Away from the Kitchen: Untold Stories, Private Menus, Guarded Recipes, and Insider Tips Hardcover – April 2, 2014 by Dawn Blume Hawkes (She Writes Press)

She Writes Press: Away from the Kitchen: Untold Stories, Private Menus, Guarded Recipes, and Insider Tips Hardcover by Dawn Blume Hawkes 

This is a tasty and revealing read that takes you behind the curtain for a valuable peek into what motivates some of the greatest chefs in America. With beautifully displayed heartfelt recipes that connect their food to their memories, Dawn manages to capture each chef's unique inspiration and aura. Dawn Blume Hawkes has masterfully woven together a dozen North American chefs' tales with her engaging prose. The photography will make you ravenous, beautiful stories about these talented chefs will captivate you, and the user-friendly recipes will get you cooking. There is a rare charm about this book, making it a welcome addition to a bedside table or kitchen bookshelf.Away from the Kitchenpairs lovely photos of chefs and foods with recipes designed to invite home cooks to the kitchen, and shares the lives of chefs from across the country who present their stories and menus. Accounts from both inside and outside the kitchen are culled from private interviews to consider what it means to be a chef in a modern culinary environment. The blend of personal stories and culinary insights and dishes makes for a colorful compendium recommended for any general collection.

Away from the Kitchen is a sensory feast of mouthwatering recipes and intimate stories of more than a dozen notable chefs. It unfolds in the kitchen where “all the great things happened,” with author Dawn Blume Hawkes recalling her childhood delight at watching her mother and grandmother play with their imagination. From buckwheat pancakes with blackberry syrup, to a rustic salad with sherry vinaigrette, and roasted lamb with caramelized fennel, each page presents the reader with a different story captured in recipes both unique and irresistible.

The writing is tantalizingly picturesque. “…the inside of the restaurant was completely gutted, and what began to bake, roast, simmer, and boil in the kitchen sparked the Portland food transformation.” The writing is also respectful and measured when introducing the chefs with their passions and their life struggles—devastating financial losses through the Madoff Ponzi scheme, marriages or businesses that dissolved. In all, the author reveals her fascination with and her appreciation of—the story food tells.

She takes us to the farmers market, has us meet the local growers, and as we walk with her we learn: how to cook snails free of the sand they carry, how to use kitchen scissors effectively and the best way to cook steaks (with a cast iron pan).

This book is a journey that crisscrosses continents to reveal the extraordinary breadth of fine cuisine, relayed through the child-now-adult writer, who discovered delight through kitchen frivolity.