From the star of the Great British Menu, for readers who loved Kitchen Confidential and couldn't tear their eyes away from Boiling Point, a book that reveals the reality of working in restaurant kitchens - and how they need to change for the better.
It's a familiar trope: angry men berating each other in kitchens as pots furiously boil, sauces burn and a giant slab of beef rests in the background. The dominant view of a professional kitchen is one of chaos and pent-up fury - a gladiatorial contest of male ego. Why then do we also hear the misogynistic refrain that women 'belong in the kitchen' if, in a professional context, they're all but erased from them?
A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen is the story of Sally Abé's rise to become an award-winning chef in the brutal world of restaurant kitchens; how a girl from the midlands who used to cook herself Smash to get by is now one of the most successful fine-dining chefs working today.
More than that, Sally's story is also a stirring manifesto - drawing back the curtain on restaurant kitchens to show how she is endeavouring to change them for the better. Filled with stories of Michelin-starred food, the relentlessness of kitchens, as well as the hope for the future of the culinary landscape, Sally's memoir is set to become a classic.
Sally really tells it how it is... This book will be a go to for those needing that bit of bravery and resilience in a world that needs more people like her. -- CANDICE BROWN
Wow. Sally's book is an insightful, honest account of a young cook's journey to an inspirational chef. -- ANGELA HARTNETT