Originally published: New York : Viking Penguin, 2007

This is not for pretend -- Basic cuisine. Life is not a dress rehearsal ; Lost in translation ; Culinary boot camp ; Taking stock ; Memoirs of a quiche ; La vie en rose ; No bones about it ; Splitting hares ; The soufflé also rises ; As the vegetables turn ; Final exam : basic -- Intermediate cuisine. C'est la vie, c'est la guerre ; A week in Provence ; Rites of passaage ; The silence of the lamb ; "I am a pizza for Kathleen" ; A sauce thicker than blood ; La catastrophe Américaine ; Bon travail ; Final exam : intermediate -- Superior cuisine. Back in bleu ; Great expectations ; Gods, monsters, and slaves ; La danse ; Bye-bye, lobster ; I didn't always hate my job ; An American hospital in Paris ; Final exam : superior -- Thanksgiving in Paris -- Extra recipes -- Menu guide for book clubs

Recounts the author's decision to change careers and attend the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, an education during which she survived the program's intense teaching methods, competitive fellow students, and the dynamics of falling in love, in an account complemented by two dozen recipes