Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat and Staying in the Kitchen

by Charlotte Druckman

In this in-depth, behind-the-scenes tell-all about the lives of women chefs, journalist Charlotte Druckman walks the reader into the world behind the hot line. But this is a different perspective on the kitchen: one told through the voices of more than 70 of the best and brightest women cooking today, These are female chefs performing culinary and domestic high wire acts: juggling sharp knives, battering heat, bruising male egos, and working endless hours, often while raising small children and living from paycheck to paycheck. How they deal with pressures, the expectations, the successes and failures, makes for absorbing reading.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Culinary, Cooking

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2012

Reviews

[Jennah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ultimately, enlightening and filled with insights from a wide variety of women who have taken on the task of working in the restaurant industry in their various ways. However, the book was a difficult read due to it's format as opposed to it's content. The author's asides and footnotes, while intended as informative, often broke the through line of the idea/story being shared and on several instances presented a condescending tone while being repetitive and/or inane. With so many voices appearing in the chapters, thoughts and opinions began to muddle together. In the end I think parsing through it is worthwhile though, since the subject matter is interesting and the perspectives of those interviewed astute.

[Mrs Lady Bear · Rating 1 out of 5]

as a female who has worked in kitchen for the past 7 years I really was hoping that this book was something more powerful and really dove into subjects that were apart of what it really is to be a woman in the kitchen instead it ended up seeming more of stereotypes and feeding into what is already a male dominated realm. Utterly horrific and very much a let down, I would never encourage anyone to pick it up unless it was free.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Exhausting in its flippancy. She may have gotten to a valid point eventually, but I wasn't willing to wade through the casual asides to find out.

[Marla Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many reviewers in anticipation of reading about women in culinary, I looked forward to this story unfolding on the pages of Ms. Druckman's book.
I'm currently writing a book about this population of chefs, those that must climb steeper mountains to get to the promised land of respectability in culinary so this story held my interest. Given that Skirt Steak was published in 2012, all I can say is what a difference a decade makes, which is not to imply that women chefs have it easy because they don't. But it's better for most of them than it was even 10 years ago. Factors influencing their gains, reality cooking shows that feature so many of them have given viewers another perspective of what being a chef takes. The news over the last 10 years that outed a lot of hyper masculinity types that factored into the subservient positions women had to take on the line, in back of the house and in front of the house also plays a role. Chefs, some famous, Mario Batali probably the most with John Besh and Mike Isabella also on that #metoo list no chef wants to be on, have been called out and by doing so, their behavior has shed more light on the steep climb to success women in the industry have had to make since they were first 'allowed' into these professional kitchens.
Skirt Steak offers history with a large dollop of the author's many opinions, which is the least enjoyable part of this story. When she comes on the page, the chefs' voices dim a bit. That said, anyone interested in the culinary world will have interest in reading this book.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for a book in the food aisle of my Public Library and came across this book. I thought that I would enjoy reading about some of my favorite chefs and their struggles in what used to be a male dominated profession. I did enjoy hearing anecdotes from some of the women but found the same subjects rehashed many times. I stopped reading the annotations early on as they interrupted the flow of the book. The author alluded to the fact that American cooking is much more evolved than the French or Continental styles and I felt the book would have been better served by highlighting and celebrating the women and their break from old ways. I was also disheartened to hear that culinary schools don’t really prepare today’s chefs for today’s challenges. Mentoring and apprenticeship seems the way these women prefer to achieve. The book just doesn’t rise to enjoyable for me.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although the author interviewed 70+ chefs, this book kept rehashing the same points, and was quite disjointed. I've never read a book with so many parenthetical inserts! Also, the author tries to be funny, at times, and is not. The only thing good about the book is its clever cleaver designed cover.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

I didn't actually finish this book. It is well written, funny even. I just wasn't interested enough in n learning about women chefs to keep reading. If you are then it's definitely worth reading.

[Devon H · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first glance, this book is oozing feminist thought, from the pink accent pages to the concept behind the book: women chefs in America. Unfortunately, the book does not deliver its promise. Druckman brutally reinforces gender roles and gender stereotypes. The way she compiles the information she gathered from 73 female chefs does not promote the female agenda (perhaps it’s a white feminist approach? idk, seems misogynistic). I would give this a 4/10; interesting idea, but the writing misses the mark a little.

Druckman, and many of the chefs featured in her book, spend a lot of time hashing out what they perceive the general public thinks of female chefs in America. For example, “To a disinterested or underexposed eater, a bakery is where you go to buy the items you were too busy to make for yourself. It’s a retail annex of the domestic kitchen, a place circumscribed as female - a cupcake hut.” What I would’ve liked to see more of is how female chefs perceive themselves and what they bring to the table. More about how they succeed than where they fall short. If what Druckman was trying to do was point out the faults in what society thinks about women chefs, it might have been more effective to interview laymen and juxtapose society’s thought about chefs vs. what the chefs think of themselves.

In fact, the best part of the book (besides the knowledge that I garnered about female chefs in America) was Gabrielle Hamilton’s interview that Druckman revised in its entirety in the penultimate chapter. I look forward to reading Hamilton’s memoir, Blood, Bones and Butter.

Charlotte Druckman is a journalist who typically writes about food. She’s written for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Although I can find plenty of her writing samples online, there is not much information about herself.

http://showthisbooksomelove.tumblr.com

[Ttm33 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried this book for the 2016 Read Hard Challenge: a food memoir.

Like many other reviewers, I was looking SO forward to reading this, but I found the style so off-putting that I gave up by chapter 4. This author clearly is trying to be cutting edge with her ultra-casual but patronizing, coersively hipster food blog presentation. She is so liberal with the (nearly all irrelevant) footnotes that after the first chapter I simply ignored them.

Once I did, and skipped the (again, irrelevant) author self-insert passages in the text, it actually did go more quickly. The actual stories and experiences of the chefs Druckman relates are amazingly varied, and I really wished for more focus on them, rather than the author. Druckman does comment early on about the limited focus of this book re: white women. I was annoyed at the WAY she commented, but I got that she was aware of her limitations in this way. (If only she was aware of some of her other limitations, she would have gotten a different editor!)

Perhaps she does explore more chef stories later in the book. I gave this book 2 stars because it has redeeming qualities, and I might end up going back to it eventually, just to finish it. (I hate to leave a book unfinished!) And the people Druckman interviewed seem like interesting folks, and I am always ready to read about perspectives different from my own.

If you decide to check out this book, be prepared to skim. A lot.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I so much wanted to like this book and I looked forward to reading it after seeing a note about it in a food mag. After 80 pages, I gave up. For some reason, she had extensive footnotes (on some pages there was more footnote than regular text) that further explained her thoughts or provided additional background on almost every page. But the material in the footnotes was interesting and should have been in the text. It was so distracting and difficult to read. In the end the book didn't move along and had no pacing. Part of writing is to create a trail for the reader to follow, but the trail kept taking these sideways jaunts.

Awful. Apologies to Ms Druckman but she must have bound and gagged her editor for the duration of the publishing process.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book when I saw it on my library shelf, but it (mostly) disappointed me. I feel like Druckman spent way too much time going off on little side thought tangents (very evident in the extremely distracting, goofy footnotes) and didn't take advantage of the valuable insight she got from her many interviews with female chefs. The book came across as too feminist to me, just too much intentional use of "witty" dialogue and snappy, short sentences that seemed way too forced. I felt like Druckman was trying to hard the entire time I read this book. I am giving it 2 stars because some portions did catch my eye and keep me reading...but really, I wouldn't give this book more than a quick skim if I were you.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was SO excited to read this book and SO disappointed with it. I quit reading it after only 2 chapters because I really could not stand the way the author wrote. She divided the book into categories like "What is a Chef" and "Education" and wrote about each subject with a lot of quotes from various female chefs, but the most irritating thing was almost every pages had footnotes - some pages had like 4 or 5 footnotes! Sometimes they were actually helpful, but most of the time it was something lame. I would have rather seen more of a compilation style with a few pages about each of these female chefs than this mishmash of stuff with all the freaking footnotes! So disappointed and I definitely would NOT recommend it.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, this book does use a lot of direct quotes. And, yes, there are a lot of parenthetical asides. That being said, I stuck with this book and after the first 100 pages or so I started flying through it. I guess the psychology of the subject really drew me in. The take away for me, I think, was that success is hard work, that success is different for everyone, that a person's version of success can change over time, and that sometimes you have to tell the men and the traditional "structure" that you're going to play by a different set of rules and make your own way.

Oh, and, I ignored the footnotes... Because otherwise I would have found them too distracting.

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance reader's copy of this book and was captivated by the stories of successful women chefs and restauranteurs and their trials and tribulations. Her access to some of the country's top culinary talent is outstanding. However, the author's compulsive footnotes to explain things that could be easily explained withing the text became wearying and quite frankly, twee. I'm hoping that in the final edit of this book, those are significantly reduced. Druckman's audience is primarily women/chefs/kitchen people, so many things that she feels the need to explain are redundant.

[Marc · Rating 1 out of 5]

The concept of this book had promise.

To give this 1-star is to insult all other legitimate 1-star books, but Zero stars is not an option. I could only make it through the first 2 chapters before I gave up. Meandering, wordy style relies on parenthetical asides that distract from whatever points I presume the author was trying to make. If it is worth saying, put it in the text with no apologies ... writing 101. I want my money back.

[Jacquetta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Must read for chefs or women thinking about being a chef. Boring for everyone else. Author's writing style is annoying with unnecessary details about herself (Her computer's name, song titles of her favorite in junior high, etc).

[Jada Roche · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a hot mess of a headache this book is. I get it lady, you're "hip". You like footnotes. I tried multiple times because what the chefs are saying is clearly worthwhile but ladies, I'm sorry, this author ruined this.

Taking back to the library only about 70 pages in.

[Annie Bronchetti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of the format - if you need more than a sentence or two to define a point, then that point ought to be included in the original paragraph in which it was footnoted. Or given it's own paragraph. Too much bouncing between the body of the book and the footnotes, very distracting.

[Camilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't actually finish this book, which is a real shame because I was interested in the subject matter, but the writing was just too annoying. The chatty voice, the constant self-reference, the absurd footnotes, and the block quotes were insufferable.

[Sari · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of an organized survey

[Valerie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even really get started after flipping through it. Overwhelming amount of info. Not so interested after all. Thank goodness it was a library book.

[Nick Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The footnotes are awesome. It reminded me of David Foster Wallace's essays on star tennis players, but here the stars are chefs.

[Kathleen Iannone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. I almost quit halfway thru. I should have.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this book satisfied the curiosity I had (I now understand Elizabeth Falkner's attitude better), from beginning to end it was a bit like being hit over the head with a cast-iron skillet.

[Cherie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really interesting stuff about women chefs. A lot of stories of women chefs and how they went to where they are now.

[Peggy Watts · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did Not Like It.