The Reach of a Chef
Review by Darren Sutherland
The Reach of a Chef
by Thomas Ruhlman
The Viking Press
$27.95
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Michael Ruhlman seems to have picked the perfect moment to get into food writing. His first literary foray into the world of the chef, The Making of a Chef (1997), has proved to be right on the cusp of a tidal change in the American perception of food and the art of being a chef. His newest work, The Reach of a Chef, chronicles the ways in which the notion of the “chef” has changed, and changed within, our culture.
When Ruhlman first attended the Culinary Institute of America in 1994, the public perception of the chef was largely that of a solitary genius working an unknowable artistry alone in his kitchen. The last ten years, however, has seen the rise of the chef as celebrity, more entrepreneur than artisan. Due in part to writers such as Ruhlman and Anthony Bourdain, the television personalities of the Food Network, and also to the increased availability of ingredients, American culture has increasingly come to regard the chef as a superstar. We flock in droves to new restaurants opened by the most well-known personalities in the business, no longer just the domain of the “foodie.” The Reach of the Chef focuses on a few of these “new” chefs: Thomas Keller, originally of The French Laundry, and more recently, of Per Se; Keller’s neighbor in the Time Warner Center, the most-expensive and possibly the most sublime sushi chef in the world, Masa Takayama, of the eponymous Masa; Grant Achatz, of Chicago’s Trio, and a protégé of Keller’s; and Melissa Kelly, of Primo in Rockland, Maine, who recently opened in Tuscon and Orlando, FL, in conjunction with the Marriott. While these chefs certainly rely as much on their brand as their presence in the kitchen, they also share a lifetime of hard work and fine-tuning of their craft. Ruhlman implies that this entitles them to the freedom to pursue their restaurant empires, much in the way that an artist must first master basic skills before exploring the boundaries of expression. Even Emeril Lagasse, who many see as debasing the industry with simplistic and unprofessional television techniques (such as adding raw spices, BAM! Without first toasting them to release their flavor), spent twenty years opening some of the most revered and respected New Orleans restaurants.
Ruhlman’s writing possesses the rare ability to make the tastes and nuances of the food he writes about palpable. He alternates between moments of touching intimacy, as when Keller reflects with obvious nostalgia that he no longer considers himself a chef, and a humorous ribaldry, such as his own observation that Bourdain inspires a certain fear in him these days, after one too many late nights. In the end, he refrains from moralizing on the changing role of the chef, and instead presents a human portrait of the personalities that have created and been created by that change.
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