Hungry

April 8, 2013
In this honest and witty kitchen memoir, chef and blogger Barnes chronicles food-supplier politics during her turbulent stint as chef for the Alpha Sig fraternity house at the University of Washington in Seattle. Barnes started her career in Dallas as the private chef for a supremely awful billionaire, and then followed her husband to Seattle, where he moved due to his job with no plan of her own. She worked at a cafe, but was appalled by health violations and prepackaged food. Then came the cooking position at Alpha Sig, a life-changing job. Barnes didn’t realize “real chefs” would treat her with contempt as a result of her work at the frat house. Her insistence that suppliers offer fresh ingredients seemed a no-brainer, but was shocking to vendors used to customers craving cheap, quick food. Self-admittedly a tough customer, Barnes is strong-willed and never actually appears bullied or excluded; although she cultivates a homegrown style, her traditional sophistication manages to shine through. Happily, while fraternity members were often inconsiderate and messy (which made Barnes frustrated and grumpy), they also were also appreciative of Barnes’s skill and dedication. And the vendors came around as well, ultimately praising Barnes as a game-changer. There are recipes here, too, and a happy conclusion: the job provided “people who needed me, some who loved me, and a place to belong.”

April 1, 2013
A memoir of an untrained chef with an English degree who set out to temper bad behavior by serving good food and to change junk-food die-hards into foodies. When Barnes took a job as a cook for the Alpha Sigma Phi house on the University of Washington campus, she knew "that 'frat boy' was shorthand for 'arrogant, drunk, and disorderly, ' " but she didn't know that house chefs were generally glorified warmers of precooked meals. Her new job came with major challenges. The kitchen--with its "archaic gas range," freezer held together with duct tape and a rat in the pantry--was a nightmare, requiring critter control and rigorous scrubbing and disinfecting. Though frat-house jobs were on the bottom rung of the chef hierarchy, for Barnes, a job in which customers respected her was a dream compared with her stint as a chef for a demanding family or at a cafe, where the health violations were frequently flagrant. At least in the Alpha Sig kitchen, she called the shots--often laced with expletives. When the rowdy, grungy frat-house atmosphere, the guys ignoring her kitchen rules and the uncooperative vendors got to her, she vented. Thankfully, her humor, honesty and a steadfast vision save the book from becoming one long rant. Resistant at first, the guys grew to love her food. Eventually, she gained the respect and friendship of the vendors, and the reputation of her table grew. Sorority girls often raided her pantry for leftovers and left fan notes. The book is as much about nourishment as it is food. Barnes' affection for the fraternity brothers carries the narrative. It wasn't all about consuming, it was about connecting," she writes. A heartening memoir of good food and tough love with a few down-home recipes thrown in.

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July 1, 2013
Few sane cooks would take on the trials of cooking five days a week for a fraternity house, but Barnes did just that at the University of Washington. Working as a private chef in Dallas for a sociopathic billionaire and family had given her a thick skin. But nothing prepared her for the challenges of cooking for a houseful of testosterone-driven undergraduates. Her first task beyond simply keeping the kitchen vermin-free turned out to be getting her complacent suppliers to deliver fresh produce and meat at fair prices, so that she could feed her charges more than typical processed institutional foods. Recruiting competent kitchen help proved similarly daunting. Over time she gained first respect and then love for her guys, and they learned to appreciate more than just her cuisine, especially in the face of devastating tragedy. She has included a few simple recipes with this unique, funny, touching memoir.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)