Book #3: The Making of a Chef & Book #4: CRUSH IT

The Making of a Chef, by dreamboat/hottie Michael Ruhlman is one of those books I always wanted to read back when I was doing professional food writing. His blog is tremendous, effortlessly readable, and I think in many ways this book helped kickstart the culinary memoir genre that’s so ubiquitous today (think Orangette, Waiter Rant, etc).

At times, I found him frustrating. He set out to tell the story of attending the CIA as a student, not as a writer. Yet he didn’t take all the classes, didn’t do the externship that’s required of regular students. It isn’t a huge deal, but he later on in the book becomes indignant when he feels he isn’t being treated as a REAL STUDENT.

All in all, I loved reading this book. He does a tremendous job getting the reader immersed in the culture and techniques of the CIA (blond roux or brown roux for brown sauce), and gives just enough insight to either encourage someone to attend, or scare them off, forever.

Meanwhile, I was given CRUSH IT, written by internet celeb Gary Vaynerchuk, by my boss. A quick read — I finished the whole thing in a two hour flight — it covers how Gary V thinks we can all be rich, happy, and successful. To shorten it down, he basically says, figure out what you are passionate about, start a blog/podcast/video blog about that, work harder than anyone else else, and the money will come.

A fine proposal, if you believe it. But when I take his advice to his logical conclusion, I end up stuck. Vaynerchuk advocates that everyone do this — everyone.  People who are happy in their jobs, unhappy, looking for a change, etc. And if you provide the awesome content, advertisers will flock to you. The issue is, we can’t live in a world where everyone is a content producer. Because some people need to work for the advertising companies. And some need to make the blogging software. Some need to make the flip cameras. There simply is no way we can all be expertly personally branded on the internet and make our living that way.

It’s a quick read, for sure. If you think you might want to build out a personal brand online, give it a look. I’ve got a copy I can lend. And there are 50 more where mine came from, sitting under my boss’s desk.

Next up: No idea. Anyone have a suggestion?