Great story about the authors time spent working as a chief on a luxury sailboat. Only problem is that the food description made me hungry.

Putting in the Travel Narrative Bookbox.

Found this in the travelog bookbox. Looks very interesting. Travel and food? Yummy!

Job offer: Work as a personal chef on a luxury yacht cruising the Mediterranean. Sounds like a perfect summer? Not quite, as David Shalleck can tell you. It's not easy cooking in a cramped quarter that's swaying left and right, not to mention creating dishes for a picky employer who dictates, "We would like to have three or four courses for both lunch and dinner... There is no reason to ever, ever repeat a dish throughout the summer" among many other dos and don'ts. Many days he doesn't get to see the scenery above deck, not to mention on shore.

While the author doesn't make himself sound ready for the job, in hindsight he has the perfect resume. Most Italian chefs will be limited in their scope and preference to one type of regional cuisines, but he has been exposed to different cuisines and knows the local specialties. On the other hand, the author was given some harsh questions about what he wants to do as a chef in the beginning of the book, and though I expected one, there was no epiphany moment by the end of the book. Maybe that's why he ends up sidestepping into a different career path.

This book is now ready to travel a bit beyond Florida, either in the travelog bookbox or the memoir bookbox.

Back into Goalie's travelog bookbox.

I chose this from the Travel Narrative bookbox. Looks like a great one!

I finished this today and really enjoyed it...a lot more than I thought I would. I don't know much about this part of the world and sometimes it can be difficult to find a starting place to introduce myself to a new-to-me culture. Like Azuki, I think Shalleck was just perfect for this job, bringing no cultural bias but taking advantage of the unique things to be found in each place they stopped.

However, I DO think he had an epiphany. I think it happened during the conversation with la Signora when she said, "to be Italian is to be yourself." I think he realized he would only find peace in his calling when he decided to be proud and secure in his talent and accomplishments.

Shelleck came across as a very humble person who was genuinely interested in learning professionally from those more experienced than him. There were so many inspiring food ideas---there are a couple on my menu this week! I considered keeping the book just for the recipes in the back but then I decided I'd better share it so I just copied them all. Ha! I was super thankful that words and phrases were translated. The book I read before this was full of long French phrases with no translation---a book targeted at Americans, no less!

The ship owners seemed very selfish and arrogant. I can't imagine working for another person, but especially not in a service job like this. They seemed to be such a self-centered couple. Shalleck was more than gracious in the way he spoke about them, but it was easy to read between the lines.

Ultimately, this was a really great travel memoir and I'm inspired to read more about France and Italy---and to do more cooking!

Sent to labmomnm for the Books I've Read VBB. Enjoy!

To the finder of this book:

This book is gift, no strings attached, from me to you. You may keep it forever, pass it along to a friend, or release it into the wild to be found by someone else.

If you are new to BookCrossing, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book, and the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join us...it's free! If you do, please consider using me, elizardbreath, as your referring member. You can even remain anonymous if you wish!

I hope you'll make a brief journal entry so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey.

Thanks, and Happy BookCrossing! :)

Received in the mail - thanks!

I think I'm too grumpy for this guy - I wasn't able to get past his ego & enjoy the actual story. I will hang on to this & offer it in the next round of the VBB...I can't recall if it had already gone around the list.

Thanks for sharing, in spite of my grrrr!

Well, nobody has requested this after several rounds on the NF VBB list, so I'm wild-releasing it into a Little Free Library near UNM campus.

Little Free Library on Richmond, just north of Constitution, in Albuquerque, NM, USA