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The Perfectionist
Life And Death In Haute Cuisine
by Rudolph Chelminski
This biography examines the life and career of famed three-star French chef Bernard Loiseau, who took his own life in 2003.
Gotham, 368 pages
05/19/2005
$27.50
ISBN: 1592401074
Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Cooking, Food & Diets
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Kirkus Reviews
Intensely involving: a character study of a gifted, driven man and the world that created him. [15 Mar 2005, p.327]
Publishers Weekly
A fascinating, discursive story. [28 Mar 2005, p.65]
San Francisco Chronicle Masha Gutkin
Chelminski's prose is occasionally overwrought as he hagiographically depicts Loiseau's life... Chelminski's whimsical culinary clarifications and anecdotes, garnered from a lifetime of immersion in the world of cuisine, offset these unwieldy bits.
Library Journal John Charles
Readers who reveled in the details offered by Leslie Brenner's American Appetite: The Coming of Age of a Cuisine or who loved Jacques Pepin's The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen will find Chelminski's expertly crafted story equally tempting. [15 Apr 2005, p.112]
Entertainment Weekly Allyssa Lee
While it lacks the quick-paced dish of Kitchen Confidential, Perfectionist effectively reveals the pressure-cooker atmosphere among a culinary elite dominated by intense rivalries, fickle reviewers, and hypercritical chefs.
New York Observer Bryan Miller
Omissions aside, Rudolph Chelminski has written an exceptionally insightful and readable book about the mad, unforgiving and relentless world of haute cuisine. [30 May 2005]
The Independent Christopher Hirst
Though his prose is occasionally a little overheated, no book will tell you more about the effort involved in producing the best food in the world.
The New York Times William Grimes
''The Perfectionist'' tells, in rich detail, the story of Loiseau's rapid rise and desperate efforts to stay on top, but this cautionary tale is also a deeply informed guide to the last half century of French cuisine.
USA Today Jerry Shriver
His examination of the haute cuisine milieu is balanced, though wordy.
Washington Post Jonathan Yardley
There are times when Chelminski's prose descends into the mannered and cute, especially when he lapses into the food snobbery he so roundly decries, but The Perfectionist is a good book: knowledgeable, revealing and informative.
The Onion A.V. Club Scott Tobias
Though Chelminski's prose could also stand to cut back on the heavy sauce, he thoroughly understands the traditions and pressure of haute cuisine, and his personal encounters with Loiseau help draw out an utterly credible psychological profile.
The New York Times Book Review Jay Jennings
Egregiously overwritten but deeply well informed and ultimately irresistible.
Boston Globe Lylah M. Alphonse
Unfortunately, the frequent tangents and meandering descriptions make the story choppy and confusing at times, and the book sometimes takes on a fawning tone that makes it seem as if the writer expected Loiseau himself to be reading it.
 The average user rating for this book is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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