Spiced: Book Review and Giveaway!

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They say: For as long as she can remember Dalia Jurgensen wanted to cook. By age five she would stand on a chair at the counter next to her Danish mother, shaping frikadeller and peeling potatoes for bikser mad.  And when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she was unequivocal: she wanted to be a chef.

With a conventional college degree and a couple of years in publishing behind her, she abruptly quit her job to pursue her dream and enroll in culinary school. It was a leap of faith that changed and defined her life in ways she’d never imagined.  Now Jurgensen shares the delicious details in SPICED: A Pastry Chef’s True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen (Berkley Trade Paperback; April 6, 2010;$15.00), an eye-opening look at the sweet and sour of following your passion.

Refreshingly candid and simmering with kitchen drama, SPICED traces Jurgensen’s hard-earned metamorphosis from lowly pastry cook to acclaimed executive pastry chef at a three-star New York City restaurant.  But SPICED is much more than a personal memoir.  In the entertaining tradition of Kitchen Confidential, it’s an unforgettable insider’s tour through some of Manhattan ’s finest kitchens, the first to come from a woman’s perspective.  

I say: This was a very interesting book!  I liked to learn about what it is like for a woman in the kitchen. This book chronicles Dalia's many jobs, starting as a nighttime pastry person, who preps parts of desserts. She held many jobs, not only working with pastry or on the line and grill station at restaurants, but also for a caterer and in Martha Stewart's show prep kitchen. The book is well written with many details - including all hermess ups and the new recipes she creates. I really enjoyed reading what really goes on behind the scenes at restaurants.

Win it: 

 I have one copy of Spiced: A Pastry Chef’s True Stories of Trials by Fire, After-Hours Exploits, and What Really Goes on in the Kitchen by Dalia Jurgensen to give away.

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LEAVE YOUR EMAIL IN YOUR COMMENT SO I CAN REACH YOU IF YOU WIN!  Giveaway will end on Thursday, 5/13. Open to U.S. and Canada.
Good luck! :)

I was given this book to review and an additional copy to give away thanks to business2blogger. All thoughts are of my own opinion