The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry cover art

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry

Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School

Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry

By: Kathleen Flinn
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £12.96

Buy Now for £12.96

About this listen

Read Kathleen Flinn's posts on the Penguin Blog.

This is the funny and inspiring account of Kathleen Flinn’s struggle in a stew of hot-tempered chefs, competitive classmates, her own “wretchedly inadequate” French, and the basics of French cuisine. Flinn was a thirty-six-year-old middle manager trapped on the corporate ladder—until her boss eliminated her job. So she cashed in her savings and moved to Paris to pursue her lifelong dream of attending the venerable Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. Fans of Julie & Julia and the late Julia Child will be richly rewarded by this vibrant tale of self-discovery, transformation, and ultimately love.
Cooking Culinary Food & Wine Professionals & Academics Funny Dream

Critic reviews

"I can never get enough of true stories about people who stop in the middle of life's journey to ask, 'What do I really want?' and then have the guts to actually go get it. Kathleen Flinn's tale of chasing her ultimate dream makes for a really lovely book—engaging, intelligent, and surprisingly suspenseful." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"The Sharper Your Knife The Less You Cry is an engaging story about a fantasy fulfilled. It's Under the Tuscan Sun goes to cooking school." — Michael Ruhlman, author of The Soul of a Chef

Although I can't cook my way out of a sac de papier, I found this book a joy to read. It's a compelling story about learning to cook and learning to love at the same time, told with humility, humor, and passion." —Bill Radke, hots of NPR's Weekend America

"Kat Flinn's vivid story of her adventures at Le Cordon Bleu Paris just had me smiling page after page. It's about what you should always think about in the pressure behind a hot stove—the pure romance of cooking." —Jerry Traunfeld, author of The Herbfarm Cookbook and The Herbal Kitchen

"A fascinating look inside a famed elite institution..." -- Kirkus Reviews
All stars
Most relevant
very cheesy at times but reasonable account of culinary school and the good and bad that comes with it

cheesy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.