Spiced: A Pastry Chef's True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen

by Dalia Jurgensen

In the tradition of Kitchen Confidential , a revealing and entertaining insider's tour through top restaurant kitchens, told from the unique perspective of a critically acclaimed pastry chef.

Spiced is Dalia Jurgensen's memoir of leaving her office job and pursuing her dream of becoming a chef. Eventually landing the job of pastry chef for a three-star New York restaurant, she recounts with endearing candor the dry cakes and burned pots of her early internships, and the sweat, sheer determination, and finely tuned taste buds-as well as resilient ego and sense of humor-that won her spots in world-class restaurant kitchens. With wit and an appreciation for raunchy insults, she reveals the secrets to holding your own in male-dominated kitchens, surviving after-hours staff parties, and turning out perfect plates when you know you're cooking for a poorly disguised restaurant critic. She even confesses to a clandestine romance with her chef and boss-not to mention what it's like to work in Martha Stewart's TV kitchen-and the ugly truth behind the much-mythologized "family meal."

Following Dalia's personal trajectory from nervous newbie to unflappable professional, Spiced is a clever, surprisingly frank, and affectionate glimpse at the sweet and sour of following your passion.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Memoir, Cooking, Foodie, Culinary, Biography Memoir

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 9, 2009

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the two-star rating, this book is not terrible...just bland.

If you've never read a book by a chef, you might find this one fascinating, but if you have, well, there's nothing new here.

Jurgensen has worked a wide variety of restaurant jobs. For me, the most interesting bit was her stint in the Martha Stewart Living test kitchen. THAT, at least, was something I'd never read about before.

After reading Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States a few years ago, and now this, I've come to the conclusion that not everyone involved in the food service industry NEEDS to write a book about the experience.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I ultimately did. The individual sections were all for the most part interesting, but it just felt like there wasn't much of a *challenge*, if that makes any sense. Jurgensen just kept becoming a better, more experienced cook, and moving up to better positions at newer restaurants, some of which fared better than others. Even the hyper-sexism of the restaurant kitchen world seems less like an obstacle to overcome than a slice-of-life from which to draw anecdotes, largely because of the way Jurgensen shrugs it off and says there's nothing to be done about it anyway.

This is certainly a well-written memoir, and it's probably the fault of my own expectations that I didn't feel like there was enough at stake to grab me emotionally as well as intellectually. It's one of those cases where I can totally see how I might be wrong about a book, too, so I strongly encourage people to read it and make up their own minds.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Becoming a pastry chef is one of my ultimate fantasy "dream" jobs so I was instantly intrigued by this book and excited to read it. Dalia, or "Doll" as her boss calls her, is a witty, intelligent, and strong storyteller. Much like her career and rise to the top, the book was very fast-paced and I devoured it in one night.

I loved sharing in her adventures of kitchen politics, lust, love, and creative baking. Her descriptions of the desserts, the chefs, and other characters were all so rich and decadent. She was very candid about her negative experiences and modest when sharing her accolades. I am a new fan and would definitely make a journey out to Brooklyn to try one of her desserts and maybe catch her in action. I was impressed by her feminist take on the profession and her ability to shrug off the misogynistic atmosphere and blatant sexual harassment at many of the restaurants. Her dish about celebrity chefs (including my personal favorite, Martha Stewart) was just juicy enough, but also discreet and respectful when appropriate. I also enjoyed her chapter on the restaurant/food business's response to 9/11, it offered a new perspective on the tragedy that I hadn't known. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any foodie, career changer, or any person seeking a little creative inspiration.

[Dianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really enjoy this book - not because it's a bad book, but because it made me angry, even though the author didn't say anything I didn't already know. It's a really realistic portrait of life in a restaurant kitchen - for a woman, it can be hell on earth until you develop such a thick skin that the level of misogyny and homophobia among cooks and chefs just stops bothering you. Some restaurants are great places to work, but the majority are still basically clubhouses for 12 year old boys who giggle over the word "boobies."

Why would anyone do that to themselves? In Jurgensen's case, it's her passionate love for the craft of cooking; that love has to be strong enough that it's worth all the hardships, not the least of which are terrible hours and even worse pay with little recognition. The cult of celebrity chefs is mostly laughed at by people actually working in the restaurant industry, and it's easy to see why.

As far as the book itself, it was pretty entertaining, though it never really feels like it goes anywhere. The author is an engaging writer, but there's no narrative curve, no real point - it ends very abruptly with the author going from "I was working in this kitchen with horrible people" to "hey, maybe I'll have a baby," within the space of a single page, and that's kind of it. It's like someone yelled, "Dalia, you've got five minutes to finish that book or we'll shoot this puppy!" I was left staring at the Acknowledgments page thinking, "...hey, I was reading that!"

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a theoretical limit to the number of first-person books which can be written with the topic sentence "How I went from nothing to being a great chef and the adventures I had along the way." That limit appears to be far from being reached. Dalia Jurgensen abandoned a career in publishing to pursue the chef's life. This memoir describes how she got from nowhere to somewhere and her adventures along the way. It includes some memorable characters (whose names have been changed to avoid the lawsuits). It conveys a good sense of the craziness that goes on in even the finest restaurant kitchens. It reveals how much cooks hate waiters and how much savoury cooks hate pastry cooks. It reveals lots more about Ms. Jurgensen's sex life than any reasonable reader would want to know. Following her career path, the book affords a quick look behind the scenes at such restaurants as Nobu, Layla and La Côte Basque. Jurgensen is a pastry chef. Her descriptions of her original desserts are excellent but the book would have benefited from the inclusion of her recipes. The adept home cook should be able to reconstruct them from her descriptions alone. Anthony Bourdain calls this book "a valuable addition to the annals of first-person culinary history." It is, but in a small way.

[Megan Westfield]

Prepare to be immersed in a career where burns are a source of pride, labor laws don’t seem to apply, and the validation of one’s self-worth balances tenuously on a single thing: the opinion of the New York Times Restaurant Reviewer. Spiced gives us a colorful, behind-the-scenes look into the life of a professional chef.

Author Dalia Jurgensen had a respectable office job before she spontaneously quit and dove headfirst into her dream of becoming a chef. Spiced follows Jurgensen’s career from her start as a lowly nighttime pastry assistant through culinary school and eventually to success as an executive pastry chef. Alongside Jurgensen, the reader gets to experience the trials and delights of every position in a variety of restaurant kitchens. Whether it is an acclaimed Japanese restaurant or the Martha Stewart Show, Jurgensen’s done it all. She was even part of the establishing crews of two brand new Manhattan restaurants.

Spiced covers so many characters and such a wide spectrum of settings that it occasionally loses some of its richness. But overall, Spiced is a fast, vibrant, and exciting read that will surely inspire a trip to the nearest gourmet food store.

[Meg Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like over the past few months I've read a lot of memoirs about cooking and food and fancy restaurants. This one wasn't my favorite fave, but it wasn't bad by any means. Dalia decides at age 25 to leave her corporate job and start at culinary school. The culinary school part only gets a few pages of text - the majority of the story is dedicated to her on the job training, and how she eventually finds herself as a pastry chef in several high end restaurants.

She has a nice writing style and a love of food, but the book doesn't really pop. There are times when she starts to kiss and tell, but then leaves the reader hanging (like after she has a lesbian tryst with a waitress at her first job, and then never discusses anything further than the fact that she avoided the waitress the next day.) She also repeats some of her same themes over and over again - several paragraphs throughout the book about how you have to suck it up even if you get burned, how kitchens are full of dudes who run their mouths, how the cooks look down on the waiters, etc. A good read, a quick read, but not on my top books of 2010 list.

[Scribblegirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think you have to be particularly self-absorbed to think you can write your memoir at the age of 37. Unless there's something wildly unique/extraordinary about you, or your life has just been one harrowing set of adventures after another, you just don't have the wisdom and experience it takes to write a really good memoir. You just haven't lived a life that warrants the interest. Unfortunately, Dalia Jurgenson is no exception. Her book is bland. Nothing about it is the least bit remarkable, and it never once delivers on the promise of its subtitle. It's boring. Jurgenson seems to want to turn it into a behind the scenes tell-all, but like her life, there are no bold moves in her book; no taking life by the horns and going for the gusto. In short, no YOLO. There's not even a hint of girl power to establish her success in the middle of a male-dominated world. Jurgenson just seems to drift, going where the tide takes her, with no plan, no concrete ideas, no goals beyond the vague desire to cook. It's not awful. But neither is it good. It just is.

[Harvee Lau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've posted a review of Spiced on my book blog, http://www.bookbirddog.blogspot.com

I checked Dalia Jurgensen's website, www.myspicedlife.com for some of the delicious dessert recipes she writes about in her book, but none are there!! She has fairly simple recipes like banana bread, brownies, and cookies on her website.

What blew me away in her book was a description of the employee bathroom in one of the restaurants she worked in. I wonder if I'll ever want to eat in a restaurant again before I inspect their employee facilities. Behind the scenes info is quite interesting, especially the streamlining of the work, layout of kitchens, and the relationships and hierarchies among kitchen staff.

Wish there had been a stronger story thread however, to keep my attention going through the book. I found myself flipping pages towards the end.

[Bonnie G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, not bad, refreshing after Bourdain's sad sack of an effort of how a pastry chef experiences a career. But this beeyatch is EXTREMELY lucky! Right away she is working at 3 star, 4 star restaurants, hotels, working with Martha Stewart's test kitchen, developing her own recipes and selling them! At times her time in the kitchen reads like women in the military more than women in the kitchen, but rightly so- you really get to see the other side of Bourdain's sexist behavior. It also probably helped that Dalia is hot and ready to have sex all the time and with women too! So those exploits are fine to read. I did laugh out loud at her description at the last restaurant with the crazy Boston chef, but overall a fun book for people curious about pastry business, but not a must read.

[else fine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see people didn't like this book much. I really enjoyed it. Not only was it refreshing to see the tough-guy cook memoir done by a girl, but her writing is graceful - descriptive but terse, my favorite combination, and her descriptions of her coworkers and (most importantly) the food they create are vivid and well crafted. In addressing the sexism of the cooking world, she strikes just the right tone: acerbic but not bitter. Funny, captivating, unconventional - and I had to get up and make dessert in the middle of it, always a good sign with food writing. I hope she's planning a cookbook next.

[Naida · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a pastry cook I was very much looking forward to reading this - hoping it would be the Kitchen Confidential of the pastry world. While I enjoyed many of the sections and the 1st 25 pages were remarkably similar to my thoughts and feelings upon entering the culinary world after spending 10 years working in offices, in the end it wasn't quite as griping as I hoped.

But all in all it was well written and highly entertaining. It only took me about 2 hours to read, so its perfect for summer reading.

[Brooke Everett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her desserts sound delicious and I'm definitely ordering one next time I'm in Brooklyn at the Dressler. Bamboo honey panna cotta? Yes, please! Apple-rhubarb crisp with white pepper ice cream? I'll have one of those, too!

It was indeed a true insight into a restaurant kitchen for outsiders (even though I'm not exactly an outsider). My favorite part was learning was it was like to work in the Martha Stewart test kitchen.

Seriously, though, why do all the new first-person culinary accounts have to include a side of romance?

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another chef memoir. It was entertaining, but nothing spectacular. My favorite chef book so far is "Kitchen Confidential" and I tend to compare all others to it. The author seemed to never had to work in a dump. Even her first job was at Nobu in New York.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was interesting to read about what really goes on in the kitchens at restaurants. I know I could never do it! I found it humorous that she said the only food/cooking show that was worth watching was Top Chef. I wonder if Hell's Kitchen would meet her standards. :-)

[Sasha Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a book club and was a little apprehensive about it, as I'm not normally a huge fan of chefs' memoirs. As it turned out, I needn't have worried - it's a well-paced and very engaging read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got a satisfying sense of the shape of Jurgensen's career - which is something I don't often get from other such memoirs, although you might think it would be a given - and it was a pleasure to "watch" her develop from a nervous beginner to a fully-fledged pastry chef at three-star restaurants. Another thing that helped is that although she never feels able to challenge the casual sexism and homophobia that seems to be almost universal in professional kitchens, she at least doesn't try to justify it, as some chefs-turned-author seem to feel obliged to do. Much of the final chapter is taken up with her ruminations about how to reconcile her career with the desire for a family life, although sadly, we don't get to see how she resolves that - it seems that at the time of writing the book, she had not decided.

Readers who are attracted to the book by its subtitle may be disappointed - if you're after stories of "after-hours exploits" and expect "what really goes on" to be scandalous, you'll find more sensationalist fodder elsewhere - but this is a good account of how a career in this industry can develop (or could at the time of writing, at least) and what additional skills are required, besides the ability to cook, to make a success of it.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a bit of an amateur baker - I love the science behind it. And I've always wondered if I'd like to work in a bakery and/or restaurant. This book was the perfect glimpse into the seedy, sexist, chauvinistic, stressful, tiring, and beautiful world of restaurant kitchens. And I discovered that I definitely could not take take the heat of these insane places. There are some sexual exploits and quite a bit of crass language in the book, but it is describing what Jurgensen had to deal with on a daily basis. I'm way too sensitive to be able to deal with the stress and constant pressure to create the perfect innovative dessert night after night. I'll just stick with my home baking.
I quite enjoyed this book and Jurgensen's real insight into her world.

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok if you've not read widely in the "foodoir" (food memoir) genre. If you've already read Anthony Bourdain, skip Jurgensen's book; Bourdain is a more competent writer and frankly, had more interesting stories. This is the world of restaurant kitchens through Pollyanna glasses, which quickly become grating. She is fond of decrying other women and chefs, only to go on and do the same things herself. She appears to have no concept of irony or hypocrisy. Her stories are mostly boring and the writing is mediocre. The book got more and more irritating as it went on.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This chef memoir was a bit like watching a cooking show on television. There were a lot of celebrities and a lot of familiar restaurant names. It did not make me want to eat in a restaurant, much less cook in one. The writing was good and held my attention.

[Chrisinny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing we haven’t read before in other kitchen memoirs- not as good as Tony Bourdain, but certainly a creditable addition to the oeuvre. Unexceptional, but diverting enough read.

[RustyShack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent enough, but covers ground already well-trampled.

[Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a fan of food & kitchen memoirs; this one is ok.

[Mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the line of "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain, this book gives an interesting insight of the professional cook environment.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. Almost as exciting at Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. Insight in to the restaurant scene in New York as an up and coming pastry chef. Loved it!

[Aerin · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Order, fire!" screamed Steven from the window that separated the small, open kitchen from the dining room.

Dalia Jurgensen left an office job and jumped head first into the New York restaurant scene. Fourteen years later, she wrote Spiced, a memoir of her time in the kitchens of some of the most famed restaurants in the city. You'll read about her first mentor, Mika; her struggles with a male-dominated industry; problems with chef uniforms and her decision to pursue pastry rather than savory cooking.

I liked this book better than I expected to, but I wasn't dazzled. The difficulty with memoirs, of course, is how to have an assertive presence without seeming to grandstand or be stuck-up. Jurgensen didn't figure out this lesson. Her insights seem pretentious, her priorities seem unbalanced. One sentence indicates she contacted the union about sexual harassment; only a few pages are given to her time with Martha Stewart. Yet there are several pages about feelings of resentment when she realizes her boss has been sleeping around with the staff, and not with Jurgensen exclusively.

Mostly, however, Jurgensen really does try - and sometimes succeeds - in being an observer, merely recounting events to which she was witness. My sense is she's a gutsy, talented woman who's just not as gifted an author.

A definite gift for someone who's going to become the pastry chef at Nobu. Possible purchase if you're a foodie with an extensive collection of similar books. Everyone else, I'd recommend that you do read this quick, breezy book - but check it out from the library to do so.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are looking for a quick and easy to read book about restaurants then this is your book. Otherwise it's just average. Ms. Jurgensen doesn't really go into detail about anything. She's usually far away from the kitchen so she doesn't go into any details about the humor there or the fires or anything. It's almost like she's just describing another day at the office for you. Well maybe to her it is. She worked on Martha Stewart's show and it's a short chapter. She doesn't go into how Martha is or even how it was to work for her company other than she got bored. She worked 8 years for her boyfriend, Joey but compresses those years into a couple short chapters like nothing interesting happened. She doesn't describe how hard it is being a female in a male dominating world. This book is about 275 pages and it could have been a lot more and a lot funnier. I just feel this is her first book and she didn't get a good editor. Her editor either cut too much or didn't get her to bring out a lot of great details that would have made it a worth while book in this Top Chef reality world of readers. I see more about this on Kitchen Nightmares or in the book Waiter's Rant which was a lot better book. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you can get it on the bargain table. It's just a boring book, but it is worth it to find out about pastry.

[Lynne Perednia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dalia Jurgensen had what she thought was her dream job, working for a magazine. But she decided she thought wrong. And instead took up a new career as a pastry chef.

Luckily for her readers, she remembered enough about journalism to craft an interesting look at restaurant life from the dessert corner of the kitchen.

Starting out as an assistant, putting up with egos and sexist pigs and cowardly waiters who take it out on the kitchen, Jurgensen also meets talented and generous creative people. And she learns from all of them. She works the line, she preps, she works her way back to being the dessert chef when a dear friend opens his own restaurant.

Throughout, the work is hard and the hours long. The food sounds delicious.

Although Jurgensen doesn't concentrate on her personal life, the parts she does include relate to the job and show once again the perils of falling in love when not on your own time. She doesn't reveal much else about herself, but it's easy to infer that she strives to be great at what she does because she likes it. And Jurgensen's basic decency shines through, especially when she and her fellow chefs respond to the needs of Ground Zero workers.

But it's the food and the way people work together to bring it to diners that are in the forefront.

SPICED may be more sweet than spicy, but it is an entertaining look at the restaurant world.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a hard-knock life: Jurgensen's fair warning to those with culinary aspirations.

For those of you who, like me, often dream of swapping a desk job for a pastry station, Dalia Jurgensen's Spiced is a revelation. Literally. Who knew the waters of kitchen politics would be as difficult to navigate as those of the typical office?

While Jurgensen begins her journey, intending to become a chef, her experiences lead her to ultimately choose pastry. The mainly male-oriented profession leads to some predictable, testosterone-driven antics, and the restaurant hierarchy seems, at times, genuinely medieval. But the author's passion for food shines, as does her occasionally unflattering honesty.

Jurgensen's hopscotching through disparate jobs for famed and failed restaurants in a lengthy, resume-building tour of New York City hotspots proves an interesting read, whether or not you have a culinary career in mind. From working the pastry station at Nobu to freelancing as a recipe developer for Martha Stewart, Jurgensen shares industry insight and a few dirty secrets along the way.

And if at the end of the book, you're still itching to cook, don't say you weren't warned.

[Libraryscat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Putnam s for the opportunity to read and review this wonderful memoir which mixes restaurant hijinks that we all suspect happen with the hysterically funny rise of Dalia Jurgensen to the title of Pastry Chef. Like everyone else on the planet, I have watched Hell s Kitchen, 30-Minute Meals, Cooking with Paula, Top Chef& and every other television show which allows me special access to the secrets of cooking. I know how to make things semi-homemade and with a little touch of BAM! But even I knew that most of what I saw was fake and taped in two or three minute segments with someone artfully handing the host or chef or contestant just what they needed for the next segment. After reading Dalia Jurgensen s Spiced, I think I know what really goes on behind the scenes. And it is even funnier than I had imagined. To read the rest of my review, visit LibraryCatsBookList.

[Ty · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoy reading books written by cooking professionals about their lives, and this book is one of my favorites of the genre. the author pretty much up and decided one day to drop the 9-5 office job and become a chef. through a fairly incredible series of lucky breaks, she started out at one of the top restaurants in NY, Nobu, as an intern and went on from there to have a wide range of experiences at various new and established 2 and 3 star restaurants. i doubt that her experience is at all typical, and it did not hurt that her original day job was with a publisher, so she had contacts to get a book published. still, Jurgensen is a good writer, and she shares a lot of her life and thoughts, to the point where i was equally interested in how her review from Ruth Reichl would come in as i was in finding out about how her affair with her chef would turn out. very entertaining stuff for foodies and restaurant geeks.