Kitchen Vagabond: A Journey Cooking and Eating Beyond the Kitchen

by David Gilbert

Kitchen Vagabond chronicles chef David Gilbert's remarkable journey from making scrambled eggs in his parents' kitchen, to breaking though the shells of some of the world's most demanding and cutthroat hotels and restaurants.

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2012

About the author

Raised in Dallas, 35 year old Executive Chef David Gilbert credits his family with first inspiring his love for cooking – Gilbert’s grandfather owned a butcher shop and taught him to cook with simple seasonings and the freshest ingredients. Gilbert enrolled in the culinary arts program at Johnson and Wales University where he worked to master his technique. After graduating in 1997, Gilbert moved to Europe and landed a spot at the Michelin-starred Restaurant Vermeer in Amsterdam with Edwin Katz.

IFWTWA 2012 Emerging Writer Scholarship Award Winner.

Reviews

[Julie Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chef David Gilbert straps you into his passenger seat for an in-the-moment culinary quest. From his first food epiphany at age 9 in the family kitchen (with fluffy, spongy scrambled eggs), through the hottest, steamiest kitchens on the planet, this Chef's experiences come at you in real time, the way he lived it, unvarnished and honest. He's candid about his decisions, and transparent in sharing the tough steps and the gritty details, tracking his progression in a "mind map" centered with one clear, driving purpose: COOK.

Chefs must be brilliant on every plate, and Chef Gilbert chronicles how his brilliance is conceived, coached, nourished, at times tortured, and ultimately triumphs in his own thinking & culinary creations. He's tough & unflinching in his creation of new food frontiers, yet nurtures the talents of others & encounters an interesting cast of characters along the way. Chef Gilbert is clearly a wise head on young shoulders.

"Kitchen Vagabond" is Chef Gilbert's literary amuse bouche -- one can almost hear him asking, "Hiu mai kha?" -- are you hungry?

Read his book. Eat his food. a-roi -- delicious!