribly gripping. I guess I wanted more details, Flinn does not transport you to Le Cordon Bleu. She shares the recipes, what the chefs say, her budding romance and the emotions of it all. The one take home "feeling" I have from it is how hard it was to be constantly critiqued on some More...
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Jun 28, 2010
Rachel rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I really like books about food and the cooking world. Let me just say that I would never cut it in the world of the kitchen, and I have the utmost respect for those who do. I enjoyed this memoir for what it was- an account of one person's time at Le Cordon Bleu.

With that said, I'll agree with other criticism of this book-- the writing is a little flat, and not a ton goes on. However, I was still intrigued by her experiences. I would have liked to see a little more "drama". More...
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Nov 01, 2009
Allyson rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I hated this book until I got to the last 100 pages. I didn't read "Julie and Julia" but I suspected that it would be something like that. I found it at Sam's Club and thought "hmm..this may be interesting." Plus, there were french recipes sprinkled throughout and at the end of each chapter. So, I delved in after finishing "The Other Boleyn Girl" expecting something...well...more plot-defined. Ms. Flinn is a journalist and that really comes out in this book. She wri More...
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