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No Experience Necessary: The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken
No Experience Necessary The Culinary Odyssey of Chef Norman Van Aken Author:Norman Van Aken No Experience Necessary is Chef Norman Van Aken?s delicious joyride of a memoir. The book spans twenty-plus years and nearly as many jobs?including the fateful job advertised in the local paper for a short-order cook: ?no experience necessary.? — Long considered a culinary renegade and pioneering chef, Van Aken is an American original who chopped... more » and charred, sweated and seared his way to cooking stardom with no formal training, but with extra helpings of energy, creativity, and faith.
After landing on the breezy but not-always-easy shores of Key West, Van Aken faced hurricanes, economic downturns, and mercurial moneymen during the decades when a restaurant could open and close faster than you can type haute cuisine. From the graveyard shift at an all-night barbeque joint to a James Beard award finalist for best restaurant in America, Van Aken put his trusting heart, poetic soul, natural talent, and ever-expanding experience into every venture?and helped transform the American culinary landscape along the way.
In the irreverent tradition of Anthony Bourdain?s Kitchen Confidential, and populated by a delightful rogues? gallery of colorful characters?including movie stars, legendary musicians, and culinary giants Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, and Charlie Trotter?No Experience Necessary offers a uniquely personal, highly-entertaining under-the-tablecloth view of the high stakes world of American cuisine told with wit, insight, and great affection by a natural storyteller.« less