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    Cooking As Fast As I Can: A Chef's Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness
    Cooking As Fast As I Can: A Chef's Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness
    Cooking As Fast As I Can: A Chef's Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness
    Audiobook7 hours

    Cooking As Fast As I Can: A Chef's Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness

    Written by Cat Cora

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Before she became a celebrated chef, Cathy Cora was just a girl from Jackson, Mississippi, where days were slow and every meal was made from scratch. Her passion for the kitchen started in her home, where she spent her days internalizing the dishes that would form the cornerstone of her cooking philosophy incorporating her Greek heritage and Southern upbringing-from crispy fried chicken and honey-drenched biscuits to spanakopita. But outside the kitchen, Cat's life was volatile.

    In Cooking as Fast as I Can, Cat Cora reveals, for the first time, coming-of-age experiences from early childhood sexual abuse to the realities of life as a lesbian in the deep South. She shares how she found her passion in the kitchen and went on to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and apprentice under Michelin star chefs in France. After her big break as a cohost on the Food Network's Melting Pot, Cat broke barriers by becoming the first-ever female Iron Chef.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 20, 2015
    ISBN9781494588038
    Author

    Cat Cora

    Cat Cora grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and attended the Culinary Institute of America and worked in New York City before travelling overseas to apprentice in Europe with world-renowned French chefs Georges Blanc and Roger Vergé. She settled in Napa Valley in her first job as a chef. After The Food Network discovered her in 1999, she went on to become the first female Iron Chef for the Network. She is the founder of the charitable organization Chefs for Humanity, a grassroots organization that mobilizes chefs to lend their skills to communities in need, and she has built a brand that includes two food lines, cookware a shoe line, cookbooks and restaurants, in Orlando, Costa Mesa, Houston, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Singapore. She lives in Santa Barbara.

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    Reviews for Cooking As Fast As I Can

    3.5/5

    11 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      There is so much about Cat Cora's memoir that grabbed me. It's sass, its vivid descriptions of her southern childhood and her determination to make it in the hard-driving world of celebrity cooks. You can see her boldness, her grit early on and when she decides to become a chef she brings it right with her. She lived hard and fast and she liked it that way (and it was fun to read) and yet, it got tricky. Alcohol got in her way (and maybe, still does) as does the impact of being sexually abused by a family friend. She deals with it, keeps going, deals some more with it and keeps on going. It is all so admirable especially how she talked to her family about the abuse. I was with her for about 2/3 of the book but then I started to become irked by some of her bravado and the book started to feel more gamy and a bit like an advertisement. Ms Cora did not seem as open as before. My sense was that by the conclusion of the book that things were pretty tough, at home, with drinking perhaps. That is fine and understandable and reading about the hard stuff is what I gravitate to but she seemed inaccessible and her writing felt stilted with platitudes and triteness. I mostly wound up thinking "No yet, too early. It wasn't time to write your story yet." If there is a sequel I will be sure to pick it up and see where she is at and I will hope that it can be as strong and open as the beginning of this book.Thank you to LibrayThing for allowing me to review this book for an honest opinion.
    • 4/5
      Iron Chef, mother, wife, and friend – while Cat Cora may be all of these, she has spent most of her life defying labels. Her gritty and candid memoir hops from Mississippi to California to France, all the while unearthing the things—and food—closest to her heart.Cora is a true Southern girl, complete with a slight twang and penchant for no-nonsense axioms. After a horrifying incident when she was six years old, Cora grapples with feelings of betrayal, loneliness, and shame until she realizes “that I’m the only one responsible for taking care of myself.” Her mental armor prepares her to undertake several restaurant internships in France, and then to become executive chef at Postino. After gathering tremendous momentum in the culinary world, Cora then becomes the first female Iron Chef.It would be remiss not to discuss another important facet of Cora’s life—her relationships. Cora, out and proud, had many volatile affairs before settling down with Jennifer and having four children. Cora’s unflinching narrative and honesty only serve to endear us more to her, her family, and her cooking.If you’ve ever watched the Food Network just to gaze at the glistening racks of lamb or steaming mussels, then this book is for you. Cora’s fearless glimpse into the cryptic world of the kitchens is enthralling without being overly lofty. She strikes a fine balance between grit and glamour that creates a breathless, can’t-put-it-down narrative.