The Raging Skillet
The True Life Story of Chef Rossi: A Memoir with Recipes
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"[A] juicy memoir about growing up, becoming a chef, and working as New York's most unconventional wedding caterer." —BUST magazine
When their high-school-aged, punk, runaway daughter is found hosting a Jersey Shore hotel party, Rossi's parents feel they have no other choice: they ship her off to live with a Chasidic rabbi in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Within the confines of this restrictive culture, Rossi's big city dreams take root. Once she makes her way to Manhattan, Rossi's passion for cooking, which first began as a revolt against the microwave, becomes her life mission. The Raging Skillet is one woman's story of cooking her way through some of the most unlikely kitchens in New York City—at a "beach" in Tribeca, an East Village supper club, and a makeshift grill at Ground Zero in the days immediately following 9/11. Forever writing her own rules, Rossi ends up becoming the owner of one of the most sought-after catering companies in the city. This heartfelt, gritty, and hilarious memoir shows us how the creativity of the kitchen allows us to give a nod to where we come from, while simultaneously expressing everything that we are. This "moving, witty memoir" (Nigella Lawson) includes unpretentious recipes for real people everywhere.
"A humorous and witty chronicle of a woman's pulling-herself-up-by-her-bootstraps rise through the culinary ranks." —Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rossi began her rebellion as a teenager when her mother bought a microwave. Rossi insisted on baking homemade pizza bagels in a real oven and, soon after, disappeared in "a cloud of Marlboro Lights, marijuana, cheap wine, and chocolate." At 16, tired of the sexist double standards of her Orthodox Jewish parents, she conspired to get kicked out of the house and lived at the Jersey Shore for a summer. Her parents then shipped her to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to live with a rabbi. Rossi wasn't inspired to find God; she found herself. This witty and candid memoir documents the author's process of defining her art, sexuality, and palate. It explores the kitchens and experiences that cemented the young chef's creative and egalitarian approach: a celebrity-filled East Village hot spot, a high-volume supper club, and improvised grills at ground zero just after 9/11. With an insightful and irreverent voice, Rossi's debut is well suited for foodies, feminists, and creative revolutionaries.
