Oh, where to begin... I had high hopes for this book. As a foodie-lite with a chef for a husband, Top Chef is one of the few television shows that we watch on a regular basis. I've been interested in the Bocuse d'Or since it was mentioned on the show and this book sounded like a good read.

I was wrong. This book has some major issues.

1. It starts...... incredibly....... slow. Seriously. I can be patient through a few pages worth of background and development, even a few chapters if it's well written. However, in this case there was far too much background information given and it was as dry and boring as an overcooked piece of ahi. I understood the need for it - many people have no idea what the Bocuse d'Or is and it would take some explaining to make it clear, but this went above and beyond. It was so tedious that I almost gave up but slogged through with the hope that things would really pick up once we got to the training/competition portion of the book.

2. I was wrong, it didn't pick up much at all. It was slightly more bearable but at this point, I was reading it quickly for the sake of getting it over with.

3. For a competition as intense and exciting as the Bocuse d'Or, very little of that emotion and intensity was communicated through the writing. There was some feel of urgency sometimes but it never felt... exciting like I thought it should have.

4. Just an FYI - if you don't want the ending spoiled, don't look at the pictures in the middle of the book until after you've finished reading the text. They give it away and that annoyed me to no end.

5. At the end, it felt like the book deflated like a punctured balloon and then died away. Not good.

In summary, the book is slow and boring and the descriptions, while overdone are lackluster to the point of being disinteresting (more a transcript than anything). As a foodie, it's one of the most boring books about food and food competition I've ever read.