Out of the Frying Pan: A Chef's Memoir of Hot Kitchens, Single Motherhood, and the Family Meal

by Gillian Clark

Out of the Frying Pan is an empowering memoir that traces Gillian Clark’s rise from a beginner to a top chef. But managing a kitchen also taught her about parenting. With a wealth of experience and wisdom, and a healthy dash of humor, Gillian now shares her life’s recipes, from the solutions she cooked up for parenting challenges to her favorite culinary creations.

In the prime of her life, Gillian Clark abandoned the corporate world to pursue her passion---making mouthwatering food with fresh, homegrown ingredients.  When she became a single parent with two young daughters, though, Gillian had to reconsider her dreams. Moving to the country and running a small, artisanal farm were put on the back burner---supporting her family had to come first. 

But Gillian’s drive to make delicious food was relentless. She finished her culinary degree, survived the tedious prep work of her first cooking job and the difficulty of training during the day and raising two girls at night, and confronted the challenges of working her way up from the bottom in a profession where only the strongest survive.

Beating intense odds, Gillian is now head chef and proprietor of the successful and popular Colorado Kitchen, which is ranked among the top 100 restaurants in Washington, D.C. This puts her simple café in the company of the city’s finest dining establishments.

Touching and joyful, Out of the Frying Pan rivals any parenting book and is also chock-full of more than forty delicious recipes, from her first “soup of the day” to her family’s Sunday brunch waffles---even the pink medicine placebo she whipped up for one of her daughters.

Her inspirational advice on how she raised her daughters while never giving up her dream is a gem for  parents and foodies alike and will fit at just about any table.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Memoir, Food and Drink

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 2007

Reviews

[J.M. Cornwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

From marketing consultant to cook in eleven steps.

Gillian Clark and her family stood in front of the burnt out remains of an old farm contemplating a future that would take her from her job in marketing and pleasing corporate clients to raising geese for upscale and trendy restaurants. She had just begun cooking school when everything fell apart. Her alcoholic husband, Hakim, walked out and left Gillian and their two daughters to fend for themselves. The farm went to another family. Gillian had two choices: go back to marketing where it was safe and she knew she could make a good living or make cooking work. She chose to sink or swim as a chef, knowing she would have to raise her children alone and reaching for a nebulous dream her parents could not support and did not understand.

Gillian Clark is not the typical success story. She started with a college degree and a solid job that killed her by inches every day to change her life. Reaching back into her childhood for the one thing that gave sense and balance to her world and made her happy, she latched onto food and her love of cooking. Gillian didn’t choose an easy business. Restaurants often end up as the flavor of the month: easily forgotten.

Cooking school was easy compared to toughing it out in a restaurant under a variety of chefs. In Gillian’s memoir, Out of the Frying Pan, that’s where she often found herself: out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Juggling low pay, horrendous hours and the kind of work that regularly leaves burns and scars, Gillian’s growing knowledge of food and how it fit into her life – at home and at work – kept her focused on her dream. Cooking taught Gillian not only how strong she was but how to help her daughters over the rough spots of growing up. Gillian Clark’s memoir is at once a hot dose of reality and a creative tool for parenting. The tasty recipes anchor each chapter and illustrate the lessons Gillian learned and helped teach her children. Clark’s story is a conversation between good friends liberally salted with honesty, humor and hard truth. Out of the Frying Pan is a love story full of challenges and creative problem solving that lays bare one woman’s artistry and her strong belief in herself and in the transforming power of food.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspiring story of a single mom and professional chef who eventually creates her own successful restaurant. The writing is a little haphazard--she needed a good development editor to help her pin down the structure a bit more, in my opinion. But her stories of restaurant kitchens, parenting, food memories, etc. are fascinating. The only odd thing: she never addresses the fact that she's a black woman in a white-male-dominated field. She had both male and female mentors but doesn't address the gender issue at all. Race only comes up when she mentions offhandedly that she has food icons and images in her restaurant, including a picture of Aunt Jemima, and at least one customer has mentioned to her the racist connotations of that character. She doesn't comment further, however. I suppose the author may not feel that her race or gender is important to the story she's telling. But it did feel a bit like the elephant in the living room.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir is written in a light, conversational tone and includes a lot of helpful information for anyone who may be starting a career in the restaurant business. Clark is blessed with the tenacity and perseverance required to pursue her passion to become a chef, while at the same time tackling the challenges of being a single mother to two young daughters. I wouldn't go so far as to describe the book as "Kitchen Confidential" from a woman's point of view, (probably because I'm such a huge Anthony Bourdain fan) but the book does offer a lot of glimpses, the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects inside restaurant kitchens, as well as some snippets of good advice in parenting.

[Lanette · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book left me feeling uncomfortable... like instead of a memoir, it was a way to get revenge on her ex-husband and series of ex-bosses and ex-employees. It also left my heart breaking for her daughters, who had been abandoned by their dad, and again by their mom (who at one point was able to spend a whopping FIVE HOURS a week with them.)

I also find it interesting that at the time the book was written, her Colorado Kitchen was in full swing. It closed in 2008. Her second restaurant closed in 2011 (questions on whether or not she was paying her rent.) Another restaurant in the works never opened. She has since had gigs as a line cook, driving a limo part-time, NPR contributor, and blogging for Huffington.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the Frying Pan is one part memoir and one part cookbook. When Gillian decides to go to culinary school she doesn't really think it will ever be a career for her, but when her husband leaves her and their children she decides to make a go of being a chef. After a few years working for other people she is able to scrap together enough money to open her own restaurant, Colorado Kitchen. Each chapter tells her story from a single mother barely scraping by to a successful restaurant owner and is followed by great recipes.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one's a sort of memoir-in-two-parts: culinary career and life-as-a-single-parent. Ordinarily, that's a tricky balancing act to pull off, but Clark succeeds in doing so. I don't know the woman personally, but she comes across as a highly motivated, really nice person. As a special bonus, she throws in several interesting, approachable recipes, with (relatively) simple ingredients. Highly recommended.

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly an honest and inspirational story. I could not put it down. An easy read, but also a memoir with out the kidd gloves. That's very refreshing. She seems to know where she's going with this book and takes us all along. Funny, informative and recipes that (although I haven't tried them all) look like I can do them. All in all. I had a great time reading it and felt good when I was done. Now to try that cheescake recipe.

[Dani · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author's disjointed method of storytelling turned me off. The third chapter of the book, which was about her childhood and how she developed her love of cooking, should have been the first chapter. If it had been, then I wouldn't have struggled through the first 60 pages.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A single mother goes from the corporate world to cooking school, and works her way up the ranks.

Interesting, though a bit frustrating due to some chronological goof-ups. The inclusion of real recipes is inspired.

[melanie (lit*chick) · Rating 3 out of 5]

good story, recipes look really tasty. her restaurant is in DC, so on my list it goes...

[Sonia Reppe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Click here to read my review.

http://www.bookpleasures.com/Lore2/id...

[Anne Bean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick read and had lots of fascinating anecdotes about being a chef and the innerworkings of professional kitchens.

I wasn't thrilled with her mothering tips, though.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I need to go back and eat at the General Store again.

[Corinna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant, easy read with relating learned skills from her restaurant training to her challenges as a single mom. positive.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some good recipes in this book.

[Cristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

She is incredible for forging her own road! Getting back to chef principles finally!

[Schmacko · Rating 2 out of 5]

All through the beginning of this year, I was looking for food writing that was engaging. There are a couple things maybe working against each and every author I picked up - like trying to praise an Uncrustable after having a five-star meal. One: I have come to a point where I HAVE to change my eating habits, and maybe choosing food books was a replacement for what I couldn't eat, or maybe it was a weird way to test my resilience. Two: I read such a wonderful fiction book (Michael Chabon's Moonglow) in January; I was likely comparing others' writing to his masterful work.

There were parts I liked about this book and parts I absolutely hated. I loved hearing how Chef Clark raised up from a rough history, and as a black woman and single mom, went to make her mark in the white male-dominated business of high-end cooking.

However, Clark doesn't come out on this end with any sort of graciousness. Given, I didn't have her history, but her writing comes off as a little vindictive and vengeful to people who she felt worked to hold her back. Maybe it is. Maybe that's what motivated her to write this. Maybe she's still dealing with her anger and disappointment. (I hear when you don't cook with love, you can taste it in the food. You can certainly taste it in Clark's writing, even though she tries to cover it up.)

The second thing is - and this may be a residual from Chabon's Moonglow - her writing is sloppy, haphazard, lacking structure. She needed some help outlining this. Who was her editor?!?! To many moments and transitions were jarring. Clark is hurt by the jumps in chronology, almost as badly as she is still hurt by the idiots who held her back.

EDIT - Maybe I should also add that I started this in February, and then put it aside. I read the last half very quickly in one day after having been disappointed by several other food books in the last three months - see point #1...