NZ Herald
The seedy realities of two so-called dream jobs are uncovered in a couple of new tell-all autobiographies, writes Kerri Jackson.
Chefs can be quite attractive; professional cooking, however, is undoubtedly not. Anybody who fancies themselves as the next Nigella or Jamie must read this latest grim - often revolting - tell-all memoir.
Admittedly perhaps not all chefs start quite as low, even underneath, the ladder as Teri Louise Kelly, but nonetheless reading Sex Knives and Bouillabaisse (Wakefield Press, $39.90) will cure anybody of their delusions of glamour around a career in cooking; also possibly of ever eating out again.
Adding a pinch more curiosity to Kelly's story is that she is transsexual. She began her kitchen career in a hotel in the English seaside town of Brighton, as Luiz, a cocky lad fresh from Borstal.
What follows is predictably rank. Kelly regales the reader with tales of horror knife injuries, liver-twisting alcohol consumption, and sweat (literally) shop working conditions.
The 1970s British hotel kitchen, not renowned as a hotbed of culinary brilliance to begin with, is also a place where hygiene is apparently something that happens to other people. And, while Kelly's horror stories become stale by the end, this is still a compelling account of the sociopathic types who often staff professional kitchens.
Watch out for part two of Kelly's tale, due next year, as it's set almost entirely in New Zealand.